Thanks to you all for your kind words,
1. Dan, thanks. Yes the camera was on auto WB. I suspect that part of the coolness of the images was my artistic inclination in processing the shots, using direct positive and old polar LR3 filters as part of my workflow....I felt cold and blue, but definitely, the lens contributed to this....
2. t-streng, you should get your name back on that wait list. Resistance is futile :ROTFL:
3. Woody, thanks so much for the kind words and referencing that article....I'll have to send Steve an update once I complete my assessment of this lens....Congrats, by the way, on getting your copy, and I am excited to see what you magic you can render with it!
4. Mohammed, thanks as well, and I'd love to see what you are doing with your copy, certainly in warmer climates than I have access to now.
5. Robert, thanks for the sale and kind words. I leaned upon the "test shots" analogy to make sure that I had a fall back in the event that people didn't care for the images
. Seems that the images are going over okay....
6. Joe, many thanks, and I'll keep shooting.
7. Dave, thanks for the feedback, thoughts, and input. You have clearly done a lot more thinking about this lens' qualities than I, and I will try to pay more attention in the coming months to see what I think...I agree that the Lux asph II has a more "unique" signature than the 50 lux asph or 75 cron...there's something a bit wilder about it, but at the same time, it's got a certain critical sharpness that the other aspheric designs possess, even more than the prior version.
In some ways, it could be thought of, maybe, as a "lens with a look", like either of the Noctilux f/1 or 35 lux pre-asph (I'd throw the 24 lux asph and 35 lux asph I into that category as well). Leica seems to manufature a set of lenses that approximate perfection clinically (50 lux asph, 75 cron, 90 cron, 24 elmarit, 35 cron asph), and others that have a certain character....I guess this is all overdramatization of a lens' properties, but it is fun to hypothesize and further the internet fodder