Leica 50mm F1 Noctilux-M Lens Review

January 26, 2018

Compared with Leica 50mm F0.95 Noctilux ASPH Lens

The Leica 50mm F1 Noctilux lens is a “Legend” among the Leica world and is renowned for its “Magical” qualities. It is not as clinical sharp as the latest Leica 50mm F0.95 Noctilux Asph lens but it’s unique rendering is what separate this lens from all other Leica lenses and remains special in today.

Image Quality

The Leica 50mm F1 Noctilux lens has the most unique rendering out of all the Noctilux. It produces “magical” glow with its smooth bokeh and unique out of focus background. The lens is not too clinically sharp like the newer aspherical version but its sufficient sharpness combined with smooth rendering making it the preferable lens for Portraits.

It’s colour rendition is towards natural and classical side with just enough amount of contrast and saturation. The lens does produce purple fringing and vignetting when wide open. Although It is not perfect lens but certainly one of the lenses with the most character.

Build Quality

The Leica 50mm F1 Noctilux lens is produced to very high Leica standards. It is a very solidly built lens but not as solid as latest Noctilux aspherical version. However, it weights less than the newer version and feels more compact size in the hands when mounted onto Leica M Cameras.

Specifications (Lens Reviewed)

Lens Code: 11 822

Production Year: 1993 - 2008

Construction: 7 Elements / 6 Groups

Diaphragm: 10 Blades

Maximum / Minimum Aperture: F1 - F16

Closet Focusing Distance: 1m

Filter Size: 60mm

Weight: 630g

Practical Use

The Leica 50mm F1 Noctilux lens shines at night with its ultra low light capturing ability when wide open aperture at F1. In comparison, the Leica 50mm F0.95 Noctilux ASPH is even more capable at low-light situations with its ability to capturing 11% more light at F0.95 than F1.

The lens is “magical” at shooting stationary subjects especially people portraits or objects. However, it does have a Long Focus throw which can undermine its street capturing abilities especially of moving subjects.

Conclusion

The Leica 50mm F1 Noctilux-M is the only F1 lens for 35mm photography manufactured by Leica. It’s almost “magical” rendering and amazing low-light capability is due to its extraordinary optical performance.

The Leica 50mm F1 Noctilux-M produces smooth out-of-focus area with outstanding colour rendition. This ultra-fast lens is capable of absorbing all surrounding light and output the most amazing bokeh you will ever see. All those things together is what making this legendary lens so unique and special.

Noctilux Versions

Leica 50mm F1.2 Noctilux

The world's first production aspherical camera lens, with two hand-ground aspherical surfaces.

Lens Code 11 820

Production Year 1966 - 1975

Filter Size Series VIII Filters

Weight 515g

Leica 50mm F1 Noctilux-M

There are 3 cosmetic versions of this lens. They all have the same optics with minimum focusing distance of one metre.

First version

Lens Code 11 821

Production Year 1976 - 1983

Filter Size 58mm

Weight 580g

Second version

Lens Code 11 821

Production Year 1983 - 1993

Filter Size 60mm

Weight 580g

Third version (Lens Reviewed)

Lens Code 11 822

Production Year 1993 - 2008

Filter Size 60mm

Weight 630g

Leica 50mm F0.95 Noctilux ASPH M Lens

Lens Code 11 602

Production Year 2008 - Present

Filter Size 60mm

Weight 700g

Canon 50mm F0.95 “Dream lens” Review

January 21, 2018

I have done a review on the more accessible and affordable Canon 50mm F1.2 LTM lens. The Canon 50mm F0.95 also known as the “Dream Lens” was designed to replace the Canon 50mm F1.2 to become the fastest lens and offers superior optics.

The Canon 50mm F0.95 lens was made back in 1960s and 1970s for the Canon 7/7s Rangefinder and it held the crown for the fastest production lens in the world at the time.

Rendering

The “Dream Lens” is famous for its out-of-focus rendering that offers smooth bokeh and extremely shallow depth of field, which combines to produce the “Dreamy” effects.

Image Quality

The Lens offers great sharpness that is not clinical. It produces “magical” soft glow with smooth out-of-focus areas and extremely shallow depth of field at its maximum aperture of f0.95.

The lens has classic rendering with natural colours and great contrasts. It is excellent for portraits with its glowing effect and becomes very sharp when stepping down the aperture like every other Leica lenses.

This lens has minimum flare and chromatic aberration but it does have some vignetting.

Build Quality

The lens is very solidly built with full metal construction. The weight of the lens is towards the heavy side with similar weight to the Leica 50mm F0.95 Noctilux. However, the lens feels more compact in the hands due to the build construction consists of shorter length and larger diameter.

The focus ring feels very smooth when turning and the aperture ring clicks in place very nicely. It is a well-made lens overall.

Lens Specifications

Construction: 7 Elements / 5 Groups

Diaphragm: 10 Blades

Maximum / Minimum Aperture: F0.95 - F16

Closet Focusing Distance: 1m

Filter Size: 72mm

Weight: 605g

Production Versions

Standard Canon 50mm F0.95 Lens: Approximately 20000 units were produced. However, significantly less number of units remained today.

Cinematic Canon 50mm F0.95 “TV” Lens: Around 7000 units of “TV” version were made hence making this the even rarer lens. This version offers a different coating to create slightly cinematic renderings.

Lens Conversion

The Lens was originally designed for the Canon Rangefinders. However, if you find a clean copy of the lens without any optical issues then it is worthwhile to convert into M mount.

It is recommended this conversion process to be done through an experienced and highly skilled technician. This way the converted lens is likely to offer perfect rangefinder coupling and enjoyable experience on Leica M cameras.

For Conversion and Customisation, Please read my article on Camera Customisation.

Conclusion

The Canon 50mm F0.95 “Dream Lens” offers great userability and extremely shallow depth of field. If you are looking for a lens that has unique rendering with “dreamy and glowing” bokeh effects and don’t mind the size or weight then this will be the perfect lens for you.

Leica Monochrome + Canon 50mm F0.95Street Shot @F2 — *Leica Monochrome + Canon 50mm F0.95*
Street Shot @F2

The Leica 21mm F3.4 Super-Elmar ASPH M lens Practical Review

February 23, 2013

I had the Zeiss 25mm F2.8 Zm lens in my possession during the last year but eventually sold the lens as I did not used it much nor did I like using an external viewfinder. Sometimes when I looked back at the images it produced that I regretted selling it and I am eager to get another wide angle lens. Following the announcement of the newly designed Leica 21mm F3.4 Super-Elmar ASPH lens last year, I decided to get my hands on this lens. It took me awhile to find one since the lens was relatively new in Leica's line-up. Here is a simple review of the lens and its practical useage.

Build Quality & The Feel

The Leica 21mm F3.4 Super-Elmar ASPH lens is a superbly constructed lens like all other Leica M lens, its build quality is typical Leica standard. The size and weight of the lens is about as perfect as it gets, not too big and not too heavy, when mounting on the Leica M9/MP it felt well balanced.

Image Quality

This lens is renowned for its insane sharpness and it does not disappoint. The images produced from this lens are sharp from corner to corner and when zoom-in to 100% crop the details are amazingly retained. It is probably up there with Leica's sharpest lenses if not the sharpest.
The rendering of this lens has tendency to the warm side and the colour images coming out of this lens are vivid. This lens also produces astonishing sharp and punchy Black and white images.

External viewfinder

Although I am not a big fan of external viewfinders but an external viewfinder is necessary for accurate framing. There are two genuine options for a 21mm external viewfinder: Zeiss and Leica. Other options are available such as voigtlander but they are difficult to find or match cosmetically with the lens setup. The Zeiss viewfinder is bigger and brighter than the Leica one, it also costs a few hundred bucks lens. The Zeiss 21mm viewfinder coming at nearly $500 isn't cheap but the Leica one even costs more. I bought the Zeiss 21mm viewfinder myself and it is a real enjoyment to view through it since it looks even better than my M9 or MP rangefinder viewfinder.

Conclusion:

If you are looking for an ultra sharp wide angle lens for the Leica M body that balances well and not too big or heavy then do not look further, this is the lens to get!