The Leica Summilux 50mm F1.4 Vers. II

[silverbullet]

Yesterday I was lucky to get an Lux in the pre-ASPH. version (II).
Today in my favourite forest I tried it a bit despite some heavy rain.
Some seconds the sum came out so I'll ha to be patient but some moments I could get. As expected the lens is fully open a bit soft and delivers the so called Leica glow but closed aperture will bring some bite to the pic.

Here a photograph of wet grass beneed the high trees:

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At the moment 'm collecting Leica lenses for the use an a to be buyed M8 but I'm not so comfortable with this beast.......should I or not....?
Hmmm the best is to wait until Photokina comes.....

 

[Streetshooter]

Bernd,
The Version 2 if the Crons are my favorite.
Great glass. The M8 is ok but I had issues with them. I was an early adopter and I'm sure things are better now.
My dream is an M9 and 35 but it will only ever be a dream.
We make due with what we can...
Good luck in your quest...
PS... I really enjoy your images and post...
Shooter

 

[grebeman]

Bernd,
Nice image shot with a good piece of photographic glass. It might be my monitor (not the one that's calibrated for photographic use) but if it were my shot I'd be trying to raise the shadow values under the grass clump slightly. Also I would have waited for some diffuse light to help in reducing the overall contrast of the scene,but hey that's a personal opinion, like the composition.

Barrie

 

[silverbullet]

@ streetshooter: Thanks a lot for your comment. Yes - the M8 was/is a tiger, not so easy to ride but sharp teeth.....
Since the introduction in 2006 I'll follow all stories about this cam, really. To find out the rangefinder I started witha M6 just for training, but the stories about banding, sudden death, shutter failure etc. was too much for me.....

After the years now Leica solved the issues beside the IR sensitivity and with a warranty it's not so risky to jump onto the train.
But then I think "Jump over the river in one run - by the M9" BUT again there are new issues with this full-format cam: The read corners when using wide angles from35 - 18mm. Even with 50mm and some shooting conditions it appears and the best: Leica doesn't know where it comes from! Since the introduction and knowledge about this issue there is silence......from Leica.

So the first version of a full frame rangefinder is not enough to get the delicate construction of rear element distance to sensor ready for a clean color image.

@grebeman

Hi Barrie, thanks for your hints! My MacBookPro shows a slightly brown hue of soil beneed the green feathers. But it's not so easy to see, it might be that my backlight is too cranked up.....just slightly less than 50% of the bars....

Another experience with my legacy lenses and the E-P2:

When I focus some flowers ore foliage the color saturation is really yellow (blossom) or green foliage. But when the focus is spot on the colors disappear and the targets turn to become nearly without any color, they look very fair. Did you recognize the same behavior?

 

[grebeman]

Hi Bernd,
I use a linux operating system when I access the internet, linux does not allow you to load a monitor profile at startup. When I viewed your photograph in windows 2000 with a monitor profile loaded I could see a lot more detail in the shadows.
In levels (photoshop 7) I found that a slight adjustment of the middle slider to the left raised the shadow values to my satisfaction anyway showing a lot more detail in the earth bank beneath the grass clump.
I made an assumption in my original post that you had shot your picture in raw, of course that may not have been the case. If it was an out of camera jpeg then you have less adjustments available, really only levels or curves to affect the changes I was suggesting.
Something of a lesson to me in how monitor calibration affects the images seen in the forum, I must modify the way I judge shadow values on here, they often seem rather dark to me, now I know why.
I'm afraid that I do not really understand the technical points you are trying to make in your response to me original observations. Is your monitor calibrated in any way and what photographic editing suite are you using. I have some knowledge of photoshop, but only up to version 7, so a long way out of date. For processing raw (which is my method of shooting these days) I use Bibble pro 5. I have no experience of any mac applications.

Barrie

 

[silverbullet]

Hi Barrie,

my monitor is back illuminated by LEDs. It's the last Mac veersion of MBPs. With all my digicams I shoot in RAW. It's the best way to get the maximum as you know. The exposure has the details in order to have headroom.
When I open the files in Lightroom 3 some slight adjustments have to be made, but my editing is more or less influenced by my imagination of the mood I want to transfer.
Here in this pic a dark and rainy forest and some small islands of light. Only spots as in a dark livingroom. If I had put more light to the brown earth beneed the grass, more visible items will be seen by spectators but is it really important? Sometimes it's better that the spectator should add something to the pic in his own imagination and should not get 100% delivered.....
This doesn't work for all kind of photographs or lets say paintings but here I have chosen a more dark (mystery) bottom area in a not so thrilling scenario.

 

[BillN]

Bernd

I'm on the same path - I keeping looking for a good used M8 - but have never "pulled the trigger" - but one day soon

Just looked at one - 6 months old - black - 5000 actuations - lots of warranty left - Euros1900 - should I buy it????

Best wishes

Bill

 

[silverbullet]

Hi Bill,

really difficult to give you a recommandation. This evening I let one go together with a 35mm Summarit for appr. 2.600€.
The lenses I have are crying to get a digital M but the new Leicas are not comparable to analog Ms. Leica's experiences is so small compare to the japanese competitors or now the Koreans.

For me it seems that a M8 would stress me. The filters, another software instead of Lightroom (it's Capture 1 - the best RAW converter for M8 files) and we should not forget that the M8 is about 4 years old in terms of sensor technology. When I look onto my pen the work with it keeps my head totally free of such hassle, very good to catch moments.....

Many people are very satisfied with this cam but there are so many others.....too much from my feeling compare to Nikon.......