[Leica] 50 APO Summicron on sale.... Overstock.com

[Howard Ritter]

Some informal testing that I did a couple of years ago photographing the same scene with several cameras whose sensor sizes ranged from 4 x 6 mm to FF, and their zooms all set to the same actual FL, convinced me that contemporary sensors fall far short of capturing all the information present in the optical image projected onto them, at least in the central zones. Every time I looked at a pair of images on-screen presented at the same image scale, there came a point in progressive enlargement where I would see more native resolution in the image from the smaller sensor. This continued, as I recall, until somewhere between the 1”-class 20-MPx sensor and the 4 x 6-mm, 12-MPx P&S sensor. Since the smallest sensor, with 12 MPx, is the equivalent of a small section (1/25) of a FF sensor with 300 MPx, I concluded that it would take a FF sensor of well over 100 MPx to match the native resolution of even the zoom on the P&S camera (though, to be fair, I think where high-end lenses surpass mass-market ones is in the zones well off-axis, and at wide apertures). 

So I’m not surprised that you’re not seeing a difference between the apo-asph Summicron and the regular version; FF sensors of 24 MPx are simply not capable of showing even the full resolution of the standard lens, let alone any improvement on it.

And this brings up the possibilities for dispensing with zooms and interchangeable lenses altogether for general purposes. If a camera with a fixed WA lens had a FF 200-MPx sensor and a digital zoom function, and an EVF, it would have the same capabilities as a big FF DSLR with a 24-120 zoom—even with a linear 1/5 crop, equivalent to a 5x zoom, it would still give an 8-MPx image file, quite adequate for most purposes. Think Leica Q with a denser sensor and a zoom lever.

—howard


> On Dec 9, 2015, at 1:17 PM, chris williams <zoeica at mac.com> wrote:
> 
> Right, no way I would ever see the true resolving power of it when I'm usually shooting wide open at slow speeds.
> 
> 
> Chris Williams
> www.zoeicaimages.net
> 504-231-6261
> 
> 
>> On Dec 9, 2015, at 1:15 PM, lluisripollphotography <lluisripollphotography at gmail.com> wrote:
>> 
>> Chris,
>> 
>> For my style I agree, I’ve shoot some pics with the one of Jay when he has visited Barcelona, I think it is a very good lens if you want to perfect pictures, big enlargements with tripod
>> 
>> Lluis
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>>> El 9 des 2015, a les 19:10, chris williams <zoeica at mac.com> va escriure:
>>> 
>>> I dunno I tested this lens and I don't see a difference between it and the 50/2 Summicron.
>>> 
>>> Chris Williams
>>> www.zoeicaimages.net
>>> 504-231-6261
>>> 
>>> 
>>>> On Dec 9, 2015, at 9:35 AM, Frank Filippone <red735i at verizon.net> wrote:
>>>> 
>>>> $6,000
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> They have 3 in stock...
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> http://www.overstock.com/Electronics/Leica-APO-Summicron-M-50mm-f-2.0-ASPH-L
>>>> ens/10701431/product.html?searchidx=5
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> Frank Filippone
>>>> 
>>>> Red735i at verizon.net
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> 
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>> 
>> 
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