Image comparison: Collapsible Summicron 5cm f2, Nikkor 5cm F2, and CZJ 5cm F2

Sonnar Brian

Sonnar Brian

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Took the Leica M8 wout with the Collapsible Summicron, Nikkor 5cm F2, and early uncoated CZJ 5cm F2 converted to LTM using a J-8 mount.

All images from the M8 in-camera JPEG, resized with Photoshop. Automatic White Balance, ISO 160 setting, mostly Automatic exposure, some exceptions..

This first round of images: all wide-open, scaled to 1024 for large dimension.

Collapsible Summicron, SN 13xxxxx. This is Rover's old lens:

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Nikkor 5cm F2:

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Sonnar 5cm F2: (Sun had changed position, needed a different branch)

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This Collapsible Summicron is a late one, and is near perfect. If I had used the Thorium Summicrons, the color would be off. If I had used the Summicron with scratched front element, a halo would have been around the subject.
 
ItsReallyDarren said:
The color produced by the Nikkor leans more towards blue.

Also does the Nikkor looks to be lower in contrast but I'm noticing some flare in the sample from post #3.
Click to expand...

That's my experience too with the Nikkor. It tends to be cooler.

Brian, thanks for the comparison shots. Did you move closer towards the subject with the Nikkor? or Does the Nikkor has a longer effective focal length?
 
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Brian, nice set. I too have a near perfect collapsible 'cron, they are hard to find without surface scratches.

My experience with Sonnar is 50/1.5, flarey wide open but gone at f/2. Do the 50/2 Sonnars (and Nikkor) perform similarly (flare gone at f/2.8?)
 
I've read on Dante Stella site the Nikkor 50/2 reaches optimum aperture at f/2.8. Wide open the results are very "sonnar" and it only gets better as it stops down. I don't know about optimum at 2.8 but at that stop its very sharp.
 
Brian, those shots give a nice comparison. The Summicron seems to give very crisp results compared to the other lens. It's most evident in the infinity shot. The sonnar has a nice transition from in-focus to out-of-focus in that shot.
 
tooffy said:
That's my experience too with the Nikkor. It tends to be cooler.

Brian, thanks for the comparison shots. Did you move closer towards the subject with the Nikkor? or Does the Nikkor has a longer effective focal length?
Click to expand...

I probably moved in a few inches closer. The minimum focus distance for the Summicron is 3.5ft. The Nikkor is RF coupled to 3ft, mine is not modified. The SOnnar also gest to 3ft.
 
digitalintrigue said:
Brian, nice set. I too have a near perfect collapsible 'cron, they are hard to find without surface scratches.

My experience with Sonnar is 50/1.5, flarey wide open but gone at f/2. Do the 50/2 Sonnars (and Nikkor) perform similarly (flare gone at f/2.8?)
Click to expand...


I will be resizing the F4 shots and posting them tonight. Flare is reduced.
 
photovdz said:
but why do I prefer the sonnar ;-)
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I know. Same question here.

It's the perfect imperfections.
The Summicron has many less imperfections.

OR:


With 6.8micron elements, the CCD of the M8 is ~75LP/mm using Nyquist rate. The Bayer pattern is a 2x2 pattern, so the Bayer site is ~36 LP/mm. You get aliasing when the features dramatically change faster than 36LP/mm, which is why most DSLR's use AA filters to kill the high frequency.

The Jupiter-3 is 30LP/mm. Therefore, the Jupiter-3 is the matched optic for the M8.
 
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