Noctilux Photos

Olsen said:
The Canon 50 mm 1,0L is far more solid than the Noctilux, and far more advanced with Auto Focus and gold laid contacts for transfering even aparture data to the camera.
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From the pictures you´ll find on the web, Canons 50/1 L vignettes less but is a far worse lens in all other respects (sharpness, contrast, bokeh). Neither do I find Canons first generation move-by-wire AF an advantage over manual focusing. Finally, I dont see how "gold laid contacts for transfering even aperture data to the camera" will help me take just one better photo.
 
perhaps

perhaps

Perhaps Picasa just exacerbates existing data, I don't know.

Upon critical review, there is some vignetting in the raw f1 noct snow photos, the unedited (only resized down, and oriented) images are here:

http://matsumura.smugmug.com/gallery/4232830#247593647

I don't mind the vignetting, it makes the snow texture stand out better.

rxmd said:
In all probability it is already there in the original data, but you are enhancing its visibility while doing contrast manipulation in postprocessing, and it's especially visible on snow because minor differences in shades of gray tend to be overemphasized.

I would be very surprised if it was specifically Picasa that "added vignetting". Replicate what Picasa does in postprocessing with Photoshop and you're likely to see it, too. It would be interesting to look at the curve used by Picasa, but if it is geared towards enhancing contrast in the highlights then you will enhance vignetting on snow in the corners. In addition, try to work with more than 8 bits in your files when you have snowy scenes; if you scan from film, you can actually use the extra latitude. In general, it helps to optimise one's postprocessing somewhat; it's a bit suboptimal in my book to use what is one of the most expensive consumer lenses in existence and then enhance the vignetting through sub-par post-processing.

Philipp
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ampguy said:
Perhaps Picasa just exacerbates existing data, I don't know.

Upon critical review, there is some vignetting in the raw f1 noct snow photos, the unedited (only resized down, and oriented) images are here:

http://matsumura.smugmug.com/gallery/4232830#247593647

I don't mind the vignetting, it makes the snow texture stand out better.
Click to expand...

Read this for a reliable description of the performance (including vignetting)...

http://www.imx.nl/photo/lenstest/noctilux-m_11050mm.html
 
Thanks, interesting article

Thanks, interesting article

I guess the wide open snow and daylight photos fall in this category:

***
Light fall off.

At full aperture the natural vignetting is clearly visible. Transparancies taken in clear daylight at f/1,0 show a circular darkening at the outside of the picture area. The magnitude in the extreme corners is 3 stops under exposure. It is impossible to neglect this fall off and certainly it is severe. Leica itself is honest enough to warn you for this phenomenon. From f/2,0 it is gone completely. In most situations where the f/1,0 aperture is really needed (creative sharpness or non-available light) the fall-off will occur in image areas that are pictorially not relevant.
***

and some of the "magic" of the lens is described here:

***
The Noctilux was also able to record very subtle gradations and colour hues in dark shadow areas and highlights with strong relections. Again a tribute to the excellent flare suppression. The Summarit, which we also used as a comparison showed, in this quite nasty test, a severe level of reflections.
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and here:

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This unusual balance between lower macrocontrast and very good microcontrast gives the Noctilux its ‘fingerprint characteristic’. The excellent flare suppression in combination with this high microcontrast produces the smooth rendition of fine textural details that gives the Noctilux images its ‘raison d’etre’. One would do this lens a grave injustice when classifying it as a poor-light-only lens. It is in fact an interesting alternative to the Summicron/Summilux pair.
***




gdi said:
Read this for a reliable description of the performance (including vignetting)...

http://www.imx.nl/photo/lenstest/noctilux-m_11050mm.html
Click to expand...
 
ampguy said:
I guess the wide open snow and daylight photos fall in this category:

***
Light fall off.

At full aperture the natural vignetting is clearly visible. Transparancies taken in clear daylight at f/1,0 show a circular darkening at the outside of the picture area. The magnitude in the extreme corners is 3 stops under exposure. It is impossible to neglect this fall off and certainly it is severe. Leica itself is honest enough to warn you for this phenomenon. From f/2,0 it is gone completely. In most situations where the f/1,0 aperture is really needed (creative sharpness or non-available light) the fall-off will occur in image areas that are pictorially not relevant.
***

and some of the "magic" of the lens is described here:

***
The Noctilux was also able to record very subtle gradations and colour hues in dark shadow areas and highlights with strong relections. Again a tribute to the excellent flare suppression. The Summarit, which we also used as a comparison showed, in this quite nasty test, a severe level of reflections.
***

and here:

***
This unusual balance between lower macrocontrast and very good microcontrast gives the Noctilux its ‘fingerprint characteristic’. The excellent flare suppression in combination with this high microcontrast produces the smooth rendition of fine textural details that gives the Noctilux images its ‘raison d’etre’. One would do this lens a grave injustice when classifying it as a poor-light-only lens. It is in fact an interesting alternative to the Summicron/Summilux pair.
***
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Yes, Puts is able to describe the technical bases for image characteristics of the lens, dispelling the myth of "magic". :D

Again, his comments could lead one to believe that the noctilux "is not just for twig shots anymore"! :eek:
 
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I would agree that the Noctilux is often the misunder stood middle child of leica normal lenses. Also the lens really shines in that world of F2 to F4. In that situation it seems to deliver wonderful extended tonal definition of the lower and higher tonal section. I just posted a photo in ranfinder gallery shot indoors and the classic example of exposure nightmare extremes ddep dark tones with very high values next to each other. Look for a image of the black belt class. It is not a great image but does show the strengths of the Noctilux performance.

If find the lens to be a great all round performer. But the Zeiss Sonnar C is better now but it is also the newest. I would like to compare the ASPH 50mm summilix to the Noctilux head to head. What would we find. ??
 
Enlightening debate on the Nocthttp://www.l-camera-forum.com/leica-forum/leica-m8-forum/44172-giving-up-my-noctilux.htmlilux on Leica user forum:
 
Two more ...

Two more ...

Leica M4-P / Fuji 1600 PR @ f/1.0:

2217780927_f4fb70a201_o.jpg


Cheers,

maddoc
 
Gabor, so what's your personal verdict on the lens? More like a tool? More like a trophy?

Funnily enough, I don't care for the lens as much as I cared for other exotic lenses. I see the noctilux more like a tool so I don't manage it. Funny...

I like the second image a lot. I'd clean the neg and work on burning the sides so the center becomes like a vertigo. Quite a shot.
 
NB23 said:
Gabor, so what's your personal verdict on the lens? More like a tool? More like a trophy?

Funnily enough, I don't care for the lens as much as I cared for other exotic lenses. I see the noctilux more like a tool so I don't manage it. Funny...

I like the second image a lot. I'd clean the neg and work on burning the sides so the center becomes like a vertigo. Quite a shot.
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Ned, thank you for the comment on the photo ! The second photo suffers from the scanning process... :bang: I scanned it this morning in a hurry and just saw some moire and lots of dust. I will re-scan and try burning the sides of this one, keen to see the result.

I regard the Noctilux as a tool, not a trophy at all. It is a very versatile tool, since the character of this lens changes dramatically, when going from f/1.0 to f/2.0 and above. Also this lens changed my personal style a little. So far at least sometimes I carried one camera, two lenses. Now it became the Noctilux and two bodies (M3 and M4-P) loaded with different films...

One last point, this lens needs practise, practise, and practise ... :eek: but I am very glad that I bought it. :)
 
NB23 said:
People do not understand the Noctilux. They keep on talking about focus shift but they forget that such a lens rather shows a severe field curvature. It's so severe that instead of just being sharp at the middle, it's sharp at the middle, soft as we go out and gets sharp at the edges. There is in fact 2 planes of focus when shot at f1.0 because of the field curvature.
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Ned, I noticed and I am trying to study the field curvature on my Noctilux. I started a thread on the Leica User Forum:
http://www.l-camera-forum.com/leica-forum/leica-m8-forum/44959-can-anybody-explain-me-why.html
I found out that the field curvature is present at large apertures, not only 1.0.
So here is my point: when I focus on a subject and recompose the frame to put the subject towards the borders of the frame, I have to backfocus intentionally to have it sharp and compensate the shift of the plane of focus. Do you agree?
Thanks for your answer and congratulations for your wonderful photographs.
Alex
 
Hi Alex!

Yes, field curvature is present even when the lens is stopped down. I don't know to which extent exactly since I am not into shooting brick walls but I tend not to care about it. The secret is to have your camera thoroughly calibrated to the Noctilux lens and to practice enough until there's no more secret between you and the lens.
Your technique of refocusing is good as long as you know what you're doing. The contrast is good enough, though, to help the photographer save face even if the image is slightly out of focus.

Please post some samples...
 
This is true for all lenses when you focus using a center RF patch then push the subject towards the outer of the frame. It's worst when shooting close and with wide apertures seeing as the DOF is so narrow.

alex7075 said:
Ned, I noticed and I am trying to study the field curvature on my Noctilux. I started a thread on the Leica User Forum:
http://www.l-camera-forum.com/leica-forum/leica-m8-forum/44959-can-anybody-explain-me-why.html
I found out that the field curvature is present at large apertures, not only 1.0.
So here is my point: when I focus on a subject and recompose the frame to put the subject towards the borders of the frame, I have to backfocus intentionally to have it sharp and compensate the shift of the plane of focus. Do you agree?
Thanks for your answer and congratulations for your wonderful photographs.
Alex
Click to expand...
 
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