So Friday's event at the Leica Store SoHo was an eye-opener. It seems using Leica "S" glass exploits the "sweet-spot" of a larger image circle to reveal more information, more shadow detail, and additional smoothness in the highlights. The files on a tethered Mac definately looked like a big step into medium format. Anyways I was stunned.
Granted that this was all done in a studio like enviornment, with a strobe and utilizing a 100/2.0 ASPH lens that costs more than $8K. Anyways using this lens requires a certain amount of fitness because it is a big rig and anyone with skinny arms should stay at home.
Funny thing is even though I own a lot of glass I never really test my lenses. I more or less just shot them, sold the lenses I didn't use or like, and seemed to have assembled the best of the best.
When I got home I cleaned all my lenses, and blew out some dust off of my sensor. So the real lens testing took place after the lens-fest. What I did learn at lens fest is never discount old single coated glass like my 35/1.8 Nikkor in LTM, or my tiny black Canon 28/3.5 in LTM. Mucho sharp.
A surprise was that in comparing Joe's 50 Lux-R E55 against my 50 Lux-R E60 I was expecting my E60 to crush the E55, but that was not the case. The E60 was only a minor amount sharper, and in fact the E55 had more/better saturated color.
So in my independent testing at home after a bout of obsessive cleaning, I compared my 50 Lux E60 against my Noct-Nikkor. As far as center sharpness goes the Noct-Nikkor at F1.2 matched the resolution of my 50 E60 F1.2 to F1.4. It was dead even even though I used a delta of half a stop in the comparision. What the 50 Lux does better is across the frame and in the corners. The Noct-Nikkor does not do so well towards the edges and corners.
I use the distress of two screw slots on a white electrical outlet as my target from around 14-15 feet. Understand the detail I was focusing on was the definition and shadow of the slots zoomed in.
When I compared my 50 Lux ASPH against the E60 the E60 won on the SL. It seems that the lack of a size constraint might be a factor, and perhaps the "R" glass might have a larger image circle to exploit the "sweet-spot" like the "S" glass event like at the Leica Store Soho.
Interesting note is that the guys at the Leica Store revealed that they had compared a 35 Lux-R against a 35 Lux ASPH FLE and in their testing the "R" lens was sharper.
Know that I pre-ordered the new AF 50 Lux for my SL. It is expected to be released early next year. It has an 82mm filter size and is perhaps only about a half inch smaller than the huge 24-90 zoom. At least because of fewer elements and groups it should be lighter. Anyways the SL lenses seem to be supersized, and maybe performance is achieved by supersized image circles.
Also I was surprised by how big Steve's 35 Lux-R was. A lot bigger than I ever imagined, and bigger than my 50 Lux E60.
Joe had a magic rig: a digital MP with 35 Lux ASPH FLE.
Cal