Re: [Leica] Re: Is the Noctilux for night photograpy?

[Ted Grant <tedgrant@home.com>]

Doug Nygren wrote:
> My question concerns the Noctilux. I do a lot of night photography. I
> shoot at F 5.6, use color slide film (Velvia and Kodachrome 64) and get
> good results with a 35 mm 1.4 Summilux and and the 21 mm.
> 
> How well will the Noctilux perform at 5.6? Will it better or worse than
> a 50 mm 1.4 summilux?>>>>>>>>

Hi Doug,
I haven't found it to be worse than my 50 1.4 Summilux, the only problem
I have with saying that is I never check to see whether one is better
than the other at 5.6 , 8 or any other aperture.  I have the Noctilux
for a very simple reason, "it's the fastest lens on the block and it
works beautifully for me at f1.0!  And that's why I bought it to use
wide open as often as I can and to have it when the light is abominable
and I don't want to use flash.

As far as using it for night photography or minimum light with slide
film it's gorgeous and at f 1.0 sometimes I shoot hand held and that
makes life real interesting when you're not tied to a tripod all the time.

> My feeling is that the Noctilux is best when wide open.>>>>>>>>

Well that's right in relation to the pictures it allows you to take hand
held at f 1.0, but the real truth of what is best aperture is to read
Erwin Put's evaluation of the lens .

> I have borrowed a Noctilux and have found it difficult to focus. The 35
> mm and 21 are fairly easy to focus.>>>>

I don't find it more difficult to focus than any other lens, but what
you do have to learn is, exactly where to focus so the finished slide is
in focus where you wanted it.  And due to how it looks because of the
extremely shallow depth of field, it can give the impression that one
didn't focus correctly. It's just a matter of focusing exactly on the
right spot to make use of the shallow depth to make the sharpness work
in the image.

ted