Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2009/03/26
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]I can relate just a little bit. We are going to naturally defend what we are using; what is working for us. I got the 90 APO ASPH Summicron in September 2000. I already had been using the 90 current Elmarit. Its my bread and butter focal length I often one one on each of two bodies shooting people color and black and white. Slides and negs. Fast and slow. A lenes, the Elmarit which some French magazine called the second sharpest lens in 35mm camera history. The first being a 7 grand 180 f2 I think it was. But that was many years ago I'm younger than that now. That was the early 90s. I have socks that old. The Summicron AA as Erwin puts it is at least one GENERATION beyond the Elmarit. We have generations here is my point not how many. The Elmarit not an old "vintage" lens but a modern already lens which is going to be a step ahead already of what I'd get with anything Nikon. Better than a 100 macro and certainly better than a 105 2.5 classic as much as I love THAT with the nostalgia involved. And probably better than those monster DC-NIKKOR 105mm f/2D but I'd hold back on betting too much on it. But the Summicron for sure would blow them and anything you can put on a 35mm camera away. The Summicron is at least one step past the Elmarit. Or generation. Its bigger, heavier but for sure good to go at f2 and be there. Before owning this lens I did little to none shooting wide open unless it was DARK and it was a squeeze and pray kind of deal with a 30th of a second being preferable to a 15th. To me "Summicron" is hot "fast". "Summilux" is a bit show offy fast. "Summicron" is Leica bread and butter. Took years before the thought came to mind: why don't I just shoot with the Elmarit today as I'm going to be out all day walking MANY miles, (before I sleep) and a few ounces less will be welcome and I'll be home before dark. So I took the Elmarit out again. Boring as it is. I could make matching 16x20's or bigger to see how the newer lens out performs the older you cant really tell looking at negs with one of my better loupes. Shooting with Leica gear gives us the option to have the best. We know that some day if we end up making a 30x40 inch print from it and its a tripod or flash shot we're really going to be happy about not having to wonder What if? And sure we can see those results with smaller prints too. By the way in my ear "Elmar" is what comes before "Elmar Fud". I hate spending too much money on an "Elmar" anything. Elmar it. But I certainly have. And lived to tell about it. I would thing the 75 Summicron be better than the 90 Its newer. And shorter. The closer to 50mm the sharper I expect something to be. Mark William Rabiner > From: Henning Wulff <henningw at archiphoto.com> > Reply-To: Leica Users Group <lug at leica-users.org> > Date: Thu, 26 Mar 2009 20:09:41 -0700 > To: Leica Users Group <lug at leica-users.org> > Subject: Re: [Leica] Another 75mm-Summilux-on-M8 example > >> Yes I would agree Geoff's Summicron would outperform a lens which was >> designed many decades ago. And I always root for the slower glass. >> >> The 75 Summicron f2is a lens I yearn for. >> The 75 Summilux 1.4 I don't. >> Its big and old. >> Or to put it more positively the Summicron is new and compact. >> >> >> >> Mark William Rabiner > > But Mark, the Summilux also has a smoothness that the Summicron > doesn't. The difference in 'sharpness' at any common aperture isn't > huge between these two; certainly not as big as that between the old > 50 Summilux and the new ASPH, but the rendition difference is quite > marked. There is a place for both lenses and I don't think I'm > willing to give up that difference. At f/2 and f/2.8 the new lens has > better mtf results, by by f/4 you'll be hard put to tell the > difference. I have to say that most of the time I like the pictures > the Summilux produces better than those of the Summicron, even though > I carry the Summicron more due to the size. > > And f/1.4 can often be useful. > > -- > > * Henning J. Wulff > /|\ Wulff Photography & Design > /###\ mailto:henningw at archiphoto.com > |[ ]| http://www.archiphoto.com > > _______________________________________________ > Leica Users Group. > See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information