Of course there are other very important aspects about lenses which I couldn’t experience like bokeh, color and contrast or handling etc. The only lens which stood out was the 3.4/180 APO but I would suspect that a Nikon 2.8/180 ED AI-S isn’t any worse. īut if I look at the performance it is pretty similar to that of other lenses of the same era. Sure, all lenses had a very nice finish, nicer than that of other manufacturers. The lens shows excellent sharpness from f/3.4 corner to corner with only the smallest hint of CA in the corners.īased on these results I don’t get all the fuss about Leica lenses. Writing about a lens is always easier when there are no defects to describe. I think this lens will work quite well as a very compact portrait lens but for serious landscape work I would leave it at home. The corners at f/2.8 are soft.Īt f/4 the center improves to excellent levels, the other regions don#t see much improvement.īy f/11 the corners have reached a good level. This is a very small lens with very good performance in the center and midframe from f/2.8 with a hint of purple fringing. My analysis is based on the analysis of these infinity shot so my conclusion might be a different one if I would use it for actual shooting. I think this is an excellent landscape lens but for general purposes I would prefer other lenses because of the under performing center at f/2. What is remarkable is that the corners are the best I have seen in any legacy 50mm lens at f/2.Īt f/2.8 the center sharpens up a lot to excellent levels.īy f/4 the lens shows very good sharpness from corner to corner which is a stop earlier than I would expect from my Canons or Minoltas.Īt F/5.6 it is excellent from corner to corner. This lens showed an interesting performance pattern.Īt f/2 the center is only ok, my other lenses like the Minolta MC 1.4/50 or Canon nFD 1.4/50 are noticeably sharper in the center at f/2. It takes f/11 for the corners to sharpen up to very good levels.
![leica 50mm summicron r f1.4 pl mount leica 50mm summicron r f1.4 pl mount](https://phillipreeve.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/DSC01672.jpg)
My Canon nFD 2.8/20 is a better performer for a whole lot less money, but there are many other legacy lenses in the 20/21mm range which have worse corners.Ī pretty unremarkable performance, my 20 bucks Minolta MD 2.8/28 is slightly better.Īt f/2.8 the center is a lillte soft, the midframe is noticeably worse and the corners are pretty bad.
![leica 50mm summicron r f1.4 pl mount leica 50mm summicron r f1.4 pl mount](https://i2.wp.com/www.vintagelensesforvideo.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/leica-R-lenses.jpg)
Stopped down to f/11 even the corners are sharp but not very much so. The center is very good from f/4, midframe is okayish and the corners are soft. Typical performance for UWA lens of it’s era. I only had one copy per lens so my results might not be representative for other lenses, Leitz Super-Angulon-R 1:4/21 I have never actually used any of these lenses, I just had them for a couple of minutes to shoot a test series. Some time ago I had the chance to put several older Leica lenses to the test, here are the results.