Lighthouse Point - shooting with the Leica SL

[Godfrey]

I took a nice long drive on Sunday morning, getting to know my 'new' car after getting it all set up and ready for a road trip. I stopped in Santa Cruz for breakfast and took a walk around Lighthouse Point on West Cliff Drive where I took these photos.

All: Leica SL + Vario-Elmarit-SL 24-90mm f/2.8-4 ASPH OIS
All ISO 50 @ f/8​

It's a matter of accommodation, but the more I use the SL24-90mm lens, the more I have to respect its performance and versatility, and the less its size and weight bother me. I've never been much of a zoom user, but I could see a system with the SL, the 24-90, the 90-280, and the upcoming wide zoom as a complete and excellent performing rig. 🙂

enjoy!
G

 

[Calzone]

Godfrey,

At PhotoPlusExpo Leica had a pre-production AF 50 Lux that I mounted on my SL. The shots when downloaded and displayed on my EIZO looked amazing.

With an 82mm filter size and a lens barrel, perhaps only a centimeter shorter, it was a very big lens especially for a 50, but a lot lighter than your 24-90.

Cal

 

[Godfrey]

At PhotoPlusExpo Leica had a pre-production AF 50 Lux that I mounted on my SL. The shots when downloaded and displayed on my EIZO looked amazing.

With an 82mm filter size and a lens barrel, perhaps only a centimeter shorter, it was a very big lens especially for a 50, but a lot lighter than your 24-90.

It should be wonderful!

But for that, I have the Summilux-R 50mm and Summicron-R 50mm. The 'Cron in particular is pretty small and light, and its performance even wide open is breathtakingly good. Not bad for a 1964 Leica lens that cost me, altogether with a decent, clean, working Leicaflex SL body, about $200. 🙂

G

 

[Calzone]

It should be wonderful!

But for that, I have the Summilux-R 50mm and Summicron-R 50mm. The 'Cron in particular is pretty small and light, and its performance even wide open is breathtakingly good. Not bad for a 1964 Leica lens that cost me, altogether with a decent, clean, working Leicaflex SL body, about $200. 🙂

G

Godfrey,

Every small format lens I own renders wonderfully on the SL: M; R; LTM; and Nikon SLR. Particularly great is the Noct-Nikkor as a portrait lens shot wide open. It seems F1.2 combined with 8 mm more focal length adds up to be a lot. Also the chrome 65 F3.5 Visoflex lens has a large format like rendering stacking triple Leica adapters.

So easy to nail the focus...

Cal

 

[Huss]

That new Lux 50 for the SL has crazy barrel distortion. This lens is so disappointing to me in so many ways. It seems that with the SL series Leica is moving away from making perfect, small lenses in Germany, to large ones made in Japan that need software to correct them. But the prices do not reflect this.

http://www.jupitersnake.com/review/50-summilux-sl-f1-4-review-first-look/

and mentions of it in this thread, starting about 1/3 way down
http://www.fredmiranda.com/forum/topic/920070/1413

 

[Calzone]

That new Lux 50 for the SL has crazy barrel distortion. This lens is so disappointing to me in so many ways. It seems that with the SL series Leica is moving away from making perfect, small lenses in Germany, to large ones made in Japan that need software to correct them. But the prices do not reflect this.

http://www.jupitersnake.com/review/50-summilux-sl-f1-4-review-first-look/

and mentions of it in this thread, starting about 1/3 way down
http://www.fredmiranda.com/forum/topic/920070/1413

Huss,

Thanks for the links.

I see the barrel distortion in the examples given and it seems to be a lot, but I assume like the Leica "Q" it likely will get profiled out. This definitely is a break from the old "M" and "R" lenses that are beloved.

Funny thing though is that the shots I took only a few days ago with my SL an the pre-production lens my examples of F1.4 of head and shoulder shots look like a different camera was used. Remarkably different. I have firmware 2.1 (latest). I wonder if an older version firmware is the reason for the difference?

The AF 50 Lux did do some hunting and was slow. I recognized that it was not as good as the 24-90's I have tried. This is still an early review.

Cal

 

[Godfrey]

Making definitive judgements on lenses when looking at images that are from pre-production examples is not reasonable. Treating every comment about lenses as if it were gospel truth is similarly unreasonable.

Wait for production units and firmware to surface. Remember, Leica pushed back the delivery date on this lens ... and likely for good reason. They're not done with it yet.

G

 

[Huss]

It is still strange to allow out into the wild lenses that perform so poorly, pre-production or not.

Back on topic, Godfrey, I really like your B&W shot of the trees.

 

[Godfrey]

...
Back on topic, Godfrey, I really like your B&W shot of the trees.

Thank you!

 

[robert blu]

Great shots Godfrey, I specially like that waves with the surfers
robert

 

[Calzone]

Making definitive judgements on lenses when looking at images that are from pre-production examples is not reasonable. Treating every comment about lenses as if it were gospel truth is similarly unreasonable.

Wait for production units and firmware to surface. Remember, Leica pushed back the delivery date on this lens ... and likely for good reason. They're not done with it yet.

G

Godfrey,

I have been waiting a long time for this lens. It seemed very apparent to me that the pre-production lens I handled at PhotoPlusExpo rendered very differently than the examples shown in Huss' link. Granted my shots were all for seeing the rendering shot wide open and close (head and shoulder shots). I was pleased, and I am encouraged that this will be a great lens even by this brief testing.

Over 4 years ago I waited 5 months for my Monochrom delivery. Well worth the wait.

Cal

 

[leica M2 fan]

Fine shots with the SL. I especially liked the surfer shots. Thanks for posting.

 

[CrisR]

Lovely captures there 🙂