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Agree I think the 28 is still the king of the hill. Would not buy another M without it. Don't overlook this lens. Not many have this look to itPrior to the newer uber expensive 21/24 summiluxes ..the 28/2 was king of the hill . The line up when the m8 was introduced was 21/24 2.8 ,28/2 ,then the 35/2 and 1.4. Its a pretty great lens all around and my favorite FOV for street shooting. But its readily available used and at $3995 list seems expensive . But speed obviously sells as proven by the 21/24 luxes at $6500.
Right now leica doesnt appear to be shipping much of anything to NA..but i still believe they will introduce a few more M lenses over the next year and certainly by photokina in 2012. None of the Summicrons have been updated 28/35/50/90 only a new 75.
But i was really fishing for rumors like the 50/2asph .
With high ISO ability, you no longer need to shoot a 1 or 2 second exposure. Rear sync works fine at 1/4sec or faster and can achieve great results. I know cause I make my living doing such now. At the end of the day, we do what we're comfortable with. Having more than one way to achieve a result is one of the exciting things about photography.Rear sync is useless when photographing people and using a long shutter speed as one can't capture the moment but rather the one a second or two later when the subject has turned away/moved on. I made a career out of flash and ambient light blur and it was always first curtain (and a super fancy Vivitar 285!).
...or with a nikon d7000. i assume the subjects are not so discerning---))).But you could have shot that at 5.6-8 with perfect results when shooting rear sync. f/1.4 isn;t required and focusing/dof could be an issue.
I handhold my 50's at that speed I handhold the 18mm at 1s! eg:hand hold it at 1/20
Al,Leica lenses were secretly made in a small factory in Sendai that was hard hit by the tsunami. The factory at Solms is just for tourists to keep the faith.
With the halt in production, not cancellation, of the MP due to a critical part seems to be linked with the shortage of M lenses and the tsunami in Japan. Glass is supplied by manufacturers in Japan in pressed form for finishing in Solms. Filters come from Japan and repacked in Solms - saw that in 2007 with the UV/IR filters. So it would stand to reason that the components that make up the lenses and cameras may also be sourced to suppliers in Japan. It is coincidence that the drying up of lenses coincided with the tsunami in Japan. Leica outsources the lens mount, learned that when the six bit coding came into being and they could not get enough of them from their supplier.
So the whole shortage of lenses may just be related to the inability to get a critical part to assemble the lens. Once the supply chain is reestablished the lenses will once again be available.
As far as shortages of certain lenses such as the 0.95 Noct, I think has more to do with production planning than capacity to produce. When the sales group estimates how many lenses that they will sell, a commitment to the suppliers of glass to make xx quantity of the blanks. The supplier will then melt and form the blanks ship them to Solms. If the projection estimate of the sales group was under, then they will have a shortage of lens blanks to assemble and fill all of the orders. I think that Leica was surprised that so many people would want a $11,000 lens. With the number of orders coming in, they did not have enough raw glass blanks and now need to wait until their supplier can produce the blanks for them. For the masses, the Summarit line had a good supply until late, probably due to the fact that it was an inexpensive lens and they felt more people would buy them at the price point. So they had more than enough parts on hand there to produce them.
So what ever critical part is missing for the lenses, once they get the parts the assembly will go at full production reducing the backlog. If it is the raw lens blanks then it will take a while to get going, if it is just the metal pieces a lot less time to get the supply out.
Like a kidney stone, all things must pass
Amen!Agree I think the 28 is still the king of the hill. Would not buy another M without it. Don't overlook this lens. Not many have this look to it