Dialup Warning: Some comparison photos between the 75 APO Cron and 75 Summilux

[StuartR]

I am a huge fan of the 75mm focal length after buying a used 75 summilux a few years ago. It is one of my all time favorite lenses. I love the way it draws an image, and how you can control sharpness and depth of field so dramatically. But, as everyone knows, it is not a svelte lens, and it turns the M camera into a fairly heavy piece of kit. It is also a rather demanding lens, with a long focus throw and extreme sensativity to focus when wide open. Given my love for the focal length, I borrowed a 75 cron from Tony Rose to compare. I wound up buying it. Now, I am not giving up my 75 lux, as I still love it, but the 75 cron shows some equally amazing traits. Depsite being the same focal length, I think these lenses compliment each other very well. The 75 lux is wonderful for portraits, for very low light photography and for extremely shallow depth of field. The 75 cron excels at very vivid color, extraordinarily fine detail, and it is far more compact and lighter. All that said, in terms of absolute performance the lenses are not that far apart. Here are a few sample images:
The first two are portraits taken at f/2. I apologize for not being in the exact same position, but I moved a bit when changing lenses.
Now I have not adjusted the color of levels at all, so these are straight from the scanner.

Fairly close no? Here are the 100% crops:

Ok, so which is which? Well in both cases the first one is the 75 cron. In the 100% crop it is definitely clearer, but you must remember that it is also closer to the eye than the other picture. More interesting is the presence of a bit of chromatic aberration on the rim of the glasses in the picture taken with the 75 lux. This color fringing is totally absent in the 75 cron. It appears that the APO designation is justified in this case. I imagine that this will become an even greater advantage in the future Digital M.

Ok, so any differences in that test could conceivably be chalked up to subject movement or camera shake, so I did a few tripod tests. I shot these on an M7 .85 using the viewfinder magifier. I focused VERY carefully, but as you will see, focus is so critical with these lenses that it is not even totally reliable with a tripod and a greater than 1:1 VF.
Point of focus was the butterfly's head
75 lux at f/2:

75 cron at f/2

 

[StuartR]

And the crops:
lux

cron

Notice that the scratch behind the butterfly is sharper in the 75 lux pictures than in the 75 cron picture. I believe this means that the 75 lux was every so slightly backfocused. It is probably capable of being slightly sharper. This just goes to show that using these lenses at their best is extraordinarily demanding, and in most real-world situations I doubt it would be possible to differentiate between these lenses when used at close range wide open.

Finally, to give an idea of how spectacular both these lenses are, here is a comparison between the 75 APO cron at f/8 versus the Hasselblad 110mm f/2 planar at f/8. Despite being a 35mm lens, the 75mm lens is competing closely with the MF lens, and it is actually sharper, though it has less film to work with.
75 cron

110 planar

crops:
75:

110:

Whew, hopefully that did not bore people too much, nor implode their dialup connections (hence the warning). By the way, all the black and white images were scanned at 3000 dpi on an Imacon 646, while the color ones were at 6300 dpi.

 

[Stephanie Brim]

I think because of the price difference between the lenses I would go with a 'cron, but considering my first Leica may have a 50mm 'lux on it kinda makes me want the 'lux more. 75mm seems to me a really great length, too...smack dab in the middle between 50 and 100. The sharpness of both lenses is spectacular. Wonder how the CV 75mm lens is...

 

[StuartR]

Price is interesting -- it is much easier to find used 75 summiluxes for well under 2000, while the 75 cron is extremely rare on the used market. So while I paid 1500 for the lux in fantastic condition, the new grey market 75 cron cost me 2200....I would probably have bought it used if I could have found it, but the fact remains that if you must have a Leica 75mm lens for as cheap as possible, it is going to be the 75 lux...

 

[retrocam]

Good for you that you've got both the 75'lux and 75'cron!

Just sharing my test shots too which I shot during a Leica Days walkabout last year. The smiley tin face was taken with the 75 'cron while the iron gate was taken with the 75 'lux. Both wide open. I got the 75 'cron because I think the 35mm 'lux and 75mm 'cron makes for an ideal travel kit. The 75 'lux can be heavy. The 75 'cron has a look similar to that of the 90 'cron APO-asph. However, I still find the bokeh of the 75 'lux creamier and more appealing. Perhaps someday, I'll have both... 😀

-Annie

 

[Stephanie Brim]

Oh...I thought the 'cron was cheaper on the used market. Odd, that. I know that buying new the 'lux is expensive. That's interesting.