M8 and 50 lux pre asph ? problems ?

[proenca]

Hi there,

after one more trip ( Egypt this time ) and after processing the rolls, i did the math. A M8 is worth the money. Im still scanning the 16 rolls of film and Im not taking into account the good hours of photoshop to remover nasty color casts : 7 or so rolls were damaged / ? and have NASTY blue or magenta casts over them, and they are not even across the rolls, making a pain to remove.

Plus, most of the rolls came with the odd scratch here and there, some clean, some of them scratchy, couple of them with BAD scratches.

I love film. I do. But M8 is starting to make sense.

I will most likely buy a M3 or M4-P in the near future for BW usage only.

I like color film,the Miss would kill me if I did a holiday trip only with BW film ( tried that and barely came alive , was hard barging )

My questions is : Im about to sell my M7, MP and 35 f2 ASPH ( I really dont like much this lens ) and keeping my 50 lux pre asph 46, which I absolutely love.

Any problems with the M8 with this lens? Any adaptors needed for metering or anything ? Or simply plug and take pictures? Is the M8 limited in any way with this lens ? Ie, of any of its functions ? I know that it will behave like a 66mm lens due to crop factor, can live with that.

Fell free to post sample of the M8 with this lens !

Cheers

 

[Avotius]

Gabriel has this combination of pre asph and the m8 I believe, dont recall him saying anything bad about it.

I too have recently been looking into digital more and more because the last roll of xp2 that I had done at the best lab in town came back so scratched up and destroyed that I actually went back there and said some very unkind things to them. Since film and developing costs are skyrocketing here I figure that a good 200 rolls of film not including my there and back and time dealing with the film and what not. The only thing is that I dont have to dump out all the money at once on the film, but hell, I would trade it all for an m8 still.

ps. what is it about the 35 asph that you are not liking besides it being stolen?

 

[35mmdelux]

If you're scanning 16 rolls then you're a far better shooter than 99% of us. I generally get two-three really good shots per roll and scan only those for printing. Invest in a good loupe.

 

[proenca]

ps. what is it about the 35 asph that you are not liking besides it being stolen?

Actually i managed to got it back. I love the FL, but I dont like the lens, its too sharp for my taste.. well, the oof areas are too sharp that is.

I prefer a lens with sharp subject but much more creamy areas of out of focus. I love the 50 pre asph in that regard.

Now I just got to decide if Im going to sell it as commission sale in a shop or through evil bay

 

[proenca]

If you're scanning 16 rolls then you're a far better shooter than 99% of us. I generally get two-three really good shots per roll and scan only those for printing. Invest in a good loupe.

Ah ! I wish that I had 16 rolls of keepers. Unfortunately , and there is no negotiation here, when I do holidays with the miss, she wants ALL photos. I can select a few but she wants the majority of them.

I tried before to give her what I considered only the keepers ( a couple per roll or so ) . Flying knifes were involved. Not pretty.

 

[Gabriel M.A.]

Gabriel has this combination of pre asph and the m8 I believe, dont recall him saying anything bad about it.

You bet! I am absolutely happy with the combination. Now, I'm still waiting for my M8 to come back, Leica NJ sat on it for three weeks before they sent it to Germany.

 

[maddoc]

proenca: Glad to hear that you got your 35 Summicron asph. back ! I also don't like to sharp lenses and I am still quite happy with my 35mm Summilux pre-asph. It is not that sharp as the 50mm Summilux pre-asph wide-open but renders OOF very nice. Maybe you should consider the 35mm Summilux ?

 

[Cindy Flood]

I had the 50 lux pre-ASPH for 6 months with my M8. Someone convinced me to buy the ASPH. I sold the pre to someone on this forum who also has an M8, so maybe he will chime in with how he likes it. I liked it a lot and wish I hadn't sold it. The ASPH is killer sharp and that isn't always what I want.
The only thing you need is a Leica 46mm IR filter. The lens does not need to be coded unless you want the focal length recorded.
You get to choose 2 free filters from Leica when you purchase an M8, so there you go😛 .

 

[ZivcoPhoto]

One plus of the 50 Lux pre Asph (46) to me (on film) is how well it renders colors......so natural, but with a certain quality that makes them stand out (but not oversaturated) .

Is it similar with the digital M8?

I find that even with the least expensive films, the lens produces outstanding color. I have four other "modern" Leitz lenses and none beats this for color.

 

[Bob Baron]

Be aware you may have to have this lens (50mm Summilux pre-asph) recalibrated for more accurate focus when you start using it on an M8. This varies from body to body and lens to lens, but the actual truth (if that is not an oxymoron or a redundancy) seems to be that the focus plane in the digital bodies is slightly more critical than on film bodies.

The idea that you can automatically use your old M lenses on your new M8 is slightly wishful thinking in my and others' experience. Sometimes they work just fine and sometimes they need slight adjustments (usually shims in the focusing mechanism as I understand it) to make them spot on, particularly wide open at close distances.

This is just intended as a heads up on a point you should be aware of that may or may not affect you.

I've switched from M7 to M8 and am happy as can be (now that I have an M8 body that works; Leica replaced the first two due to electrical gremlins) but I am having some of my lenses recalibrated because they backfocus a bit at close distances, whereas others do not.

 

[jja]

I had the 50 lux pre-ASPH for 6 months with my M8. Someone convinced me to buy the ASPH. I sold the pre to someone on this forum who also has an M8, so maybe he will chime in with how he likes it. I liked it a lot and wish I hadn't sold it. The ASPH is killer sharp and that isn't always what I want.
The only thing you need is a Leica 46mm IR filter. The lens does not need to be coded unless you want the focal length recorded.
You get to choose 2 free filters from Leica when you purchase an M8, so there you go😛 .

(With apologies to the OP for going a little OT): Cindy, I'm curious about your comments regarding sharpness. Do you have sample photos of the asph v. the pre-asph (not necessarily of the same subject, of course) where you could show us why you might want to go back to the pre-asph? I own a pre-asph, and it produces gorgeous colors, but I'm curious about the asph. Thanks.

 

[Avotius]

Actually i managed to got it back. I love the FL, but I dont like the lens, its too sharp for my taste.. well, the oof areas are too sharp that is.

I prefer a lens with sharp subject but much more creamy areas of out of focus. I love the 50 pre asph in that regard.

Now I just got to decide if Im going to sell it as commission sale in a shop or through evil bay

ah I can see why that would be a problem, sometimes sharp is too sharp. I enlarge photos frequently to 30x20 so I like that extra sharpness myself, in fact tomorrow I will go make two 50 inch prints, and at those sizes the extra sharpness helps. Dont you love it when too much is just too much? 🙂

btw congrats on getting the lens back, now do tell how you pulled that off!

 

[Richard Marks]

Hi I have trialled the later version of the pre aspherical for a couple of days. In all honesty it was very similar to my 50mm Sunnicron in overall performance and not worth my while to change lenses. But it did work very nicely and if you already own this lens I am sure you will not be disappointed using it on an M8. Id certainly hang onto it if you can and who knows, you may buy back a film m body some time.
Enjoy your M8

Richard

 

[furcafe]

I've had no major problems using the 50 Summilux on my M8, though I agree w/Bob Baron that you may have to have your lens adjusted for your M8. Miine backfocuses slightly, but that could be the result of variation in the LTM-M adapters I use (my 'lux is the 1999 LTM version). Personally, I haven't adjusted well to the crop factor, @ least to the extent that 66mm has not become my new normal FoV, but it sounds as if you'll do fine.

My questions is : Im about to sell my M7, MP and 35 f2 ASPH ( I really dont like much this lens ) and keeping my 50 lux pre asph 46, which I absolutely love.

Any problems with the M8 with this lens? Any adaptors needed for metering or anything ? Or simply plug and take pictures? Is the M8 limited in any way with this lens ? Ie, of any of its functions ? I know that it will behave like a 66mm lens due to crop factor, can live with that.

Fell free to post sample of the M8 with this lens !

Cheers

 

[Cindy Flood]

jja said: Cindy, I'm curious about your comments regarding sharpness. Do you have sample photos of the asph v. the pre-asph (not necessarily of the same subject, of course) where you could show us why you might want to go back to the pre-asph? I own a pre-asph, and it produces gorgeous colors, but I'm curious about the asph. Thanks.

It isn't really fair to compare without using them both for the same photo and I no longer have the non-ASPH. These shots are straight out of the M8 with zero sharpening. The first two are with the ASPH and the second two with the non-ASPH. The ASPH is more clinical looking.

 

[jja]

Thanks! True, not fair to compare different shots in different light. I'm curious, if you could, would you go back to the pre-asph, or does the asph have other redeeming qualities?

 

[Cindy Flood]

I honestly had such a hard time deciding which one to sell. I had them both for several months, but my M8 was off to Solms for repair a lot of that time and I didn't use either. I couldn't afford to keep them both, so I sold the non-ASPH, but if I had it to do over....I might keep the other. I am getting a Noctilux with the 30% coupon and probably will sell the ASPH if the Noctilux works out for me. I am fond of the softie look.