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 p.468 #3 · Leica M/X/T/S/Q/CL/SL Picture Thread | |
Michael, you posted while I was composing my post... The photos of your kids are great and seem to fall in the 'predictable 50 Lux' category.  Your first image is what annoys me the most about the 50 Lux's image characteristics. It's a $4k lens that doesn't retain a round aperture shape beyond wide open until about f/8. C'mon Leica! My other Leica lenses do, same with the ZMs, CVs... I think Luka complained about this regarding the 75 Cron a while ago too...
I completely agree with you about the hood. First, it doesn't lock into extended position, which means it often retracted when I put it back into my bag. And when I'd reach in to grab it, would sometimes touch the front element instead. I wouldn't worry too much about touching the front element though, since it seems to be quite resilient. Secondly, I tend to handle these lenses, at least the smaller ones, by the hood when transferring between the camera and bag. The 50 Lux's hood is held in place with only one screw and what appears to be a few dabs of glue, which I noticed after it fell off the first time. Having it since work loose again numerous times, I've take the 'drastic' measure of removing the hood, lens ID ring and spacer ring/spring under it, and have simply taped the base tube back onto the lens with gaffer's tape. This tube has the filter ring at the end, so on the end I've attached a $5 vented metal lens hood. In order to secure this makeshift assembly to the body of the lens, you can't slide it on all the way, which effectively gives a deeper hood (which I lined with black tape). Now I can pick up the lens by the hood and not worry about touching the front element or the stock hood falling off again. I wouldn't suggest you go about removing the hood from the lens, but one option to keep in mind might be to add some tape so the hood can't slide back. But the 3rd party screw-on hood is probably the best option. Just keep in mind that repeatedly grabbing and handling the lens by the hood may eventually loosen that one small screw. Since I assume you have the black Lux, it may not be as much of a problem as with my silver version, which is heavier.
I like the focusing tab. At least up here in colder weather, the lens seems to get a bit tighter, so the tab helps.
Nikkor 10,5: The F mount 105mm f/2.5 is derived from the rangefinder lens. IIRC, it was initially optically modified only very slightly, perhaps to accommodate the mirror box. Also, I believe the rangefinder version is a Sonnar design, which carried over to the early F version, but at some point pretty early in production it was again modified a bit, I think from 5 element 3 groups to 5/4. This is worth a read: http://imaging.nikon.com/history/nikkor/45/index.htm
And maybe this too: http://www.mir.com.my/rb/photography/companies/nikon/nikkoresources/RF-Nikkor/RF105mm/index.htm
Being critical, my opinion is the modern 90mm lenses are sharper, but the Nikkor has a nice quality to it, especially at near distances. In a way it's kind of like the 50 Lux discussion. You could get a 90AA (which I have yet to try) and it will likely be perfect in most optical categories. And you'll appreciate this if trying to extract absolute sharpness out of an image. But is that what matters most to you? I can't speak for Charles, but as you'll have noticed, he shoots a lot with the 75 Lux and much less with the 90AA. Obviously it's personal preferences at play.
Bottom line for me, as a single lens option, I would always go for maximum optical performance, such as a 50 Lux ASPH, 90AA, type of lens. Then, if I really like/use the focal length a lot, would look for additional character lenses. For my M system uses, 50mm seems to be the sweet spot, perhaps because there are also so many different 50mm options. And the lenses aren't too large, making it easier to justify carrying around 2 or 3 at the same time.
A few more from the Nikkor, revisiting a couple spots from the earlier walk with Andrew. I like this door a lot.
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