[Leica] Do I really want a 75 Summilux?

[henningw at archiphoto.com (Henning Wulff)]

At 3:20 PM -0400 10/20/09, Vick Ko wrote:
>Do I really want a 75 Summilux?
>
>I have a Noctilux.  The Nocti on the M8 is a 75 f1.  The Nocti on my 
>film M's is a 50 f1.
>
>Would a 75 Summilux be simply redundant?
>
>Vick
>

While the 75 Summilux has focus shift, it's not as bad as the 
Noctilux and can work quite well on the M8. The Summilux is a lot 
different from the Summicron, mostly because of the undercorrected 
spherical aberration which causes the focus shift, and also the 
softer OOF transitions that make it such a fine portrait lens. If you 
want something that is easier to use and will give you essentially 
the same performance wide open as at f/11 near or far, get the 
Summicron.

My Summilux does show a bit of focus shift, but it's slightly front 
at f/1.4, slightly back at f/2.8 but manageable, and it doesn't 
depend much on distance focussed so it's not that hard. I have both 
M8's working now with the Noctilux and the 75 Summilux, so it's 
possible to get this all adjusted.

I'm not getting rid of the Summilux, as is probably clear.

-- 

    *            Henning J. Wulff
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