Ash, I have the Leica 18SEM and the 21SEM and had the Zeiss 18ZM. From these three lenses the 21SEM is clearly the best (great corner sharpness wide open, great colors, great contrast). The 46mm filter size is also a big advantage in my opinion.
The Zeiss and Leica 18mm are very close in IQ. The Zeiss has better contrast and slightly better sharpness. The Leica has better colors. But the differences are very small between the two (in my opinion insignificant). I sold the Zeiss because it has not 6-bit coding and I had huge problems with manual coding.
All three lenses are very good and 18mm is significantly wider than 21mm. If 21mm is wide enough for you I would recommend the 21SEM. I will probably sell my 18 SEM if/when Leica releases a 14mm lens (and for sure keep the 21SEM).
Wonderful shots, everyone. I had very busy week and will be busy for a while, I may not be able to post in this thread as often as before, but I will watch you guys for sure
I like Luka’s Denmark sets, nice as always, Charles b&W 50 Noct shots, Ron’s subway set and Joakim’s three red house in pg410 and limestone quarry shots, and last two shots from Boris’s set are superb with nice color and compose.
I took one day off last Friday spending a whole day with my wife in San Francisco without kids this time. I snap some shots on streets.
All with VC35 and M9.
First some B&W ones:
Color ones:
My other half
Here are some family portrait shots from last weekend. All 50 rigid at f2.
This one is funny, look the background, the yellow short buddy. I am always amazed how different girl and boy can be
Michael, thanks Great set of shots! Love the shots of your kids, and nice one of your other half. Very nice rendering with the B&W shots.
Joakim, nice B&W abstracts
Ash, I hear the WATE, is a great choice too, but for value, I think the 21 SEM is very hard to beat, unless the 21 FL is to restrictive for the M8.
Charles, thanks for the Noctilux photos, you have me thinking about the lens. I would like the 0.95, but the price is breath taking for a poor working stiff.. Back on pg 409 the bar shot really shows how the bokeh differs at different distances. It is almost opposite to the 0.95 smooth foreground bokeh vs the opposite on the 0.95. I almost didn't believe that the tree shot was wide open...
The shots at night are they hand held? P410, the F4 shot is super sharp with just a hint of that smooth foreground bokeh!
P410, great capture of the girl
Ryan, the sunset shots from the 35mm are superb!
Ron, you are again the master of detail, I really liked the mural shot on pg 409 The 50 lux tree is great! P410 - love the capture of the girl, especially the colors.
Gary, your 90 cron, is it the current model?
Alexandre, I was in Hong Kong recently too, a photographers paradise! Love B&W of the older lady!
Luka, love number two on page 410
Andrew, thanks for posting the Telyt 135mm shots, this lens is on my buy list, so it is nice to see some examples, please post more..
Joakim, your summilux beach shots really show the lenses bokeh well!
Boris, great capture on the little girl!
Jonas, I like seeing some ZM 35mm shots, please post more!
Ash, I will post some Leica 18mm shots tomorrow. It has that Leica DNA for sure...
I tested my 135 Telyt a little more this morning. It's very close to 90 Cron AA rendering.
First image is taken by 135 Telyt, 2nd by 90 Cron AA (I moved closer).
The lens is amazingly sharp, I practically don't need to (and shouldn't) sharpen
my images at all after resizing. Quite strange...
Last 4 images show me playing more with the scene - can't decide which one
I like the best - and some nice bokeh - all from my 135 Telyt.
Joakim, nice set, I like the first abstract shot best.
Zhangyue, very nice shots from your SF trip. 1st one is my favorite. The set with your children is beautiful. Your love for the subjects shine through, well done!
Ash, nice set with the 28Cron. Love the rendering of this lens. Time to clean the dust bunnies?
Charles, love the expression on #1. Well composed. Can't wait to see you shooting the Nocti on the M-M!
Andrew, nice series! #2 with the 28Cron is my favorite. Nice composition.
Andrew (snowboarder), super sharp pics with the 135!
Gary Clennan wrote:
Yep - that 28 Cron is a great looking lens. Andrew - did you pick up an M9?
No, I decided to skip it.
I might get the X-Pro1, great colors from that new Fuji.
Maybe they'll do something right with the M adapter.
If not I'll get the M10 when it's available.
I love my lenses, can wait a little longer
Been lurking around - amazing pictures as usual in the last pages since I've disappeared since the last time. I took a day off last week to go to the Leica Akademie in San Francisco. It was an interesting workshop to say the least. Met the Leica rep for North America, and he had some interesting things to tell about Photokina and Leica! Apparently, the lens shortage won't ease until the end of next year (by the time Leica will move into their new facility and ramp production).. For all the talk about lens shortages, they apparently made 20k lenses / year for the last few years, and they expect to triple the production by the time the new plant is up and running. Also some new Nocti's (sounded like 75/90 focal lengths) are in the works!
Enough talk, some photos now..
My first ever street photography session, all the shots were hyper-focussed... (50 lux, 50/0.95 Noctilux). Thanks for letting me bring the bar down on this thread
Been lurking and otherwise nose to the grindstone catching up on a backlog of images waiting to be processed, but haven't gotten around to posting.
Just wanted to comment on Ajay's hint at interesting things to come from Leica... Just prior to the May 10th Leica event someone pointed to Thorsten Overgaard's 'what if' post on his site. It's an interesting read. He obviously has a fair amount of insight about upcoming products. In fact I wouldn't be surprised if he has been hired by Leica to write some of this... anyway, I think this is worth a read:
"Leica Camera rely on the past knowledge and rethink, reinvent and invent new ways to control light. Peter Karbe have renewed and redefined the 50mm lens range with the 50mm Summilux-M ASPH f/1.4 and the 50mm Noctilux-M ASPH f/0.95 and latest added two outstanding lenses, the 21mm Super-Elmarit-M ASPH f/-M ASPH f/3.4 and 35mm Summilux-M ASPH f/1.4.
What if ... he has finalized his well known - let's not hesitate using as strong a word as - obsession of developing the mother of all 50mm lenses. And what if ... he if working on further new lenses in the widest wide angle range, more extreme 28mm and 35mm lenses, not to mention 75mm and 90mm."
Well, we received the 'mother of all 50mm lenses' last week. Nocti 75 and 90 would be interesting... maybe not f/1, but even f/1.4. Focusing would be quite the task on a rangefinder, especially with the current fast focus throws. Maybe this is where an EVF would be beneficial? And the reference to the 'widest wide angle range' could be the rumoured 14mm. I'm most curious about the 28 though... Could it be a Summilux? It seems to be about the only 'missing' piece in the wide angle line up, though some might like a 24 between the Lux and Elmar.
