35 mm is likely the most common focal length among Leica M shooters,and to many the focal length of choice if they had to get along with only a single lens.
Leica currently offers three 35mm lenses to choose from, with the Summilux 35/1.4 marking the premium end and offering the fastest speed, while the Summarit 35/2.5 on the other end comes in a very small package. Inbetween sits the Summicron 35/2 ASPH, probably the most popular Leica 35mm prime, if not the most popular Leica lens at all. It combines the best of both of its sister lenses: it's reasonably fast, but still very compact. However, as many Leica lenses, it doesn't come cheap, retailing at around 2500 EUR at the time of this review.
The current edition of the lens is the first to feature aspherical elements, after a history of 4 models without aspherical lens, dating back to 1958 (often referred to as Type I to Type IV, the current ASPH model being Type V).
In this review we'll have a look at how the lens performs on our test camera, the Leica M9.
I really miss shooting film cameras. I know Leica put out some really nice 35mm cameras and the portraits you could create with those sharp lenses were outstanding. http://www.richardsphotography.com/headshots.html
Today's guest post about shooting the Leica M Monochrome with the Noctilux M 50mm f/0.95 ASPH lens is by Rob van Keulen (flickr stream): As a digital camera specialist and product manager I get the chance now and then to play with new and exiting...
Photokina 2012: Leica has announced its latest M series rangefinder - the 24MP CMOS Leica M. The company says all future M models will also simply be called the 'M'. The latest model (referred to as 'Typ 240') becomes the first of its rangefinders to feature live view, and offers a choice of magnified view or focus peaking for precise through-the-lens focusing, allowing Leica to promise compatibilty with R-mount lenses. It also becomes the first M capable of movie shooting - capturing 1080p footage at 25 or 24 frames per second. It includes a 920k dot LCD with smartphone-style Gorilla Glass cover, and accepts the same plug-in EVF as used by the X2. Availability is scheduled for early 2013 with a retail price of $6,950 in the US and £5100 in the UK.
Photokina 2012: Leica has announced its latest S-series medium format camera body. Dropping the version number from its moniker - like the recently announced Leica M - this update to the S2 is dubbed simply the Leica 'S'. It retains its predecessor's 37.5MP pixel count but offers improved image processing, a sensitivity range of ISO 100-1600, a 2GB image buffer and 166MB/s transfer rate. A new predictive AF system and 920k dot resolution rear LCD panel round out the highlights, along with an internal GPS module. The camera will be available in December for a retail price of US $21,950. Three new lenses for the system have also been announced; the Super-Elmar-S 24 mm f/3.5 ASPH, Vario-Elmar-S 30-90 mm f/3.5-5.6 ASPH and TS-APO- Elmar-S 120 mm f/5.6 ASPH. tilt/shift lens.
"I am a nature photographer. To be more specific, my primary work is that of an African wildlife photographer, and I also photograph landscapes on different continents. I adopted digital cameras as my primary shooting platform back in the early days of 2002 and I have never looked back. I have always been on a quest for the best-printed image that I can obtain, and as of late I have been looking at all of the medium format digital offerings that are on the market today. This article is the first in a series of reviews of the higher megapixel offerings that are available in today’s market.
In this review I have documented my experience with the Leica S2 camera system, which I used to photograph landscapes and wildlife in both Moab, Utah and Antartica in 2011. It was a privilege to have the Leica S2 with me on two such important journeys."
"We were given an opportunity to get acquainted with the newest Leica X2 camera model several days before its official launch. We tested its functions, found out what changes had been made compared to its predecessor and made some ISO comparision shots. Please enjoy our article"
"Leica has announced the APO-Summicron-M 50mm f/2 ASPH. The company is making grand claims for its latest standard-focal-length prime, which uses specially developed glass to create an apochromatic design to minimize chromatic aberrations. The lens was designed to match the specifications of the existing 50mm f/2 lens - a 1979 design that is the oldest in the company's current lineup. The APO version of the lens will be available from late July 2012 at a cost of around $7,195."
"Leica has announced the M-Monochrom, a black-and-white version of its M9 full-frame rangefinder. The M-Monochrom has no color filter array in front of the sensor, meaning it captures more of the available light but cannot perceive color. It also means there is no need for demosaicing (the process of combining color information from adjacent pixels), so higher levels of detail are retained. In most other respects, the M-Monochrom shares its hardware with the M9. It can add three toning colors to its monchrome output or its uncompressed DNG files can be edited using the included copy of Photoshop Lightroom. A full version of the mono processing software Silver Efex 2 is also included."
I've read about it online, but I never thought it will happen to me - the sensor of my Leica M9 cracked today. I cannot link the crack to anything I did nor to any extreme weather conditions.
"In addition to the new Zeiss cinema lenses, the December issue of Film and Digital Times revealed also three new prime Leica cinema lenses: Summilux-C 16, 29, and 65mm. This will expand the existing set of Leica cinema lenses to eleven different focal lengths: 16, 18, 21, 25, 29, 35, 40, 50, 65, 75 and 100 mm. The new lenses will be officially announced at NAB 2012."
After I just came across this new USB 3 card reader from Phottix, I realized that they also sell 0.85x and 1.25x viewfinder magnifiers for Leica M rangefinders for $69 each (for comparison, the original Leica 1.25x costs $299): Silver 0.85x...
The Panasonic Leica DG Summilux 25mm f1.4 ASPH is a fast prime lens for cameras using the Micro Four Thirds standard. Mounted on a Micro Four Thirds body, the effective focal length becomes 50mm, giving the lens natural-looking 'standard' coverage.
The DG Summilux 25mm f1.4 was launched in June 2011 alongside the Panasonic Lumix GF3, although its size and pricing will see it more commonly fitted to larger bodies like the Lumix G3. The fast f1.4 focal ratio allows you to work in low light and achieve a very shallow depth-of-field, isolating subjects against a blurred background, while the standard coverage makes it an ideal general-purpose lens.
I have been getting emails for a few weeks now asking me to post some full size images from the Leica M9/35 Summicron vs the Fuji X100…side by side shots, same settings, etc. What some of you want to see is just how the little X100 stacks up against the Leica $10,000 combo in the image quality department. This comparison will ONLY be on image quality as the usability of each camera is WAY different.
Included is the CMOSIS press release about the 24MP MAX sensor inside the new Leica M. The sensor, based on a 6 x 6 µm⊃2; pixel size with dynamic range of 76dB, is made in France.
Photokina 2012: Leica has announced a more affordable rangefinder: the Leica M-E. Built around the familiar full-frame 18MP CCD, the company describes the M-E as being a stripped-back camera, offering just the basics required for photography. Its core specifications are essentially the same as the M9's, including an ISO range of 160-2500, 0.68x magnification viewfinder, and the same 230k dot 2.5" screen. It'll be available from Leica dealers later this month with a retail price of $5,450 in the US and £3900 in the UK.
"There was a time where fast lenses were scarce in Micro-Four-Thirds land but things have changed quite a bit during the last 2 years. Among the first high-speed lenses was the Panasonic Leica Summilux 25mm f/1.4 ASPH which filled the "standard lens" gap in the system. Its maximum aperture of f/1.4 is certainly fast with respect to light gathering, but in terms of depth-of-field you are effectively "loosing" about two f-stops in this respect compared to the classic full format but this is still sufficient for quite shallow depth-of-field images especially for documentary photography. You should be able to find one for around 500EUR so it is far from being a budget item considering the typical prices for standard prime lenses in the DSLR market."
At the May 12th WestLicht Photographica auction in Vienna, a new record was set for the most expensive camera in the world - this Leica 0-Serie camera with serial number 116 sold for 2,160,000 EUR (around 2,790,000 USD).
"On May 10, 2012, in Berlin, Germany Leica announced the M Monochrom. I was there for the launch event, along with hundreds of invited journalists and guests from around the world. I had a bit of a head start though because I'd received a pre-production camera for testing about 10 days before. Though that time had been filled with teaching a two day printing seminar followed by a two day wildlife field workshop (and obviously I couldn't let anyone see the new camera), I did manage to spend enough time shooting with Henri to garner some initial impressions.
- Henri was the camera's project name prior to launch; named after you know who. -"
"Leica has announced the X2, a 16MP APS-C compact camera with a fixed 36mm equivalent F2.8 lens. The camera is an updated version of its X1, with the biggest changes being the use of a 16.2MP CMOS sensor and the addition of an accessory socket for adding an optional 1.44M dot 'Viso-Flex' electronic viewfinder. An add-on handgrip is also available. Leica says it has improved the autofocus system (one of our biggest criticisms of the X1), but has retained the rather low-resolution 230,000 dot rear LCD. The X2 has a list price of $1,995.00."
The name Leica carries considerable cachet for many photographers, regardless of whether they've ever had a chance to shoot with one of the company's rangefinders or used with one of its lenses.
In light of the speculation surrounding the upcoming Leica press event in Berlin - expectation is high for an M10 announcement - a few of us here in dpreview's Seattle office took the opportunity to shoot briefly with the Leica M9-P and a selection of current M lenses. In this article we'll share our experiences using the Leica rangefinder system, not in the context of our normal studio tests and analyses, but out in the real world as a photographic tool.
"Every so often the Universe realizes I’m getting a little cocky and sends someone to ask me a simple question I can’t answer. It happened again the other day. Michael Plumridge and Peter Lik asked Tyler what the sharpest 50mm lens was. They were shooting on Red Epics with adapters so neither brand, mount, nor price mattered. But they needed to know right away. Tyler told them he’d ask me and give them the answer in a few minutes. But I didn’t have a clue. I have tons of data on 50mm lenses for Nikon and Canon cameras, but all of that was shot at widest aperture, which is great for finding lenses with problems, but not great for finding which is sharpest at f/4. And we had no factual data for Leica mount lenses because Rangefinder cameras are very difficult to test using programs like Imatest. But when someone like Peter Lik wants an answer and tells you Jim Jannard is curious, too, you get them an answer. So we tested every kind of 50mm lens we had available and got a pretty clear answer by the end of the day. As always, my first thought when presented with a bunch of work to do is “what’s in it for me”? Turns out not much. Tyler got a beautiful signed picture that hangs in his office so I can see it every time I walk by. I got a nice thank you email. But, I figured if I did all that work, I’d at least make a blog post out of it so I didn’t have to do a bunch of research over the holiday weekend. Wait, I mean, I was certain other people would be interested in what I found, so I thought I’d share the results."
When you start a system kind of from scratch you must make sure its potential users have several basic lenses available. We think here not only about an all-purpose kit lens but also about a fast, classic standard so the equivalent of 50 mm device. The moment the Olympus company decided to launch its 4/3 system they must have been aware that they would have to launch a lot of new lenses as well. Fortunately they didn’t have to produce everything on their own because the 4/3 system is supported also by Panasonic, in cooperation with Leica, and by independent producers such as Sigma. Due to that help the new system got a fast standard lens, offered by Leica. We think here of course about the Leica-D Summilux 25 mm f/1.4 lens, which has already been tested by us. It wasn’t exactly cheap (like practically any instrument boasting the Leica logo), but it offered really excellent optical properties. Hardly any f/1.4 lens is fully useful up from the maximum relative aperture and the Leica didn’t have the slightest problems with it. When Olympus and Panasonic focused their efforts on constructing the Micro 4/3 system, the situation developed in a similar way. A fast 1.4/25 standard was planned as a result of Leica and Panasonic cooperation and, owing to that, in June 2011 a launch of a new lens was officially announced – the Panasonic-Leica DG SUMMILUX 25 mm f/1.4 ASPH.
In January 2011, Ricoh announced their plans to introduce a new M-mount GXR cartridge that will take Leica M lenses without the need of an adapter. The expected specs are: - 23.6mm × 15.7mm, APS-C size, 12.9MP, CMOS sensor - Newly developed focal plane shutter - No model name yet for the module - Expected Release Fall 2011
What a stupid idea: mounting full frame leica M lens in front of an APS-C sensor... :(
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