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Leica M240

50mm 4-way Comparison (M240, Fruit Platter)

June 2013 50/2 APO, which suffered from poor flare control.

The Leica 50mm f/2 APO-Summicron-M ASPH is perhaps the most highly corrected lens in the Leica M lineup. But to realize its performance fully, focus must be perfect and it largely applies in the f/2 - f/4 range, because by f/5.6 all good lenses begin to converge. Still, might it not also show other behaviors that in practice make it even better as compared to other choices?

This comparison shows sharpness but with a strong caveat; tediously focus-matching four different lenses at close range as here is not feasible—and at which aperture, given that they all have some focus shift?. The natural light used here was slowly changing so that lighting cannot be perfectly the same, yet there was time pressure to get the comparison shot before too much time elapsed. And there are no edge or corner areas to judge anyway, the lenses were not able to focus any closer.

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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.

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Leica 50mm f/2 APO-Summicron-M ASPH
Leica 50mm f/2 Summicron-M
Leica 50mm f/1.4 Summilux-M ASPH
Zeiss ZM 50mm f/2 Planar T*
(not to scale)
Leica M240 + 50mm f/2 APO-Summicron-M ASPH @ f/2

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