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Leica Noctilux 0.95 Unplugged

David K

Workshop Member
Thought I'd try something a little different for my latest studio shoot and give the Noct a workout. Fair amount of pp on these but I can still see the Noct in them. This lens is a bear to focus with just modeling lights... at least for me.
 

jonoslack

Active member
Thought I'd try something a little different for my latest studio shoot and give the Noct a workout. Fair amount of pp on these but I can still see the Noct in them. This lens is a bear to focus with just modeling lights... at least for me.
Hi David
Love the first shot . . . can't see so much of the noct in the second one . . and I don't think I like it as much anyway,

Focusing? I haven't tried with modelling lights, but I don't find low light a problem . . . . but I did with glasses, contacts seem to be the answer.

all the best
 

David K

Workshop Member
Jono, I prefer the first shot by a wide margin myself. I took the magnifier off my M9 so that I could see the crop lines and have been working with the diopter only but I think I'm going back to using the mag when I shoot the Noct. I only use glasses for reading so I don't know if contacts are the answer. I asked a friend (he's got good vision) to take a photo of me the other day and handed him my camera...poor guy couldn't see whether anything was in focus :)
 

jonoslack

Active member
Jono, I prefer the first shot by a wide margin myself. I took the magnifier off my M9 so that I could see the crop lines and have been working with the diopter only but I think I'm going back to using the mag when I shoot the Noct. I only use glasses for reading so I don't know if contacts are the answer. I asked a friend (he's got good vision) to take a photo of me the other day and handed him my camera...poor guy couldn't see whether anything was in focus :)
Well, I found a magnifier to be really counter-productive. Seems to me that the way to get to focus the M9 properly is really just practice, and anything (like a magnifier) which changes things doesn't help (unless you keep it on all the time).
 

PeterA

Well-known member
Dont know how I missed this thread -some awesome photos on display here - who needs a tech camera and a digi back to use a 5 dergfee upwards tilt to get teh OOF blur away from beautiful eyes - when all you need is a Nocti and step ladder? and maybe a cople of neutral density filters...

food for thought.
 

BradleyGibson

New member
Kristian,

Really enjoyed the shots--many thanks for sharing. I do have a question for you and it's around the focusing. I rented an M9 for a couple of weeks, because I love the lenses. The problem was I wasn't able to reliably place the focus plane where I needed it. And this was at 1.4. How are you doing it at 0.95?!

I'd appreciate it if you could walk me through your focusing technique.

Thanks,
 

leicashot

New member
Thought I'd try something a little different for my latest studio shoot and give the Noct a workout. Fair amount of pp on these but I can still see the Noct in them. This lens is a bear to focus with just modeling lights... at least for me.
Beautiful shots, but have to ask how you're seeing the Noct in there pictures? Wishful thinking or seeing something I'm not?

If I stopped the Noct fast f/1, I wouldn't be able to tell it from a Nikon picture, to be honest.
 

leicashot

New member
Kristian,

Really enjoyed the shots--many thanks for sharing. I do have a question for you and it's around the focusing. I rented an M9 for a couple of weeks, because I love the lenses. The problem was I wasn't able to reliably place the focus plane where I needed it. And this was at 1.4. How are you doing it at 0.95?!

I'd appreciate it if you could walk me through your focusing technique.

Thanks,
It's tricky no doubt so I'm not gonna lie and say it's easy, even after much experience.....but, you NEED NEED NEED the 1.4x magnifier!!!! and my M9 first had a focus issue, not noticeable on other lenses only on the Noct. Once I added the two, my hit rate went from 60% to 85% without focus bracketing.

Also, when you focus and recompose you need to compensate by moving ever so slightly forward or backward, especially at minimum distances.

hope this helps...jetlagged waiting from my plane from Kuala Lumpur to Bangkok ;)
 

leicashot

New member
Keep adding more pictures guys. I no longer own the Noct so it's up to you to hold the fort and keep this thread 'unplugged!'
 

D&A

Well-known member
Kristian, as soon as someone will trade their 0.95 Noct. for some of my lenses, I'll be glad to post as many pictures as you'd like to keep this thread going:) . With the fantastic quality of your shots with the lens, someone somehow should give you one, just so you can post more shots!

Dave (D&A)
 

leicashot

New member
Kristian, as soon as someone will trade their 0.95 Noct. for some of my lenses, I'll be glad to post as many pictures as you'd like to keep this thread going:) . With the fantastic quality of your shots with the lens, someone somehow should give you one, just so you can post more shots!

Dave (D&A)
Even if I was to find someone so generous I'd rather they sell it and donate the $$$ to someone who really needs it. Or maybe I'd give them a piece of my new company (website) coming soon heheh. I don't 'need' the Noct, and not sure anyone really does. I'll get buy for now ;)
 

David K

Workshop Member
Beautiful shots, but have to ask how you're seeing the Noct in there pictures? Wishful thinking or seeing something I'm not?

If I stopped the Noct fast f/1, I wouldn't be able to tell it from a Nikon picture, to be honest.
Wishful thinking comes into play more for the model than the shot :) And since we're both seeing the same shot I doubt that's it either. Probably has more to do with what I usually associate with Leica vs Nikon. Most all of my studio Nikon shots are crisp and sharp... since that's what the models are looking for in their ports. Pretty sure I could take a dreamy shot with the Nikon 85/1.4 give it a bit of glamour processing and get a similar feeling. But I don't think it would be quite the same. Diglloyd describes the Noct as having a softer rendition, lower contrast and a shallow zone of focus... even when compared to the 50 lux. I see all of that in the first shot. Maybe it is wishful thinking after all :)
 

D&A

Well-known member
David, the moment I clicked on both your shots, I immediately thought there was a kind of a softness (and roundness) to them with gentler contrast Yes, I know, I'm looking at screen resolution and don't know what the full rez files look like but I definitely see these attributes it with the image on the right and even in the one on the left. Obviously I knew you took them with your Noct and attributed that aspect to it and if I didn't know which lens you used, I still would have immediately seen this characteristic in your two images. Now if you had said you took them with a 50mm Lux asph, I would have thought this doesn't look characteristic of "that" (the 50mm Lux asph) lens.

Of course lighting and post processing could have polayed a role but those were my initital impressions What digilloyd described (and you quoted) as the differences between the 0.95 Noct and 50mm Lux asph, I would tend to agree, from what I've been seeing in many images (along with prints) from these two lenses.

Dave (D&A)
 
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jonoslack

Active member
It's tricky no doubt so I'm not gonna lie and say it's easy, even after much experience.....but, you NEED NEED NEED the 1.4x magnifier!!!! and my M9 first had a focus issue, not noticeable on other lenses only on the Noct. Once I added the two, my hit rate went from 60% to 85% without focus bracketing.

Also, when you focus and recompose you need to compensate by moving ever so slightly forward or backward, especially at minimum distances.

hope this helps...jetlagged waiting from my plane from Kuala Lumpur to Bangkok ;)
Oh Kristian - I really disagree about the 1.4x magnifier - I found that it made matters worse. I'm getting a good hit rate new without - I'd say that the real truth is PRACTICE PRACTICE PRACTICE.

GOOD LUCK with the new company.
 

leicashot

New member
Oh Kristian - I really disagree about the 1.4x magnifier - I found that it made matters worse. I'm getting a good hit rate new without - I'd say that the real truth is PRACTICE PRACTICE PRACTICE.

GOOD LUCK with the new company.
I'm confused. How could it make matters worse? it fills the frame more and the focus spot is enlarged. Is there something else I'm missing? :confused:
 
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