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80mm Summilux on the M

algrove

Well-known member
If you want one I have one never used for $30. from this guy. The coding looks good, but I never used it as I got the Novoflex.
 

Chuck Jones

Subscriber Member
Not sure about the rest of you, but with the weight of most Leica R glass, I'd certainly want that tripod foot.
 

Stuart Richardson

Active member
I know this is not what you are asking, but as someone who has both the 75mm summilux and summicron, and used to have the 80mm summilux, the 75/2 summicron is in my opinion by far better to use on the more recent digital bodies. This is not just resolution, but also focus shift and chromatic aberration, both of which are fairly significant problems in the 75mm summilux at wider apertures (and presumably on the 80...I only used that on film). The summiluxes are great lenses, but I found that in practice I was always reaching for the summicron -- it's lighter, smaller, sharper but most importantly, it provides a similar image character while only improving the image quality.
I know some might disagree with this, and some seek out the summilux for its "flaws", and fair enough, but I was a huge admirer of the summilux's look on film, especially from 1.4-2.5, but on digital it tended to just look bad to my eyes.

If you are just looking for a good lens with character in this range (all the 75's seem to have good character), I would put that money towards a summicron, or one of the voigtlander 75mm lenses...as native M mount lenses, they will be smaller, rangefinder coupled and infinitely more practical than mounting a large SLR lens on your M.
 

Stuart Richardson

Active member
P.S. One of those cheaper adapters messed up the mount on my S2...and mine was a metabones V series adapter for 250 USD...I would suggest you don't muck around with cheap adapters...they can scratch up your lens mounts, get stuck on the camera and provide inferior results...but again, just my take on it.
 

Paratom

Well-known member
I know this is not what you are asking, but as someone who has both the 75mm summilux and summicron, and used to have the 80mm summilux, the 75/2 summicron is in my opinion by far better to use on the more recent digital bodies. This is not just resolution, but also focus shift and chromatic aberration, both of which are fairly significant problems in the 75mm summilux at wider apertures (and presumably on the 80...I only used that on film). The summiluxes are great lenses, but I found that in practice I was always reaching for the summicron -- it's lighter, smaller, sharper but most importantly, it provides a similar image character while only improving the image quality.
I know some might disagree with this, and some seek out the summilux for its "flaws", and fair enough, but I was a huge admirer of the summilux's look on film, especially from 1.4-2.5, but on digital it tended to just look bad to my eyes.

If you are just looking for a good lens with character in this range (all the 75's seem to have good character), I would put that money towards a summicron, or one of the voigtlander 75mm lenses...as native M mount lenses, they will be smaller, rangefinder coupled and infinitely more practical than mounting a large SLR lens on your M.
Stuart,
having used alll the lenses mentioned above I agree with you, and I am happy that finally I am not alone anymore prefering the Summicron over the Summilux 75. I am also one of those who resist do using anything but rangefinder-coupled lenses on the M because thats how I prefer to use the camera (with the optical viewfinder and rangefinder) If I still had R-lenses I would happyly use them but I dont see much other reason to use R-lenses or others in the focal range where one can get rangefinder coupled lenses (18-135mm)
 

Stuart Richardson

Active member
I agree -- if you already have a lens, by all means use it, but if you are going to seek out a lens and pay good money for it to use on an M camera, getting a rangefinder specific lens is a much better idea -- optically they tend to be better in most cases, they are smaller, lighter and have added function.

As for the summicron vs. summilux, it is a very long-standing and personal debate. I was a vehement supporter of the summilux for a long time, but I decided to try the summicron. I did a blind test of the images at a few different apertures. I took two images of the same scene with both lenses, labeled them, and set them aside for a few days until I forgot which was which. I could barely tell them apart, outside 1.4 to 2.5. When I looked closer the summicron had a similar macroscopic look and feel to the summilux (they are both Leica 75mm lenses after all), but on closer inspection the summicron files were sharper, perfectly consistent in their focus point and had no noticeable chromatic aberration or bokeh fringing. The summilux was softer, had lots of bokeh fringing wide open, and the focus point jumped around a bit.
Don't get me wrong, it is still a great lens with beautiful character, but if you don't already have one, I would strongly recommend the summicron for digital use. For film, the summilux is just as good...any difference in performance is usually masked by the film grain, and the focus shifting is not really pronounced due to the curvature of the film.
 

Seascape

New member
I agree -- if you already have a lens, by all means use it, but if you are going to seek out a lens and pay good money for it to use on an M camera, getting a rangefinder specific lens is a much better idea -- optically they tend to be better in most cases, they are smaller, lighter and have added function.

As for the summicron vs. summilux, it is a very long-standing and personal debate. I was a vehement supporter of the summilux for a long time, but I decided to try the summicron. I did a blind test of the images at a few different apertures. I took two images of the same scene with both lenses, labeled them, and set them aside for a few days until I forgot which was which. I could barely tell them apart, outside 1.4 to 2.5. When I looked closer the summicron had a similar macroscopic look and feel to the summilux (they are both Leica 75mm lenses after all), but on closer inspection the summicron files were sharper, perfectly consistent in their focus point and had no noticeable chromatic aberration or bokeh fringing. The summilux was softer, had lots of bokeh fringing wide open, and the focus point jumped around a bit.
Don't get me wrong, it is still a great lens with beautiful character, but if you don't already have one, I would strongly recommend the summicron for digital use. For film, the summilux is just as good...any difference in performance is usually masked by the film grain, and the focus shifting is not really pronounced due to the curvature of the film.
I agree completely, the 75 Cron Apo is a nice way to go for it's compactness in typical rangefinder shooting, and of course it's superb image quality.
I have tried the 75 Lux on a M9 body and found it very difficult to focus accurately....was never that comfortable using the Lux.

The 80 Lux on a SLR body is a joy to use, one of those dual performance lenses that people love.....sharp with beautiful colour stopped down from 2.8 onwards, and soft and dreamy when opening up.

The 80 Lux lens wide open performs very similarly to the classic Zeiss 110mm F:2.0 for medium format.......a very desirable look, something the 75 Cron just can't duplicate IMO.
 

algrove

Well-known member
Not sure about the rest of you, but with the weight of most Leica R glass, I'd certainly want that tripod foot.
Keep in mind most of the longer and longer zooms have built in tripod mounts and on shooter 100/2.8 and 180/2.8 the STA-1 is the perfect addition making using them a breeze.
 
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