[Leica] 28 Summicron - early results

[Paul Chefurka <chefurka@home.com>]

I just finished looking at scans of 5 slides from the first roll of
Provia 100F shot with my new 28/2.0.  These are initial tests, and are
not formal.  I leave tests like that to Erwin - mine are done just so
I can get the flavour of the lens, used the way I will normally be
using it.

The shots were all hand-held, done in three locations indoors to test
out the performance wide-open at fairly close focus, and some outdoor
shots from my front porch in bright sunlight, to check the performance
at 5.6 to 11 at longer distances.  The slides were scanned on my
Polaroid SS4000 at full res, and examined at "Actual Pixels" size in
Photoshop.  The only concession I made to maximizing resolution was
tucking in my elbows, holding my breath and sqeeeeezing.

The executive summary is:  "Of all the outstanding lenses Leica has
made for the M, this one of them".

Outdoors, f:5.6 and 11 - snow and deep shade in the photo of a
leafless tree:  resolution down to the film grain; no flare visible in
the shadows; specular highlights in the snow perfectly sharp.  What I
initially thought was a bit too much softness in one corner turned out
to be a scanner focus artifact.  The resolution of all the tiny twigs
on the tree is the best I've ever seen from a 35mm wide angle, with no
"bleed" around them from the light in the sky behind.

Indoors, closest focus, f/2.0, focussed 2/3 of the way out to the
corner of the frame on a Royal Doulton-style figurine: quite high
contrast given the available lighting, terrific resolution at the
point of focus.  DOF is very narrow here, and things go out of focus
within an inch or so, at least when judged from a 34x52 inch image
size on the monitor.

Indoors, f/2.0, 1 meter focus on part of my messy desk - the printing
on some slide file pages (about 3/32 of an inch high in real life) was
readable in the center of the image.  Not bad for hand-held shooting
at 1/60.

The bokeh looks fine, in both the indoor and outdoor shots, but I'll
need a lot more shooting to come to any firm conclusions about that.
For now, I noticed nothing distracting.

It looks like a keeper to me.

Paul