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Nikon to Leica S?

M

mjr

Guest
Morning!

I have a good Nikon kit now but have been very tempted with a Leica S kit for a while and as life is for living, I'm seriously looking at options.

Has anyone gone from a Nikon setup to the Leica? Any comments? I would be going from a couple of D800's, Zeiss 21 and 135, Nikkor 200 f2 plus a couple of cheaper lenses, a 50 and 85 1.8g. I'd need to sell all to help fund the Leica.

What's holding me back at the moment is the Zeiss 135 f2 and the Nikkor 200 f2, both incredible lenses on the D800, I'm wondering if I will miss them too much! I'd like to slim down my kit to possibly a 120 for portraits and a wide.

Any comments or real life experiences would be appreciated!

Cheers

Mat
 

RVB

Member
Morning!

I have a good Nikon kit now but have been very tempted with a Leica S kit for a while and as life is for living, I'm seriously looking at options.

Has anyone gone from a Nikon setup to the Leica? Any comments? I would be going from a couple of D800's, Zeiss 21 and 135, Nikkor 200 f2 plus a couple of cheaper lenses, a 50 and 85 1.8g. I'd need to sell all to help fund the Leica.

What's holding me back at the moment is the Zeiss 135 f2 and the Nikkor 200 f2, both incredible lenses on the D800, I'm wondering if I will miss them too much! I'd like to slim down my kit to possibly a 120 for portraits and a wide.

Any comments or real life experiences would be appreciated!

Cheers

Mat
Hi Matt

I have both,the S is excellent,the IQ is superb and the glass is stunning,great from wide open,and with a huge bright viewfinder and AF which you dont have with your Zeiss glass.

The color from the CCD is very good and to my eyes better than the D800e,I would consider the 180 over the 120 for portraits because the 120 AF is slow due to it being a macro.

Rob
 

Landscapelover

Senior Subscriber Member
Hi Matt,

I've had both Nikon 800e and Leica S2.
The quality of Nikon D800e with Nikon 200mm f/2 is very closed to Leica S2 and Leica 180mm but the 200mm is much heavier. The Leica S2 with the 120mm Micro is one of the best lenses in Leica series and I like it better than the 135 Zeiss which I've had in Sony mount.
My lenses for the Nikon are mainly Zeiss lenses (15, 18, 21, 35mm). The quality of them are more than enough for the print size of 24" wide. I've rarely printed bigger than this size although thinking about it.
Leica's lens quality is almost as good as tech camera which I've been using with the IQ260 and P25+. The color and sharpness is fantastic.
The Leica lenses in 2nd hand market is cheaper than or equal to the new Zeiss 55mm (except the Leica S 24mm, 30mm and 30-90mm). The Leica 70mm is ~ $3, 300. What a surprise!
I went to the DC last month and shot in a rain with Leica. It proved to me it is water resistance. My Nikon D800E died on me during the trip to Maine 2 years ago.
My conclusion is that the Nikon D800E and Zeiss lenses are more than enough for photo quality but if you want the best and greatest pleasure to handle, Leica S cannot be beaten. It also has a good future as the lenses can handle more than the current MP. I believe the 50MP CMOS is on the corner although I am not very interested in and most likely will not upgrade to. I need only the lowest ISO as I can get, not the highest. I have tripods!
Please email me for any questions. You and me are quite similar. We are "Landscape (only)" photographers. Your works's always inspired me.
Agree with Rob!

Best

Pramote
 
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M

mjr

Guest
Thanks for the info gents

Rob, how do you find the viewfinder for manual focus? I manual focus all the lenses on the D800, I just prefer it that way and to be honest, for what I shoot I'm not that bothered with af. I saw that there are different screens available, that is appealing if any are optimised for mf.

Pramote, thanks for the info, I was hoping you'd reply! You are right, the zeiss on the Nikon gives superb files and certainly good enough for the 24" print. I'm lucky enough to have migrated from pleasure only to actually having a few contracts this year and want the best files I can get, the S glass is what is really pulling me. I have watched the Leica become a mature system with a pretty good range of glass so it feels safe to get onboard with a view to it being something i stick with. I did say that about my Alpa and also about the Nikon, the Alpa has gone and the Nikon is on the edge!

Thanks also for the complement, you are being very kind as some of the best shots I have seen on here have come from you.

I think it's time to look in to the market for my lenses.

Thanks again both.

Mat
 

Landscapelover

Senior Subscriber Member
Thanks for the info gents

Rob, how do you find the viewfinder for manual focus? I manual focus all the lenses on the D800, I just prefer it that way and to be honest, for what I shoot I'm not that bothered with af. I saw that there are different screens available, that is appealing if any are optimised for mf.

Pramote, thanks for the info, I was hoping you'd reply! You are right, the zeiss on the Nikon gives superb files and certainly good enough for the 24" print. I'm lucky enough to have migrated from pleasure only to actually having a few contracts this year and want the best files I can get, the S glass is what is really pulling me. I have watched the Leica become a mature system with a pretty good range of glass so it feels safe to get onboard with a view to it being something i stick with. I did say that about my Alpa and also about the Nikon, the Alpa has gone and the Nikon is on the edge!

Thanks also for the complement, you are being very kind as some of the best shots I have seen on here have come from you.

I think it's time to look in to the market for my lenses.

Thanks again both.

Mat

You've made my day Matt! The words from you mean a lot to me.
I've had S2 with 35, 70, 120 and 180mm. I've also used the Hasselblad HC/HCD lenses to complement the S2 (28mm, 35-90mm, 50mm, 150, 210, 300mm). The Hasselblad lenses are cheap in a 2nd hand market compared to their quality. AF of the HC/HCD is exactly the same when you use them with either the S2 or the H4D/H3D.
Therefore, the Leica S system may not be as expensive as you would think of.
Oh, the viewfinder is the best among all cameras I've had with the split screen. Compared to the D800E? Black and white is all I can say. The viewfinder for MF in D800e is horrible.

Pramote
 

RVB

Member
Thanks for the info gents

Rob, how do you find the viewfinder for manual focus? I manual focus all the lenses on the D800, I just prefer it that way and to be honest, for what I shoot I'm not that bothered with af. I saw that there are different screens available, that is appealing if any are optimised for mf.

Pramote, thanks for the info, I was hoping you'd reply! You are right, the zeiss on the Nikon gives superb files and certainly good enough for the 24" print. I'm lucky enough to have migrated from pleasure only to actually having a few contracts this year and want the best files I can get, the S glass is what is really pulling me. I have watched the Leica become a mature system with a pretty good range of glass so it feels safe to get onboard with a view to it being something i stick with. I did say that about my Alpa and also about the Nikon, the Alpa has gone and the Nikon is on the edge!

Thanks also for the complement, you are being very kind as some of the best shots I have seen on here have come from you.

I think it's time to look in to the market for my lenses.

Thanks again both.

Mat
Matt the viewfinder is like live view,its really bright and I use it with the Gridded Focusing Screen which makes it pretty easy,

The S24 is one lens you should try,when you get the focus precise its razor sharp over the entire inage and has excellent contrast and color,

I also have a hasselblad,I find the HC lenses really good but the main difference between S glass and HC is that S glass is excellent from wide open and starts to show diffraction at f8,where as HC glass is strong at F8 and f11.They compliment each other well.

Rob
 
M

mjr

Guest
Excellent, thanks again guys.

I need to look a little closer at the differences between the S2 and S, see what the real differences are as there are some "cheap" S2's around. Great news about the viewfinder, I don't find the D800 too bad to be honest but I can value a good viewfinder experience!

Cheers

Mat
 

Paratom

Well-known member
Hi Mat,
I dont have experience with d800 but had a D3x and a D700 and some nice Nikon lenses (14-24, 24/1.4, 105DC, 200/2.0VR 70-200VRII and some more) which I replaced with Canon (with some very nice lenses including the 21mm Zeiss, the 135L, 50L, 24-70II and now Sigma 35/1.4 and also additional have used S2 (now S) with several lenses.
Some comments:
1) be ready to have considerably slower but therefore very accurate AF; I have not had any need for focus calibration in any of my 5 S-lenses)
2) be ready to be more limited regarding low light; ISO 800 is fine, ISO160 is ok but not great, and the fastest lens is f2.5, and no VR
3) I find the images from the S stand out; Colors are better than anything else I have used, detail, micro detail is exceptional, and the images have very smooth transitions
4) the viewfinder of the S is also very nice to use, even clearly larger than that of FF-DSLRs
5) If you like 135 and 200 mm so much I would think the 180mm Leica S lens might suit you better than 120mm, because it is like a 150mm FF lens. So maybe 35,70,180.
But then I would say the 120 S is more comparable to the smooth rendering of the Nikon 200VR.

I think just from the "look" and IQ you would not miss the 135 and 200VR, but maybe from the speed point of view. I take images of my small kids with the S, but it is much slower camera than a Nikon or my 5DIII.
Therefore you get an extra booster in IQ.
I own 30,35 (plan to sell one of those 2), 70,120,180 - My most used lens is 70 (which is also the smallest lens) and 35mm. So in many case I just carry 35 and 70 or 30 and 70mm.
By the way the Lowepro FastPack200 is my Fav bag and I can carry the S+2 lenses easily also for long hikes.
The good thing is that I am sure you will realize than one doesnt really need so many lenses.
 
M

mjr

Guest
Hi Paratom

You've hit on a really important point there, I've always enjoyed a 1 or 2 lens setup, I now have loads and always appear to be changing lenses, there's a lot to be said for simplicity! When I had the Alpa I had 2 lenses and basically shot with just the 1 most of the time, so much more time to spend on composition, I prefer to frame with the viewfinder rather than with the lenses I have if that makes sense!

I am a slow shooter anyway, looking through my D800 shots, nothing is over 400 ISO, very rarely anyway. The things I hope to gain from the move is colour and file quality which I believe I will get, I absolutely love the 200 for portraits so maybe I'll test the 180 as well as the 120, I have seen shots from the 120 that look stunning.

Ultimately the D800 is easily good enough but desire is a good thing, if I can sell my kit then I think I'll go for it.

Cheers!

Mat
 

RVB

Member
Mat,take a look at the 30-90 zoom as a one lens solution,it is by all accounts an superb lens,its not cheap nut may be the only lens you need.

best

Rob
 

fotografz

Well-known member
30-90 may not be the best portrait optic if Mat likes longer lenses on his Nikon. May have to also get a 180mm … BTW, there is an Elpro filter made specifically for the S180 that allows for a closer focusing (head shots, etc.).

The S2/S AF is faster than some may think. Not Pro Nikon/Canon fast, but I consistantely shoot wedding candids and family outings with kids & dogs, etc with excellent results. The trick is to assign AF to the thumb button, and use the shutter button for shooting. Much faster, but still accurate.

One thing to consider is looking to the future … the S2/S substantially steps away from any 35mm DSLR if you also use the CS lens option with lighting. Portrait work takes on a whole new level of fun and creative options when you can sync any strobe lighting up to 1/1000. All the Hasselblad HC/HCD lenses also sync to 1/750 shutter. You may not use lighting now, but with a CS lens it remains an option … even with the SF58 speed light in the hot shoe for fill, you can shoot at 1/1000 and use a more open aperture, or control a over-exposed background that's back lighting the subject.

One last thing, if you do B&Ws the S2/S will immediately become your best B&W camera. It is visably better up to ISO 640 than my Leica M Monochrome.

I have the CS35, CS70, HC100/2.2, CS120, and CS180 (and have the Elpro on order). Since I shoot mostly people, I prefer the CS35mm to avoid distortion of people toward the sides of the frame (like when shooting multiple people, or environmental portraits with the subject off-center.

Hope this helps,

-Marc
 

Hulyss Bowman

Active member
Hey MJR,

I use the leica a lot but I rent it. It is a real jewel and I agree you should go for it.

Go for the S, not the S2. The S2 was a bit "cheap" in hands (plastics and all) but the S feel more serious.

For the lenses I use for now only the 70 and the 120. Renter do not have other lenses.

But the 180 ... mmmmm this lens sound perfect. If one day I can, I will buy it, sure.

I recommend you going for the zoom and the 180. Very nice combo.
 

Guy Mancuso

Administrator, Instructor
I really liked the 30-90 lens. The 120 hunts like a dog, Sorry but not a quick lens. The 180 is very very nice
 

Paratom

Well-known member
I was temted by the zoom but I use the faster f-stop of the primes quite often and couldnt justify both. i also find the 30-90 a bit on the heavy side. However for outside work in good light or tripod use it could replace 30,35 and 70.
I still would want at least one faster lens in the 35-70 range if I had the zoom.
Tom
 
M

mjr

Guest
Thanks all, great advice!

I think the zoom plus the 180 would be superb but bloody expensive that setup!

Marc, lighting is top of my list so cs may be a necessity, what speed does the 30-90 sync at?

Guy, I think you need a 200 f2 in your life again! Haha.

Mat
 
M

mjr

Guest
Hey Hulyss

That's interesting on the feel, I didn't know the bodies were different apart from the obvious changes with the S, I know that if I can raise the money I'd rather have S

Cheers

Mat
 

Hulyss Bowman

Active member
Hey Hulyss

That's interesting on the feel, I didn't know the bodies were different apart from the obvious changes with the S, I know that if I can raise the money I'd rather have S

Cheers

Mat
Ye go for the S. He is better build. I think the S2 and the S body are partially made by Panasonic but I might be wrong :p
 
M

mjr

Guest
Thanks Hulyss.

Not seen much of your work on here recently, you busy or not using the Nikon much?

Mat
 

RVB

Member
Thanks all, great advice!

I think the zoom plus the 180 would be superb but bloody expensive that setup!

Marc, lighting is top of my list so cs may be a necessity, what speed does the 30-90 sync at?

Guy, I think you need a 200 f2 in your life again! Haha.

Mat
There is no CS version of the Zoom available and I think its limited to 1/125th sec flash sync..

The same applies to the S24mm..
 
M

mjr

Guest
Ah right, thanks Rob, less likely that I'd be using the zoom for studio/flash work but interesting to know what it is capable of. I don't have any zooms, I actually prefer primes but have read very good things on the quality of the 30-90.

Cheers

Mat
 
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