Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1999/02/13
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Andrew, I owned a Summilux until late December, when I traded it in for a new Summicron. A few weeks earlier I had acquired a Noctilux. From comparing these lenses, there is no question that using the normal criteria, the Noctilux is inferior at comparable apertures (note, however, that when speaking of Leica lenses, "inferior" is a relative term). But it is a magic lens at f1 or f1.4. I am looking at some pictures from my son's piano recital a couple of weeks ago, taken with the Noctilux at f1 on Ilford Delta 100. Shutter speeds were in the 1/30-1/15 vicinity. Just being able to do that is amazing. As others have pointed out, focusing in such light at f1 is difficult, but when you do get it right, the words "selective focus" take on a new meaning. In summary, if I could only have one 50mm lens, it would be the Summilux. Since I am able to have two, I find the Summicron and the Noctilux to be a great combination. Nathan A S Jordan wrote: > Many of us would welcome a comparative discussion of the 50mm Noctilux vs. > the Summilux. If at the same aperure(say, f1.4 and f2) the Noctilux is > superior in performance to the Summilux that could stimulate Solms to > produce a modern asph 50mm f1.4 Summilux-M. > > regards, Andrew Jordan - -- Nathan Wajsman Overijse, Belgium Photography page: http://members.tripod.com/~belgiangator/index.html Motorcycle page: http://www.geocities.com/motorcity/downs/1704/index.html