Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2019/05/16

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Subject: [Leica] Leica 50mm Apo-Summicron-M & Topaz's AI Gigapixel
From: roark.paul at gmail.com (Paul Roark)
Date: Thu, 16 May 2019 08:18:53 -0700

Although I think the price is a bit over the top, I decided to buy one of
these 50mm lenses.  The first effort, via Amazon, was defective and
returned.  (It was optically de-centered; one side of the image was soft.)
The second effort, via Adorama, is simply the optically best lens I've ever
owned or tested.  The published MTF curves appear to be accurate.  The only
performance weakness I have noticed is that the bokeh is less than totally
smooth.  There seems to be a bit of a "double image" look to it.  Because I
tend to want everything sharp, this is not much of a concern to me.

As a landscape shooter, this 50 along with the WATE, used on a Sony a7rii,
will be my 2-lens mobile, hiking kit.

To fill the gap and to extend the reach, part of the formula is the use of
Topaz's AI Gigapixel.  If you have not experimented with this software, I'd
urge you to take a look at it.  (I don't recommend Topaz's "Sharpening"
software.  It leaves unacceptable artifacts in blue skies in the red
channel that make using that channel for black and white unacceptable.)
While there is no total substitute for a good prime at the focal length you
need, this Topaz software is a reasonable alternative for modest
enlargement.

Paul
www.PaulRoark.com


Replies: Reply from kcarney1 at cox.net (Ken Carney) ([Leica] Leica 50mm Apo-Summicron-M & Topaz's AI Gigapixel)