Nikon Z with Leica M lenses

[Photon42]

Not sure how many are actually interested, and I have to admit I am a lousy lens tester, but here are two shots of my younger son, one with an M10 (scaled up for comparison) the other one with the Z7. The adapter is the Novoflex one. I ordered it directly from them and it arrived last week. It is mechanically good with newer lenses, but has a little play with my Voigtlander 1.1/50 from 2010 and also an old Summicron from the 50ies.

First the M10 with the Summilux 50 ASPH:

Next the Z7 and the identical lens:

The eye:

 

[JPL]

mine is on order too... I am impatiently looking forward receiving it...
impatient to see how the 90 2.0 asph, or even the 28 summary will perform

 

[k-hawinkler]

Thanks. How do the corners hold up?

 

[Photon42]

Thanks. How do the corners hold up?

I think they are fine, but I did not do any comparison. Just did one shot yesterday, where it can be seen:

 

[Photon42]

Some more from yesterday (Summilux 50 [1,5,6] and Summarit 2.5/90).

 

[Photon42]

Pandas:

 

[k-hawinkler]

I think they are fine, but I did not do any comparison. Just did one shot yesterday, where it can be seen:

Thanks. Looking good. :thumbup:

 

[Jan Brittenson]

First the M10 with the Summilux 50 ASPH:

Next the Z7 and the identical lens:

What's striking, more than the lens, is the color rendition of the two cameras. The Z7 has a strongly red, maybe magenta, foreground, a murky greenish background (along the green-magenta axis, NOT a pleasant response), while parts of the face and neck area push into the highlights creating a sort of bright-spotty appearance. The blonde hair has picked up a bit of green murk on the Nikon. Many such small rendition details of the M10 add up to a significantly nicer (to my eye) image, with an overall warm appearance, cleaner background (separating nicely from the warm foreground), good skin tone, nice tonal range - just overall a very good look I think. The Nikon definitely is quite a step down here.

 

[Photon42]

What's striking, more than the lens, is the color rendition of the two cameras. The Z7 has a strongly red, maybe magenta, foreground, a murky greenish background (along the green-magenta axis, NOT a pleasant response), while parts of the face and neck area push into the highlights creating a sort of bright-spotty appearance. The blonde hair has picked up a bit of green murk on the Nikon. Many such small rendition details of the M10 add up to a significantly nicer (to my eye) image, with an overall warm appearance, cleaner background (separating nicely from the warm foreground), good skin tone, nice tonal range - just overall a very good look I think. The Nikon definitely is quite a step down here.

Maybe I was not clear enough in my initial post, but from these pictures the color rendition of the the respective cameras cannot be judged. It was mixed lighting and a did a quick WB on a similar place. Sorry ... The one thing I wanted to find out is whether I can use some selected M lenses (50, 75 90, mostly) with the Z from a sharpness and detail perspective. And there, the Z7 is definitely not a step down.

 

[JohnBrew]

Anyone tried the Kipon adapter? The Novoflex is still unavailable.

 

[Photon42]

Not sure what you mean by “still”. Got mine end of Nov 2018

 

[dave.gt]

The old adage is something about the eye of the beholder. Adding the fact that everyone's screens vary greatly and making an absolute statement on jpeg comparisons is just silly and downright misleading to a lot of people reading posts.

I just found this thread and there is absolutely no significant difference in the images above. Certainly there are no murky colors from the Z7, in fact, except for a fraction of a stop of overexposed highlights from the Z7 the two images look identical. (Note: the eye crop images are comparison of a Raw(NEF) File and a Tiff?... which crop is which? Does the M10 use NEF or DNG? I think the left NEF file is the Nikon Z7... does that correlate with the first two images? So many questions.)

At the end of the day, both images are good, and it is unlikely if they were presented in a different manner (blind test), and with other subjects, that anyone could tell the difference.

Just enjoy making images and lots of them with your camera and lens of choice!:thumbs:

 

[Photon42]

Just thought it would be informative early in the game to see that the Z7 does handle the M glass gracefully. I am very happy with results so far, using it mostly for 50 and 90mm focal length. The Z7 body also adds proper modern flash technology, flip up display, long exposures and btw - all flash/strobe manufacturers are offering now HSS for Nikon bodies.

 

[dave.gt]

Just thought it would be informative early in the game to see that the Z7 does handle the M glass gracefully. I am very happy with results so far, using it mostly for 50 and 90mm focal length. The Z7 body also adds proper modern flash technology, flip up display, long exposures and btw - all flash/strobe manufacturers are offering now HSS for Nikon bodies.

Well, I think you successfully showed that the Z7 does quite well! In fact, the NEF file above (eyes) is from the Z7... not from the M10. The first two images are then reversed if I am looking at it correctly. The eyebrows are darker in the NEF file so it appears to me that the first two image descriptions are reversed.... Is that correct?

 

[dave.gt]

Just thought it would be informative early in the game to see that the Z7 does handle the M glass gracefully. I am very happy with results so far, using it mostly for 50 and 90mm focal length. The Z7 body also adds proper modern flash technology, flip up display, long exposures and btw - all flash/strobe manufacturers are offering now HSS for Nikon bodies.

Well, I think you successfully showed that the Z7 does quite well! In fact, the NEF file above (eyes) is from the Z7... not from the M10. The first two images are then reversed if I am looking at it correctly. The eyebrow in the NEF is darker (browner) than the Tiff file which is more reddish, so it appears to me that the first two image descriptions are reversed.... Is that correct?

 

[Photon42]

Maybe you are right - on the iPhone only at this point - difficult to say ...

 

[dave.gt]

If that is the case, then the image with brighter highlights is with the M10 and the warmer image is with the Z7.

Both are still good images. Thank you for the comparison!:thumbup:

 

[Photon42]

First the ----> Z7 with the Summilux 50 ASPH:

Next the ----> M10 and the identical lens:

The eye:

Damn .... :cussing: ...

Sorry for the unintentional mistake and thanks to Dave for pointing it out! It did however elicit an interesting comment ... :grin:
I promise to check better next time, in case I ever post something like this again :bugeyes:

 

[JohnBrew]

On my monitor there was an obvious difference in resolution to the Nikon, as there should be. Surprising that the difference is so slight.

 

[dave.gt]

On my monitor there was an obvious difference in resolution to the Nikon, as there should be. Surprising that the difference is so slight.

Yes, it is surprisingly close, however, post-processing/screens/etc. can muddle the differences. As a practical matter, it really is nice to see an affordable Z7 perform as well as it did with an M lens that is probably not optimized for the Nikon sensor.:grin: