adamdewilde wrote:
A lot of you already know I was testing the 50 APO for a weekend. I'll probably be testing it again, as soon as I have some free time. Hopefully over a nice weekend.
I wanted to mention something I was told while badgering my contact about when the APO will be ready for sale (thinking about buying one)... Apparently the 50APO is going to be delayed due to manufacturing issues. I was told the lenses thus far haven't been up to MTF chart specs. The problem they're having is sharpness, center as well as corners. Now the copy I tested was plenty sharp, but I was told that it'll be even sharper in final production. And it will not have a negative impact on the bokeh.
So this is pretty exciting news (if it's accurate), and I look forward to getting my hands on an actual production model, since as I said, I already thought the 50APO prototype was plenty sharp, but would love to see it "improved". Now I'm not really one for rumors, but figured I'd share this bit of info for those of us interested in the 50APO.
With that said, I'm seriously thinking about switching my setup to an M10 and 50APO and just using one lens for a long while (will keep the 28though, everything else has to go!).
I was actually toying with the idea of doing that with the Noctilux, but find it's a bit big for a one lens setup. I've been using just 50mm a lot (even for work, with my Nikons) to try and see if I could get away with one lens for all situations (it's quite a challenge at work, but the Leica is for playtime, and I will also have the 28cron to help out).
Anyway, no Leica images today, been to busy with work ...Show more →
That's very interesting news. Thanks for sharing. How did you get your hands on an 50APO to try it out over an entire weekend? Did you compare the 50 APO with the 50 Lux?
carstenw wrote:
If you keep the 28 (presumably Cron) as part of your 1-lens kit, I think you should keep the APO 90 Cron as well
... With that attitude, I should keep all those other lenses as well Funny how you caught that.
Yes, the 28 summicron will most likely be staying.
seekuh - I mentioned it before. Didn't really do a comparison, or any real tests. I just shot with it, to see if I'd like it more then the current 50cron, or the 50lux. And I did... But the price is high, and you only get an f/2 lens. I'll try to take a lot more shots with it, when I have a chance to shoot with it again.
Hilmar, I like #1 &2 from your set. Nice color and detail.
Andy, what happen to your M9? The first looks great, I miss that sonnar look.
Airfrog, nice shots from MM, I especially like the motorcycle in this pg.
Ocean, nice set from classic lens.
Ryan, Nice photes from 0.95. My favorite is your son (I guess) by window.
Edward, Nice shots around street. My favorite is ‘best Asian Shabu’, but I might crop out the left side wall
Adam, Thanks for sharing the info, I doubt I can buy this 50AA, though this might be the one I want most out of whole Leica M lens line. But I am not sure how I will be benefit from its almost perfect performance, I only shoot landscape once in a while for myself most Leica lens is decent after f5.6, and I keep asking myself how sharp is sharp enough? Have to agree this lens is very tempting, with new M240’s better ISO, 24M sensor, f2 and rangefinder company each other well, this is ‘THE prime’ lens. I might not be able to afford it, I will quietly watch its samples underwater
adamdewilde wrote: ... With that attitude, I should keep all those other lenses as well Funny how you caught that.
Yes, the 28 summicron will most likely be staying.
Well, you did say so outright 28/50 is a really nice two-lens kit, but the M stuff is so small, and 21SEM, 28 Cron, 50 Lux ASPH and 90 Cron ASPH is just a dream kit, covering almost anything you could want except macro. I wonder if someone will make a tube for the M, so that the 90 Cron ASPH could act like a macro lens?
Just an FYI for anyone in the US looking for a used M9... Lensrentals will include at least one 'starting at' $3000 as a doorbuster in their Black Friday sale starting at 6am CT on Thanksgiving Day. I suppose there could be more than one...
A while ago Lensrentals changed their shipping policy to USA only, unless you're in Canada/Mexico and can pick up from a courier office in the US, or have a US shipping address...
Lovely images Michael - I've really been enjoying these, especially the one of your daughter in the window from a previous post.
Cal - love the lines in that set
Great action shot Gary! Who says rangefinders can't do sports?
Congrats on the M9 & Noctilux Ryan! Great feel to your images and love the surfboard silhouette image.
Congrats on the MM resulting images, airfrog - I really like the two figures in the car mirror reflection of the street scene photo.
Hilmar - very enjoyable Englischer Garten set! I like the look with the sun behind the trees.
Adam discussed the 50AA here: https://www.fredmiranda.com/forum/topic/920070/545#10843974 https://www.fredmiranda.com/forum/topic/920070/546#10845730 http://adamsalt.com/?p=92
Jabberwockt - I like the second one the most. Glad to hear Leica USA wasn't too badly affected by the storm.
ocean2059 - great to see something from the 50 Elmar, and looks good!
Edward - I've been enjoying your images from Bangkok! Looks like you're having a great time with the 35 and 50.
Adam: I think the 50AA and new M make a very logical combination. Faster than f/2 likely is only useful if desiring greater background blur... but how much of a 'real world' difference will it make to the look of images? It's like all the discussion about the merits of lugging around a 70-200/2.8 vs. the f/4 version for more background blur... in practice, I have been perfectly happy with the look from my 70-200/4 images for many years. I ended up with the 50 Lux in part to see what the hype was about, but also for the practical reason that I often found f/2 with the ZM50 on the M9 to be in marginal shutter speed territory. If the M9 had high ISO performance like a modern DSLR, then f/2 should be fine.
As for a single lens kit.... that would be very difficult for me. At minimum I would need 21/28/50
Ron, read your comment about 50AA like read my mind. I agree it is perfect for M240. The problem for me is $$$$$. I bet at this level of performance, even slightly mis-alignment of assembly will screw up the whole idea of $7000 lens compare to $1400 2nd hand 50cron. Unless we pursue a technique perfection on Paper, this type of performance is hardly needed.(IMO) I wonder how much deference this 50AA compare to 50lux or 50cron at f8 in real world images. At f2, most images if not all require no corner to corner sharpness. this will be the comment I have when most parts of my brain still sober. Hopefully, I won't eat my word on it.
Ron, thanks for comments. The above shots are incredible. I especially like #1, 3 and 4. I can imagine you as a photographer take the last two BW shots, find something very interesting in geometry and placement of subjects (people on 2nd floor and going down) and quickly snap shots both vertically and horizontally. That is the beauty of rangefinder shooting, you can quickly frame and focus (at the point you want to) as your will. DSLR can do this thing, but just not that straightforward.
Michael, you reminded me about a point I meant to include in my previous comment... It's possible the new Zeiss 55/1.4 puts additional pressure and scrutiny on the 50AA. I bet if the 50AA was released as is (and it was announced before the Zeiss lens), it will still blow away any current production 50 (on technical specs), but considering its price point, it will definitely be compared against the 55/1.4. Therefore, I'm sure Leica wants it to be as perfect as possible.
Nice moments in those images Michael!
You're pretty accurate with your guess of how I approached the scene. I was with the people walking up and down the stairs, but that said, they weren't waiting for me, and the scene changed pretty quickly. I was torn between vertical and horizontal compositions because the scene, to me, is in two halves. The half going down the stairs, which is geometrically interesting... and the half above it - the two people and the interesting staircase at the end of the atrium.. and I'm still undecided which I prefer. Not that I have to pick one over the other.
Wrapping up this day in Munich, all with 21 Lux...
zhangyue wrote:
Ron, read your comment about 50AA like read my mind. I agree it is perfect for M240. The problem for me is $$$$$. I bet at this level of performance, even slightly mis-alignment of assembly will screw up the whole idea of $7000 lens compare to $1400 2nd hand 50cron. Unless we pursue a technique perfection on Paper, this type of performance is hardly needed.(IMO) I wonder how much deference this 50AA compare to 50lux or 50cron at f8 in real world images. At f2, most images if not all require no corner to corner sharpness. this will be the comment I have when most parts of my brain still sober. Hopefully, I won't eat my word on it.
I think that's a good point. The rangefinder alignment system is SO sensitive that it might take a controlled setting to see much of the benefit of the 50AA. Just inserting a hex key into the hex nut in the roller cam is practically enough to slightly bump your infinity setting off one way or another.
This is the Temple of Confucius in Beijing. This was my first tryout with the F1 Noctilux. Overall I was very happy with the lens, and it is now in my "I'll never sell" category.
Geez - it's getting hard to keep up with this thread. Such great pics!
Ron - great WA shots. The stair set(s) works well with such a wide angle.
Andrew - great use of our new lens. I wouldn't sell it either with results like that! I really like the third one.
Michael - nice set!
Here is a few from last weekend. First two with 90cron (I am loving this lens for the subject isolation and rendering) and last two with Nikkor 5cm f/1.4 ltm.
carstenw wrote:
Well, you did say so outright 28/50 is a really nice two-lens kit, but the M stuff is so small, and 21SEM, 28 Cron, 50 Lux ASPH and 90 Cron ASPH is just a dream kit, covering almost anything you could want except macro. I wonder if someone will make a tube for the M, so that the 90 Cron ASPH could act like a macro lens?
I see your point.. And am considering adding more lenses rather then selling off.. It's just that if I write 28/50 ONLY all over the place I might actually start believing it.
About the tube, I could 100% make that, easily. It's just that it would only work on mirrorless, or M10..
(When the NEX cameras first came out, I bought one for my fiance and pulled apart an old LCA camera to retrofit the lens onto the nex, she's been using it happily ever since).
rscheffler wrote:
Just an FYI for anyone in the US looking for a used M9... Lensrentals will include at least one 'starting at' $3000 as a doorbuster in their Black Friday sale starting at 6am CT on Thanksgiving Day. I suppose there could be more than one...
A while ago Lensrentals changed their shipping policy to USA only, unless you're in Canada/Mexico and can pick up from a courier office in the US, or have a US shipping address...
Lovely images Michael - I've really been enjoying these, especially the one of your daughter in the window from a previous post.
Cal - love the lines in that set
Great action shot Gary! Who says rangefinders can't do sports?
Congrats on the M9 & Noctilux Ryan! Great feel to your images and love the surfboard silhouette image.
Congrats on the MM resulting images, airfrog - I really like the two figures in the car mirror reflection of the street scene photo.
Hilmar - very enjoyable Englischer Garten set! I like the look with the sun behind the trees.
Adam discussed the 50AA here: https://www.fredmiranda.com/forum/topic/920070/545#10843974 https://www.fredmiranda.com/forum/topic/920070/546#10845730 http://adamsalt.com/?p=92
Jabberwockt - I like the second one the most. Glad to hear Leica USA wasn't too badly affected by the storm.
ocean2059 - great to see something from the 50 Elmar, and looks good!
Edward - I've been enjoying your images from Bangkok! Looks like you're having a great time with the 35 and 50.
Adam: I think the 50AA and new M make a very logical combination. Faster than f/2 likely is only useful if desiring greater background blur... but how much of a 'real world' difference will it make to the look of images? It's like all the discussion about the merits of lugging around a 70-200/2.8 vs. the f/4 version for more background blur... in practice, I have been perfectly happy with the look from my 70-200/4 images for many years. I ended up with the 50 Lux in part to see what the hype was about, but also for the practical reason that I often found f/2 with the ZM50 on the M9 to be in marginal shutter speed territory. If the M9 had high ISO performance like a modern DSLR, then f/2 should be fine.
As for a single lens kit.... that would be very difficult for me. At minimum I would need 21/28/50 ...Show more →
Ron, that's what I'm thinking.. And I like the way it renders, but it might just have been because it was new to me. I'm going to give it another shot next week if the weather is good, and I'll let you all know more. @ the price point, it almost makes more sense to give it a skip and stick with my 50lux... So I will have to think pretty long about it. But it is on my radar, along with the M10 (even though I think the M9p is sexier).
BTW: First shot of your first series (rounded stairs), and first shot of your second post (girl in subway).
Adam - looking forward to your results!
Wow Andrew, these are great! Are you finding it difficult to nail focus for off centre subjects?
Gary - I agree, the 90 Cron looks really nice. Good to see more from the Nikkor! Also glad this thread is keeping the momentum going...
The above pretty much wraps up my Munich photos... so back home...
Zhangyue, thanks for the comments. Definitely I should have cropped it, but I was too lazy This shows how inaccurate rangefinder framing can be sometimes. Very nice 2 sets by the way. Great shots, love them all
Ron, thanks again. Yep, I love the 35/50 combination. My favourite lenses Very beautiful shots in the last 3 sets. I very much like the way you use the 21mm FL. Very strong compositions and play with color.
... With that attitude, I should keep all those other lenses as well 
Funny how you caught that.
