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Examples: 50/0.95 Noctilux (Yosemite)
These examples use the Noctilux both wide open and stopped down in a landscape-shooting application. As the world’s fastest lens, it is often thought of in limited terms, but in fact it is highly versatile.
See also the wide aperture examples in Wide Aperture Landscapes (DAP).
Curiously, the ultra-fast Noctilux turns out to be perhaps the highest performance 50mm lens I’ve yet seen when stopped down to f/4 - f/5.6, perhaps even a tad better than the 50/1.4 Summilux. Yet at wide apertures the Noctilux has a gentle, lower contrast look than the Summilux which yields a very different effect— the serious user will want both lenses for their different image rendition in the f/1.4 - f/2.8 range.
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Diglloyd Guide to Leica is by yearly subscription. Subscribe now for about 25 cents a day ($90/year).
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Diglloyd Guide to LEICA contains in-depth coverage of Leica M system cameras and lenses, with additional coverage of Leica M Monochrom, Leica Q.
Special emphasis is placed on Leica M lenses and certain Zeiss ZM lenses.
- Make better images by learning how to get the best results right away.
- Save money by choosing the right lens for your needs the first time, particularly the Summilux/Summicron/Elmarit choice and/or Zeiss ZM.
- Make better images, a sort of “cheat sheet” saving yourself months or years of ad-hoc learning. Processing parameters are discussed and shown.
- Jaw-dropping image quality found nowhere else utilizing Retina-grade images up to full camera resolution, plus large crops [past 2 years or so].
- Real world examples with insights found nowhere else. Make sharper images just by understanding lens behavior you won’t read about elsewhere.
- Aperture series from wide open through stopped down, showing the full range of lens performance and bokeh.
- Optical quality analysis of field curvature, focus shift, sharpness, flare, distortion, and performance in the field.
Want a preview? Click on any page below to see an excerpt as well as extensive blog coverage, for example on Leica.
