[Leica] 50mm Noctilux Experiences

["Boreham" <boreham@dial.pipex.com>]

 > I do recall that the bench test of the Noctilux caused a dilema
> > for the reviewers because many of the mid-aperture resolution
> > and contrast measurements did not reach the magazine's minimum
> > performance criteria. 

> From Modern Photography's '79 Photo Buying Guide:
 
The suitability of the noctilux for general usage has been questioned
before. When I bought my noctilux four months ago I decided to hang on to
my summicron until I was confident in the noctilux. I was worried about
comments on the LUG and elsewhere about stopped down performance being
inferior to the other 50s.
After four months of picture taking at all apertures, all reservations on
optical performance have been swept away and I have many pics  I wouldnt
have believed possible before, mostly B&W but some by available artificial
light in colour with blue filter.
As a final check before selling the summicron (I'd promised my long
suffering wife I wouldn't keep both) I did some back to back tripod-mounted
testing of summicron vs noctilux using 400CN at 200asa. I photographed a
resolution chart which has lines printed at varying contrast, at close
range (5 ft) and also shots of leafless trees against the sky at c50 ft.(
there was no wind).  I examined the negs with a 15x lupe on a lightbox. 
In the close range tests I could not distinguish any difference at any
aperture from f2 to f16. In the tree shots the noctilux was superior to the
summicron at the tested apertures of F 2 and 2.8, the thin twigs being
clearly sharper. 
I realise these are very crude and subjective tests with many many lens
characteristics unevaluated, but it does really make me wonder about the
Modern Photography test above.
The story isn't quite over. I've sold my summicron but I find I'm not
completely happy with the noctilux alone. I keep running into the close
focus limit and the lens plus hood (built in) do block an awful lot of
viewfinder.The large travel of the focussing ring does slow it up in quick
response situations. I'm seriously considering a late summilux with built
in hood and ,7m close focussing. Any comments or advice?
Mike