Planar As A Partner To My Summarit

[Hamish Gill]

When the time comes if like to get my self a high quality normal lens to go along side my Summarit ... The Summarit is definitely an arty farty lens, which is fine, that's why I bought it!

I thought first the Summicron, but I had one before and don't like buying stuff I have had before for some reason. I considered a Sonar but figure the reasons to buy one are probably to close to the reasons to buy a Summarit. Sumilux just ain't gonna happen ...

So i am thinking Planar!

Has anyone used one? I'm guessing a new Planar would be better than a second hand old Summicron at the same price?

Anyone got any thoughts? The aim here is commonly recognised objectively speaking high image quality

 

[Hamish Gill]

This is pretty much aimed at you @Pete Askew

 

[Pete Askew]

I guessed it might be. I think I have three 50mm M-fit lenses here in Potsdam and one is a Zeiss Planar 50/f1:2. The others are a Noctilux and a Summicron. The Planar design had a reputation for shifting focal point during changes in aperture but I have never found an issue caused by that. I'll try and do a comparison tomorrow though.

 

[Hamish Gill]

There wasn't even any point in mentioning the noctilux for me

It does seem from reading what I have so far that the planar is at least as "good" as the summicron... If possibly a little more contrasty. I'm aiming for something that is basically the antithesis of the Summarit so contrasty is def a good thing I think ...

On a slightly different note ... I decided I wanted a XOONS hood for my Summarit today ... Have you seen what they go for???!!!! Madness! 41mm thread though, any thoughts?

 

[Pete Askew]

How much?!

Nothing springs to mind but let me see what the various thread sizes are sone the other hoods. The Zeiss is a bayonet.

 

[Chris Dodkin]

XOONS = madness I tell you, madness!

 

[Hamish Gill]

XOONS for loons!

 

[Dan Cattermole]

XOONS??! What is that?

 

[Hamish Gill]

It's a silly name leica once have to a lens hood. There are loads of accessories from leica with random names ... It's quite odd really

 

[Pete Askew]

I only had the Noctilux and the Planar here. I'll post some new images from the latter soon.

 

[Hamish Gill]

Thanks Pete! I ended up reading loads more last night and this morning ... The only folks who say the planar isn't is good as the 'cron are the die hard leicaphiles. The only thing that gets reliably mentioned is the difference in build

 

[Ian Grant]

I've predominantly used an early 1960's 50mm Summicron from the mid-late 1980's until I stopped shooting 35mm regularly about 10m years ago. It's the best 50mm lens I have by a long way, wonderful definition and great tonality. I've shot weddings with it and then been asked have you bought a new camera by a photographer friend (my snaps were better than the official photographers images by a long way), on another occasion at my cousins wedding the photographer screwed up and I gave my uncle/cousin my negatives (these were 2 occasions when I wasn't being paid to shoot the wedding).

I'd go for a Summicron if you can get one at a good price.

Ian

 

[Pete Askew]

Hamish, here are 3 shots taken this morning using the Zeiss 50mm Planar f/2. These are from the straight raw files exported as JPEG from LR (and whatever jiggery-pokery Photobucket gets up to). All shots were taken on the M9 at ISO 160.

1/4000s at f/2

1/1500s at f/5.6

1/45s at f/8

I'll post some processed variants.

 

[Hamish Gill]

Have you shot a planar Ian?

I did love my 'cron when I had it...

I suppose I'm coming at this from the perspective of wanting a lens as far as possible from the Summarit. The planar reads (and shots on line show) to have a whole load of contrast, sharpness and "pop". The Summarit is very much the opposite, it's sharp stopped down but wide open it's dreamy and glowy ... And contrasty it certainly ain't! I have also read that the Summarit is 'cron like stopped down ... I don't have a means for comparison of course, but from what I have read about the 'cron recently I can draw the dots ... ... (See what I did there)

 

[Hamish Gill]

I can't see any thing off putting there for sure! What do you think ... Does it sound like I'm walking my self in a sensible direction?

 

[Pete Askew]

It'll only work if they are red ones though!

I see nothing to dislike with the Planar. All the other Planars I own (Nikon fit and MF) perform superbly and I have never encountered issues with focus drift with aperture change in real images - I have no reason to doubt the technical analysis I saw some time back showing this happening (it of course is only relevant to a RF) - and depth of field increases seem to mask this. It is quite a high contrast lens and renders with a cooler palette than Leica glass seems to. There's a tiny bit of curvature (as there is with the Summicron) but nothing of significance. A number of people have commented that the transition from sharp to unsharp areas is 'quicker' than some lenses and I think that is probably true of all of the Planars as they do a good job of isolating subjects. It should provide a good contrast to the Summarit I would have thought.

Here is some detail from the focus point of the first image.

Straight crop and export.

Processed in LR (see panel) and output sharpened in Nik Output Sharpener (40%).

 

[Pete Askew]

A processed variant of one of the images has now been posted @Hamish Gill .

http://www.realphotographersforum.com/forum/threads/a-map-of-the-plane.14515/#post-111647