RE: [Leica] Lens evaluations (was 50 summicron)

["Dan Honemann" <ddh@home.com>]

Bill,

Wonderful post--I thoroughly enjoyed reading it.

I especially liked this...

> While I am ready to be surprised, I don't expect to find myself
> running from the darkroom with a dripping print to show my skeptical wife
> what an improvement in corner sharpness we can now enjoy together.

Expectation can be our worst enemy.  I shot with only an Olympus Sytlus Epic
point and shoot for a year before I finally made up my mind and bought a
Leica M6 + current 50 summicron.  I quickly ran a roll of color print film
through it and my Stylus Epic and rushed both to my local lab, eager to see
the $3,000 improvement in my photos; when I got back the 4x6's I had to
wonder what all the hoopla was about: the Epic prints looked as good as the
Leica ones.

Of course I realize that if all I ever wanted to produce were lab-printed
4x6 photos, I'd have had no reason to spend the extra money for the Leica.
It was when I started enlarging my own b&w prints past 8x10, and discovered
the joys of transparency film, that I began to see the light, so to speak.

I've really struggled with the decision on which lens to get next.  I know I
need more depth of field for my street shooting, so 35 or 28 seem the
logical choices, with the former widely regarded as the most suitable focal
length for the M.  I just figured I'd get the fastest current version
available--the 35/1.4 asph.

Then I did the research: the pre-asph's have much smoother tones and
creamier bokeh and are more suited to b&w work, but the asph's have that
incredible sharpness that makes slides look truly 3-D.  The 35/2 asph has
even resolution and contrast across the entire film plane at all apertures,
while the summilux is better in the center and has much harsher bokeh--and
it's more prone to flare wide open.  And so on and so forth, ad infinitum.

After weeks of research, trying to decide which advantages best suit my
purposes and which drawbacks I could live with, getting feedback from lots
of different users and hearing equally convincing arguments for any of the
contenders, I've finally given up on finding the "perfect" 35 and will just
get the the latest, fastest version I can afford, which happens to be where
I started out before doing all that research: the 35/1.4 asph.

If I had followed your approach--"no testing, no reading, no LUG
feedback"--I could have spared myself the mental wrestling match.  And I
wouldn't know to look for the rough bokeh my asph summilux will produce (and
so likely would never notice it), or worry about possible flare when
shooting it wide open.  I'd just use the damn thing, which is what I'll end
up doing anyhow.

Then again, it's been fun, and a real education.  Knowing the strengths and
weaknesses of this particular lens, I'll tend to keep them in the back of my
mind while shooting, which will help me get the most out of it (or so I tell
myself, anyway).  And I've learned from studying so many images made with
these lenses that the single most important factor, above all else, is the
quality of light, not the lens.  The right light can make an image produced
by a Jupiter look as good as the latest asph wonder; and the wrong light can
make the asph look no better than a point and shoot.

I can probably write a dissertation on Leica M 35's now.  I suspect a lot of
LUGgers could.  That's a hobby in its own right--lots of fun, too, but not
the same as photographing and creating prints.

One of my LUG heroes, Kyle Cassidy, uses old Russian and Canon lenses on his
M6 and produces some of the most memorable photographs I've seen.  He's too
busy shooting to worry over the details of MTF charts.  His website aptly
states what is perhaps the only justifiable reason to own a Leica:

" . . . I find it an exciting camera and I'm more liable to shoot with it.
If I have it with me on a day that I didn't want to carry another camera and
I get a thousand dollar shot, it's almost paid for itself."
(http://www.asc.upenn.edu/usr/cassidy/leicaslacker/)

I look forward to getting my new 35 asph wunder-M and seeing what
differences, if any, it makes in resolution, contrast and edge sharpness in
my prints and slides.  But mostly I just look forward to shooting with it.

Best regards,
Dan