35mm Lenses: New Nokton, 'Lux ASPH, UC Hex

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foto_fool

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I bought the new 35mm/f1.4 Nokton from Stephen a couple of weeks ago and took it out with my other 35's to see if one of them was going up for sale. I went to one of the local Veteran's cemetaries, not because of a morbid fascination with my own moratlity (though lately, true enough) but because it offered a great combination of near-field detail and far-field challenges.

Leica M6 on a tripod. No hoods used. HP5+ because that's what was in the camera. Developed in DDX (9.0 min @ 68°F) and scanned with Plustek Optic 7200 running Silverfast Ai, 16bit-8bit grayscale, no sharpening. PP in Photoshop: 10% adjustment to brightness and contrast only - same for every frame.

Here's the Nokton (left) and Summilux ASPH @ f1.4:
A_1_4_N_080228sm-vi.jpg
A_1_4_S_080228sm-vi.jpg


Below is a link to my online album where a different and more challenging scene is shot with all three lenses from f2.0 through f8.0. Note that if you are using a slower connection you probably want too use the slideshow function - the 17Mpx jpg files are about 10Mb each.

http://public.fotki.com/jkellyca/35mm-lens-comparison/

My observations:
1) The Nokton is much softer than the other lenses wide open.
2) The Summilux is sharper near-field and much softer far-field than the other two lenses.
3) The UC Hexanon (LTM with a CV adapter) is the sharpest of the three at wider apertures, but softer at f5.6 and f8.
4) The Hexanon could also be a bit slower than the other two lenses at indicated aperture - the shots with this lens all seem a bit darker than those with the other two.
5) The far-field OOF with the Nokton is pretty nice looking.
6) There is a very small amount of vignetting with the Nokton and the Hexanon at 2.0 but none wth the Summilux.
7) In the Steiner monument series I was shooting right into the sun. Flare? What flare?

Bottom line for me - I'm keeping all three lenses.

I'm hoping some more experienced folks will take a look at these and point out things I missed. Have some fun - download the originals of the Sneed monument and toggle between the Nokton and Summilux (A/B) shots - you can easily see that there are interesting differences in distortion of the image from these two lenses.
 
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Thank you!

Thank you!

Lucky you to have all 3.

When I started reading I thought: "Oh no, the UC-Hexanon will finish dead last in this comparison." 😀

The more I see, the more I like my wee Konica lens. 🙂 😎
 
Wayne - the ASPH was almost free in the deal of a lifetime, or I probably wouldn't own it. I got the Nokton thinking I might sell the ASPH - still might, because the Nokton is a good performer and much more compact, but I don't feel any real urgency after seeing these results.

The Hexanon performance was revelatory. I was pretty sure I was going to hold on to it for its color rendition on the R-D1 (the lens is really well-suited to that body) but I wondered how it would compare to the ASPH. I'm thinking it might have higher contrast than the other two lenses, rather than the half-a$$ed hypothesis I threw out above.
 
Hi John,

Nice test, thanks for posting it.

Would you have any photos in colour as well? I 'd be very interested in seeing the difference in colour saturation between the three lenses.

Also, when you say that the Summilux 35 Asph is sharper at the near distance but less so in the far distance, do you mean the way the OOF area is softer? Or you have some shots focused at infinity where the other two 35's seem sharper?

Interesting also that you seem to have results showing the Hexanon being a little slower than f/2, although I wonder if there are reasons (veiling flare spill on the shadows) that make the two f/1.4 ones look actually faster than they really are, instead.

Thanks again for this test,
 
Alkis - I looking forward to an opportunity to compare these with some color. My first inclination would be to shoot it on the R-D1 but I really should do it with the M6 and some chrome (probably would use Velvia 50) to get the corner performance. Note the Nokton is the SC version; close but not directly comparable to the other two multicoated lenses.

I was refering the far-OOF rendering of the ASPH in comparison to the other two. The infinity focus comparison would be interesting, but rather than telling me one lens is actually sharper than another at infinity, may show me that I need to have one or more of the lenses adjusted 🙂. BTW - all three were bought new (or like-new in the case of the Summilux) and I have not dropped them, yet.

Good call on the veiling flare. I have a third (and really boring) series I shot with the sun at 90° that also shows the Hexanon to be either a bit slower or perhaps higher-contrast. Any suggestions as to how I could resolve the veiling/speed/contrast question?
 
Hi John,

thanks for the comparison.

One way to check the speed is to shoot the same controlled scene
on your RD1 with two different lenses and compare the histograms.

Best,

Roland.
 
Hi Roland:

IIRC the histograms from the scans were skewed toward the black in the Hexanon shots compared to the other two lenses. I will rescan and confirm. But would the histograms alone distinguish between speed and contrast? More contrast = greater dymanic range? Maybe on the R-D1 in AE mode I get the same histogram but different shutter speeds?

One thing for sure - no test targets for me.
 
thx for the test... This has affirmed my view on the uc performance, at least on the oof dept.... I can save $ on getting the nokton till im speed hungry again... Haha...
 
foto_fool said:
Hi Roland:

IIRC the histograms from the scans were skewed toward the black in the Hexanon shots compared to the other two lenses. I will rescan and confirm. But would the histograms alone distinguish between speed and contrast? More contrast = greater dymanic range? Maybe on the R-D1 in AE mode I get the same histogram but different shutter speeds?

One thing for sure - no test targets for me.
Click to expand...

Hi John,

let's see: in Photoshop (grey scale picture), when you do

Image -> Histogram

the "Median" should tell you about speed. And the "Std Dev" about macro contrast. At least that's what I thought .... Assuming of course that you
either use a digital camera, or scan without picture-dependent contrast correction.

Best,

Roland.
 
Thanks for the test.
When I picked up my 35/1.4 nokton, I'd originally thought I might sell both my 35 uc hexanon and my 35/1.2 Nokton.
But I just can't bring myself to let go of the hexanon. I really just love that lens. The way it renders. It's build quality. And its size.
So i'll just keep the new nokton and the hexanon. The much larger 1.2 lens will have to find a new home.
 
i'm looking forward to seeing some of my own results from the cv 35/1.4 as i still have not decided if i will be selling my 35/2.5 cv lens.

the zm 35 is a no brainer, it stays but i don't think i really need three 35mm lenses.

joe
 
It looks like I'll end up with three.
35 UC Hexanon
35/1.4 Nokton
35/3.5 Leica Summaron

Sort of my small answer to the multiple 50s that many of the film RF guys keep around.
 
Thanks for posting this, as I recently got paid, I ended up getting the Hexanon UC after all!

Really excited to get it..
 
sevres_babylone said:
Joe, you're trying to make me feel bad (about the Canon).

The Hexanon looks really interesting, from the samples posted.
Click to expand...


honest, i'm not...🙂

that lens beguiles me at times. i have bid on a couple on ebay but never enough to win. there have been a few for sale here but i have managed to talk myself out of buying them.
talk about a fence sitter...

joe
 
kross
looks like the uc price will be on the rise soon.... 😛
Click to expand...

With only 1,000 of them made, it sure would seem that way. However, I think you can still find them new on Ebay - or at least you could recently. Sooner or later, that supply is going to run out.
 
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