Noctilux pricing

Leicabug

Leicabug

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I havn't followed Noctilux pricing for some time so I checked ebay this morning. To my suprise, there are just as many "rare" Noctilux 1.2(6) for sale as 1.0(6). The brand new Noctilux from the dealer is no longer $6k lens but $10k. http://cgi.ebay.com/Leica-Noctilux-...ryZ30030QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
There is another thread talking about someone using Noctilux as a payment for photography service rendered. A big mistake!
 
Now...let's also do not forget that once prices go "UP"....Leica never, ever lowers them. So even if the Euro was to crash this week. Which is not likley to happen. All of thses insane prices would stay forever. Now the actual internal cost at Leica has not gone up either.

So which is worse $126 for a barrel of oil or a $10,000 Noctilux. Lets also not forget the price increases that have occurred for even the M6TTL and M7 over the last 5 years or so.

Leica is actually helping to encourage this "PRICE GOUGING" and then claim that they cany do anything about it or it's not happening. This is exacltly why Ferrari began back ownership of all retail dealership worldwide. If prices fluxuated directly with the currency exchange rates then the Noctilux would go back down to $2500 or so on a decline of the Euro if it returned to the 1999 levels...but that wont ever happen. So Leica wonders where or why Zeiss is getting so many customers??

Best Regards....Laurance
 
noctilux pricing

noctilux pricing

There is a similiar thread on the LUF regarding this very issue. The noctilux is the hottest and most price inflated lens in the Leica stable. How high can they go ? I just snagged one for $5240 :D ( used, type 3 ) which looks like a good deal.

Ken
 
I just can't stop laughing when I think at all the Noctilux bashers when the lens was 2000$, then 3000$ and then 4000$ and now... I laugh at them not because I am mean but simply because they sounded so sure and full of it. Good luck with their Canon lenses is what I say :)
 
I was lucky that I got mine here at RFF for ~4100$ in December last year (older version with bayonet hood E60 and 6 bit coded)....
At the price-level now, I would have to think twice about buying one...:eek:
 
noctilux pricing

noctilux pricing

Right now the nocti is like a hot share of stock ; going going going.....gone !!!

Soon, they will all be a collectors item and even more of a cult lens. If in doubt, get one while you can !

Ken
 
About 4 years ago I bought a very nice 50/1 Noct from KEH for around $1800 and sold it a year later for about the same. I found it less usefull for regular shooting than their other 50's. Now that I own a 50/1.2 M Hexanon, I don't regret it at all. The Hex beats the Noct by a very large margin except of course the extra 1/2 stop in speed. Heck, I think it even beats the Summicron at the same stops.
 
awilder said:
About 4 years ago I bought a very nice 50/1 Noct from KEH for around $1800 and sold it a year later for about the same. I found it less usefull for regular shooting than their other 50's. Now that I own a 50/1.2 M Hexanon, I don't regret it at all. The Hex beats the Noct by a very large margin except of course the extra 1/2 stop in speed. Heck, I think it even beats the Summicron at the same stops.
Click to expand...

This is impossible. Even a 28-80 f4-5.6 will maybe beat both lenses at f8. But this is not a way of measuring a lens performance.

Making a f1 lens with proper performance is a hard task. But making a f1 lens with excellent performance as the Noctilux calls for the best of the best engineers and glass. What's even more mingd boggling about the Noctilux is that it performs extremely well at all apertures and this is a stretch right from f1.0. This is pure magic at work.

There is a very good reason why the Hexanon is a f1.2 lens. Because if it was a f1.0 lens, it would have suffered all along its f stop range... unless corrected, at a much higher price.

So while all lenses perform well at f4 and while even some cheap zooms outperform primes at f8, there is no doubt the Noctilux is the King.
 
it is funny that people compare nocti with f1.2 lenses.

I'd rather have the new Zeiss C-Sonnar against all available f1.2 lenses. Due compactness. and ONLY half stop less. there you go

sonnar and noctilux would be awesome combination for me :D dream on, tomasis
 
The current price of the Noctilux is Leica lunacy in full swing.

A couple of years back you could have bought three or four for the current price. Most people bought them, used them for awhile, then tired of their weight, poor handling and often funky imaging.

Perhaps the reason the Konica engineers DIDN'T make an f1.0 50 is they had too much pride to release a lens with such poor performance wide open: Holga-like vignetting, swirly bokeh, etc.. Perhaps they made the reasonable decision to make an f1.2 lens that exhibits none of those faults at full aperture. No need to shoot in dark bars if your lens can actually illuminate the out the the corners, right? ;)

It's a moot point now, anyway; most here will never be able to afford a Noctilux, but that won't stop them from dreaming about it. Having used the lens briefly, I can only repeat the old adage: be careful what you wish for; you might get it. :D
 
Kevin,

Let's just say your very unscientific Noctilux testing with web samples is rather embarrassing.

Here is a wide open shot and its 100% crop, done with the M8. I see no swirly boke, no vignetting, and definitely NOT a poor performance wide open.

The Noctilux is so impressive (given a well calibrated body) that I clearly doubt you ever tried one. Let's just say that your credibility in the Noctilux department is nil. And I wish you'd stop posting about it, given your poor knowledge about it. No, really. All you can do is bash it and talk about its price. Way too old story. Time to change.

Web-L1000671.jpg


test.jpg
 
Having owned and tested the 50/1 Noctilux, I still have the test images to compare to the 50/1.2 M Hexanon and it's no contest at the same stops. The is no doubt that for an f/1 lens the Noct is king compared to the 50/0.95 or the 50/1 for the EOS but one must accept a lot of vignetting (for film not digital!) and focus shift from f/2-5.6 on the Noctilux that doesn't present a real issue with the 50/1.2 M Hexanon.
 
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Here is a wide open shot and its 100% crop, done with the M8.
Click to expand...

The M8 has cropped the corners for you; it's not a full-frame image.

The Noctilux is so impressive (given a well calibrated body) that I clearly doubt you ever tried one.
Click to expand...

Back when I shot weddings, I owned most of the really good Leica glass at one time: 35 Aspherical Summilux, 24 Elmarit, 90 Summicron, etc., but I passed on the chance to own the Noctilux for what would be considered a theft at today's prices. That's what I thought of the Noctilux. You get good results with yours and you're happy with it, so your opinion is different than mine. No need to get personal.
 
I'm not getting personal, Kevin. I just think the crop I posted talks by itself.

About the light falloff on film, there are many things playing into that. First is the subject. If you shoot snow, then any adjustment to the exposure will result in darkening corners. A vast majority of my wide open shots don't show vignetting, except in the rare cases where a centered subject needs correction.
Secondly, there is the focus. If you focus close, you will cause vignetting to be more apparent (again, depending on the subject).
Sharpness is outstanding.
Contrast is outstanding for such a lens.

Again, I am not getting personal. I just wish you'd own the lens before critiquing inaccurately. Everything's been said about the Noctilux and the Shot and crop above don't lie. You just happen to choose the pictures you dislike and then spread the generalization to all noctilux images.

It's just wrong.

I am not getting personal, but I dislike your automated, unjustified and naive Razzia against all things noctilux. I don't quite understand your point. Is your point to make people save money? You don't need to make people open their eyes. The samples above are extremely clear. I just don't get your Robin Hoodesque approach. Is it about making people save money? Just bashing for the sake of it?
 
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ANY discussion of Noctiluxes brings out extremists of all colours: "It's perfect", "It's too expensive", "It's worthless."

It's just a lens. It does what you want or it doesn't (it does for me). You can afford it or you can't (I can't).

Any other comment is of dubious value.

Cheers,

R.
 
Kevin, how is going your wife's bmw m3? :D It never stops amaze me that how many times you take up price of nocti..

This is no issue for photographer, IMHO. You can use nocti whole life, but like a car as BMW m3, it "worns" out after a few years and the owner loses hundred thousands $$ of value :) so you see what value is. some people prefer spend money at some ways, that's fine as Roger said above.
 
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Kevin's wife has a M3? Hm! Whatta bad car. A 325 would have been much better. Engine, wheels, they both go to 60 mph. They both have a muffler too, right? So see?

So I believe that kind of woman would also want a diamond ring. Diamond? Wait a minute, Who knows if it's real? Cheap glass can pass off as a Diamond any day. It shines too! And it's cheaper! hey hey hey! Who is buying diamond ring these days when cheaper Knockoffs exist?

Ah yes, this thread was about an overpriced item... So back to the Noctilux, all ;)
 
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