Reader Comment: “there’s only one thing Leica is about: how to make a lens as sharp... at the widest aperture of a lens”
Related: apochromatic, How-To, Leica, Leica 21mm f/2 Super-APO-Summicron-SL ASPH, Leica 28mm f/2 APO-Summicron-SL ASPH, Leica 35mm f/2 APO-Summicron-SL ASPH, Leica 50mm f/2 APO-Summicron-SL ASPH, Leica 75mm f/2 APO-Summicron-SL ASPH, Leica 90mm f/2 APO-Summicron-SL ASPH, Leica APO-Summicron, Leica APO-Summicron-SL, Leica M, Leica SL lenses, Leica SL3, Leica Summicron, Leica Summicron-SL, reader comment, Roy P
re: Leica SL3 vs Sony A7R V: In-Depth Value Comparison
I have now published detailed evaluations with all five of these lenses on the 60-megapixel Leica SL3.
- Leica SL 28/2 APO-Summicron-SL ASPH
- Leica SL 35/2 APO-Summicron-SL ASPH
- Leica SL 50/2 APO-Summicron-SL ASPH
- Leica SL 75/2 APO-Summicron-SL ASPH
- Leica SL 90/2 APO-Summicron-SL ASPH
The new Leica 21mm f/2 APO-Summicron-SL ASPH is on order but ETA unknown.
...
I had written with details to Roy P as to the Leica 35mm f/2 APO-Summicron-SL ASPH being a “a serious headache lens for landscape” along with a crop from these now-published evaluations.
The 35/2 APO at f/2 is a world-class reference-grade lens wide open at f/2. And with near-zero distortion.
But it has a practical problem that all but guarantees sub-optimal results.
Roy P writes:
Yes, it’s very obvious – even the thin branch right above the grass on the ground is crisper at f/2.
I can summarize this very quickly for you.
You have heard the adage about how if the only tool you have is a hammer, then you see every problem as a nail, right? Well, I think Leica is the opposite of this. It’s like Leica understands only one problem, namely a nail, so whatever lens or camera Leica builds, it will always be a hammer.
At its core, there’s only one thing Leica is about: how to make a lens as sharp as possible from corner to corner in the plane of focus at the widest aperture of a lens. That is the bragging right Leica strives for, IMO. If you read any version of Erwin Puts’ compendium, it’s always the same description for every lens, going back to the days of the Leica-R and Mandler-M lenses. It’s always the same comments, like “The lens is already at peak sharpness wide open”, and “Stopping down does not noticeably increase sharpness, but only increases the depth of field”. Repeat it for a hundred lenses, and voila! You’ve got yourself a book.
[DIGLLOYD: classic cognitive blindness is often found with experts— Erwin Putts vociferously refuted my findings over the severe flare issue with the 50/2 APO-M. 6 months later Leica stopped production to fix “a few small issues”. And yes, the lenses need stopping down, particularly on digital cameras]
And that is likely true with all the f/2 APO Summicron lenses. If you shoot only at f/2, occasionally stopping down to f/2.8 or f/4 to get both eyes or a group of people in focus, you will be a happy camper, because you will admire the sharpness where focused and the fall off into creamy bokeh behind the subject.
Any LACA / LOCA or cat’s eye rendering of points of light as you go away from the center, or color fringing at every high contrast edge? That is called rendering or character of the lens. Do you want to shoot a landscape at infinity? Shoot at f/2. Shoot the skyline of a city? Shoot at f/2. Do you have the 50mm f/0.95 Noctilux? Then shoot at f/0.95. That is Leica’s schtick.
IMO, that’s why Leica is tone deaf to the needs of anyone who walks around with a tripod and shoots landscapes. Zeiss would deeply care about this, but not Leica. It also makes sense why in Leica’s way of thinking, getting rid of the pixel shift multi shot mode was all too logical. I’d be willing to bet this was originally an idea from Panasonic and not Leica, and Leica never saw any value from this, because it’s not the use case they envision.
[DIGLLOYD: Probably a thing picked up by firmware code sharing agreement, agreement now over…]
That’s the problem with all these APO-Summicron-SL lenses. They are designed for you to shoot hand-held at f/2 and brag to your friends about the corner-to-corner sharpness wide open and the shallow DOF. Look at all the Oscar Barnack award winners over the years. There’s not a single photo that stands out for technical excellence. There are no landscapes or architectures. It’s all for hand-held “capturing of the moment” and “telling a story”.
The problem is, Leica confuses itself and puts out mixed messages. What Leica really should have done with the SL3 was a camera with the same resolution as the Sony A1 or the Leica SL2, but with a stacked CMOS sensor, much better autofocusing and a much higher frame rate. The 60 MP resolution was less important.
I can’t recall the last time I saw a landscape photo taken with a Leica camera, other than from photo trips organized by some Leica dealers. Anyone with their head screwed on right would shoot landscapes with a Sony A7R V, Fujifilm GFX100 II, or Hasselblad X2D.
So the SL3 is a people / street photography camera that can showcase the Leica APO-Summicron-SL lenses at f/2. If you have a use case for amazing 60 MP images shot hand-held at f/2, you have a premium solution with this camera and these lenses!
DIGLLOYD: I concur.
Except for one point: sometimes it is not about sharpness at all.
LEICA SL3 + Leica 35mm f/2 APO-Summicron-SL ASPH
RAW: Adobe Color, Enhance Details, WB 5000°K tint 21, pull 0.33 stops, +10 Whites, +10 Clarity, AI Denoise 10, +10 Vibrance
[low-res image for bot]
