[Leica] Noctilux Survey

[Thomas Pastorello <etruscello@yahoo.com>]

   I must admit that I am among those who tried to use
the Noctilux and no longer do so -- in spite of the
fact that I loved many of its features.  It did
provide me beautiful bokeh at wide apertures and
stunning sharpness, flare freedom and color saturation
outdoors, stopped down.  (It is rivaled in these
regards, however, by the 75 and 35 non-asph
Summiluxes.) My release of it came down to this:  I
could rarely hand-hold it at speeds slower than 1/60. 
There is something about its size, shape and weight
distribution that creates an awkward hard-to-hold
combination with the M6.  I hand hold heavy Nikon
SLR's with heavier lenses at 1/30, so I attribute the
shake problem to the Noctilux. (I recently considered
buying an M5 with a Noctilux, thinking that the heavy
M5 would better balance the Noctilux, but that
combination represents too expensive an "experiment." 
Has anyone tried this and found the M5/Noctilux more
hand-holdable than an M6/ Noctilux combination?  Does
an M6 with a motor drive better allow stable use of
the Noctilux?)
   I readily and very effectively hand-hold the 50
Summilux and 35 Summilux at 1/15 -- sometimes 1/8. 
For me, then, the Noctilux at 1/60 (my limit) often is
1 or 2 stops slower than the Summiluxes!  It seems to
me that only someone who does night club stage
photography or shoots in a dim HS basketball gym,
etc., and mounts the Noctilux on a tripod, takes full
advantage of the Noctilux's action freezing speed at
1.0 (because of the faster shutter speed it allows).
   Another disadvantage of the Noctilux for me is that
I often do flat field work, close-up in dim light
conditions, e.g., museums.  The Noctilux doesn't work
for me under these conditions -- depth-of-field is too
shallow, too curved and, again, 1/60 isn't a slow
enough stable shutter speed.  On the other hand, to
photograph groups of people at 6 feet or further away
at 1.0 and 1/60 or better, works out wonderfully well
- -- here field curvature works to one's advantage.  I
just don't do the latter type of photography much.
   I hope these comments are helpful.  I'd appreciate
any responses on the specific issue of hand-holdablity
below 1/60 -- is it just me?   
    Tom


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