bokeh king ? lux, nocti, cron ?

[proenca]

Hi there,

The lens that most impresses me in terms of bokeh is the noctilux; but it has two cons - its heavy and the major one, is out of my reach - recently I had my house robbed and they could take anything, but from my room, only my leica and lenses.

So Im in the market ( unfortunatly I guess for my credit card ) for a camera and lens. Camera going to be a M7, had one and gonig to go for another.

Lens is a different story though. I had a 35 F2 ASPH Cron, very nice lens but I would like a more "dreamy bokeh" , similar to the noctilux.

Again, the noctilux is way out of my reach.

How is the bokeh of the 35 1.4 non/ASPH lux ? and of the 50mm 1.4 non/ASPH lux? I know people praise their signature, how about medium to close distance portraits bokeh ? wide open performance ?

I'd like to buy a 35mm focal lenght lens. Im open for 50mm focal lenght as well, although I would buy one or the other, not both. Please throw in some more suggenstions ( CV, Zeiss, etc ), Im open to it, as long as a smooth delicate dreamy bokeh and its sharp


Im even considering a used 50mm ASPH lux with a bessa body or something that would be replacable in the future, but it seems a silly idea.

Please, really please, throw in loads of samples words are nice, images are nicer

thank you

[proenca]

unless of course that you have a 50 1.0 Noctilux in London area for sale around lets say 1,200 gbp, then I would buy it off ya .)

[MadMan2k]

Maybe the Voigtlander 35mm 1.2? That's one I'd love to have, and it's cheap compared to the Leica equivelant.

[Nando]

I've been looking for a superfast lens. I haven't ruled out getting the Noctilux but its price, even used, is so high that it would take me ages to save up for it. I really like the 35/1,2 Nocton but the photos have an entirely different look than the Noctilux. The DOF is longer wide open being f1,2 and also a 35mm and it doesn't have the substantial light fall-off toward the edges. The Canon 50/1,2 and other 50/1,2 lenses for SLR's are closer to the 'look' of the Noctlilux than the 35 Nokton. However, I can easily view the 35 Nocton's differences as advantages in many situations and its price is certainly very nice.

[proenca]

humm thats an option.. what about your 35 1.7 ultron ? can you throw some samples of its bokeh ? although the more i see pictures of the 50mm pre ashp lux i love them

[aizan]

ugh, that sucks. and people are always saying they got robbed but the robber didn't know enough to steal the leica.

[proenca]

yeah i know.. thats when I thought after checking my room for other stolen stuff : laptop was untouched, stereo is there, even the damn cell phones ( couple of blackberry-'s ) were left there.. oh well

[Nando]

Here's a couple with the 35 Ultron wide open. I'm afraid I don't have very many good examples that show off the Ultron's bokeh effectively. It's a pretty sharp lens and the bokeh isn't bad. It's one of my favourites.


flickr link


flickr link

The "Bokeh King" in my collection is my 75/2,5 Color-Heliar. Here's a sample.


flickr link

I'm sorry about your gear being stolen too. I had a Canon Rebel stolen a long with three lenses. If my Leica ever gets stolen, I would probably go completely bezerk.

[proenca]

Obrigado !

Now that 75/2,5 Color-Heliar seems very interesting.. Im selling my 90 ASPH F2 ( my remaining photographic item ) to fund a new M7 and lens... And I would be in the market ( after a couple of months ) for a portrait lens.. do you have portraits with the 75/2,5 Color-Heliar ? please post a few , thank you

[Nando]

I do have some portraits but I haven't scanned them yet.

Check out this thread... lots of samples there.
Voigtlander 75mm Heliar...Examples only

[kevin m]

The pre-aspherical Summilux 50 was my favorite Leica lens, and I owned the 35 Aspherical lux at the same time.

[x-ray]

I have three 35's at the moment, 35 asph cron, 35 biogon and Nocton CV. Had the v4 and v1 summicronand years ago had the v1 summilux 35's. MY all time favorite for smooth tonality and ultra sharp with excellent bokeh is the Biogon. Not only is it sharp it's slightly sharper than the asph cron wide open and is much more flare resistant. The tonality is second to none and makes the asph cron look harsh. The same is true regarding the 50 Planar compared to my asph summilux. Much nicer tonality and smooth tones in the Zeiss lenses. The Nokton is excellent but still not up to the Biogon.

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[x-ray]

I guess I should define what I mean by harsh. The asph 35 summicron seems to render OOF areas with what i would descrobe as double lines and donut like specular highlights. It's not nearly as bad as other lenses that I've seen but it does lean that direction. It's really not bad but more so than the Biogon. Tonal transitions in the Biogon sem to be longer in tonality than either the asph cron or Nokton. It's just a personal taste thing.

The asph summilux 50 is a superb lens and probably my favorite of the 90 apo asph and 35 asph cron that I own. However, I find my 50 Planar to be much more peaches and cream like or buttery (southern thing) than the asph summilux. I do love the summilux but I'm starting to favor the Planar and no question I like the planar over the summicron 50's that I've owned. I think the biggest difference in the 50 planar vs the summicrons, all vintages, is the superior flare control in the planar. Otherwise, the Planar and Summicron are very close in performance . I'm probably most disappointed in the 90 apo asph. The 90 suffers from bad flare when a light source is n or near the frame and close performance is very lack luster. Distant performance with no light sources in or near the frame is superb but this isn't how I use the lens.

The more I use the new asph lenses the more I have concluded that Leica is building ultra sharp lenses but the flare resistance of the 35 and 90 suffer greatly. The 50 asph has very good flare resistance though. The asph's tend to be more abrupt in tonal transitions compared to the Zeiss and the Zeiss have better flare resistance.

It's not like there's a huge difference because there's not. It really coes down to how you use the lens and personal taste. None are bad lenses and all exceed anything on the market just a few years ago. Let's put it this way, none of the current lenses, cv included, will hold any of us back from doing our best work.
each have their strengths. If I were doing landscapes I would select Leica asph glass all the way. With people under bad lighting I find I like the Zeiss look. Personal taste.

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[fabphoto]

If you are looking for a noctilux i noticed this morning classic cameras have one for 1199.If i had the money i 'd buy it myself as its a good price for uk and noticed new price have gone up to over 3 grand.I have no connection with the above shop by the way,just happened to notice it on their website.

[StuartR]

Ok, you asked for examples of the 35/1.4 ASPH for close up near wide open or wide open portraits, so here are some. I love this lens so much...it really is superb. I think it has great bokeh. I have posted all of these before I think...even recently in another thread, so patience please from those of you who have seen these before:









With the M8





It works superbly from a distance too...when used wide open outside, it has a nice way of being sharp on the subject, but fading into slight out of focus:

[Nando]

Geez! I must get one of those 35 Summiluxes.

[Roel]

StuartR

Must say that I really like your pictures. The lens performs great. Can't see anything i dislike.

Thanks for posting.

Roel

[StuartR]

Thanks Roel!

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[x-ray]

Magus:

Chocolate and cream, very nice way to describe it. My wife would love you for the chocolate but the cream is off limits. Lactose problem you know but chocolate keeps her sweeter.

Back to flare with the asph summicron. I need to revise my statemeny at this point. My retro asph summicron came with the near worthless circular retro hood like the old v1 35 summilux. It makes a good bumper but having purchased the standard rectangular hood for the asph and retiring the circular one I've found it to take care of much of my problem with flare. The rectangular hood is much more efficinet at restricting stray light. Last Saturday evening I was shooting some of my documentary work on the religious snake handlers and shot in a tiny church with exposed light bulbs hanging from the ceiling. The potential for excessive flare was high but out of three rolls there wasn't one instance of flare due to the lens. There were three or four frames that has streaks but they were due to internal reflections inside the body. The image circle is larger than the frame particularly on the long axis. Light sources outside the picture area can cause internal reflections in the camera body and result in a streak of light coming into the frame from the source. It's not lens flare but internal body reflections. I've experienced this on all six of my M's at one time or another and also on my ZI body.

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[x-ray]

The round hood is for decoration. Keep the rectangular one.

I'll scan a frame and post one with internal reflections. It seems to happen when a point source bright light is just outside or on the edge of the frame. Probably a rare condition for most people.

[aizan]

does the rectangular hood for the summicron fit on the summilux? i imagine that would be nice.