Juni
04

Using Leica M Mount Lenses on the Fuji GFX 50R

Quite usable! But are they competitive?

My love for Rangefinder Cameras has striked again. I was thinking for months to go for the Fuji GFX 50R, but the price was still to much for my this years budget. And then my favourite dealer had one used at a good price, almost new.

So I bought it together with the Fuji 63mm F2,8 as my standard lens. And then the research began, as there are endless possible lenses that can be adapted on this mirrorless camera.

I found out about Minolta lenses that shine on the Fuji’s big sensor, about Pentax 645 and Mamiya 645 lenses that deliver pretty decent results, and I even read about how to adapt Hasselblad lenses and use their leafshutter.

So I thought – maybe my Leica M mount lenses might also be good enough to cover the 44mm x 33mm medium format sensor with its 51.4 megapixel. The adapter comes from 7 Artisans and is pretty cheap, but works well.

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The benefits of using M-Mount are obvious: very small lenses with excellent optical qualities and maximum apertures starting at F1.5 (in my case). If you own one of Voigtländers Noktons you even start at F1.2 or in case of the Leica Noktilux 0.95 – which sounds pretty insane.

Does it work?
Well, yes, but actually no.
But maybe YES!

The good news for portrait shooters: it might work for you with some little drawbacks.
The not so good news for Landscape, Street and Architecture Photographers: It does not cover the entire sensor good enough. But it has to be said that there is one little lens that shines and it comes VERY close!

With the others you can switch to the 35mm mode, or crop the picture but I am not a friend of losing too much resolution – I want to know which lenses can handle the whole Sensor, so lets find out!

The Leica Summicron 50mm

Leica 50mm Summicron (6 bit version) – edited & unedited at F2

I hoped that the Leica Summicron due to its outstanding performance on the Leica M would cover the sensor good enough to produce some nice bokeh photos. Unfortunately it does not cover the entire sensor – the corners suffer from strong vignetting, that can be reduced, but then it leaves us some smeared corners. The center performance is very good, so is the bokeh. If you tend to shoot without obstacles near by, then it might work, but thats very restrictive and far from beeing perfect.

The Vignetting gets better, the more you stop down, but still the corners are smeared.

To me it shows that the  Summicron 50 has been perfectly optimized for Leica M cameras, as well as for a perfect balance between size and stellar performance. On the „M“ this is my 50mm Landscape lens, as it has incredible microcontrast, sharpness and pleasant rendering.

Side Note: I have read at some blog that the Leica Summicron 50mm APO as well as the 50mm Summicron rigid both cover the entire Sensor. I cannot ccompletely confirm this, cause I dont have these lenses!

The Voigtlaender 50mm Nokton F1.5 Asph.

Voigtländer 50mm Nokton F1.5 – edited & unedited at F1,5

The Voigtländer was the first lens I bought, when I entered the Leica M System. By the time I also used the 40mm Summicron on the M6 (Film Body). Later I also got the 50mm Summicron as a replacement for the Voigtlaender, but I ended up keeping both, the Summicron for landscape and travel, and the Voigtlaender for portraits. Its a lovely lens that performes very well on the M.

Now the big surprise to me was, that the Nokton seems to cover the sensor a bit better than the Summicron. The corners are kind of sharp, but there also heavy vignetting that you can’t get rid of. The only way is to crop the image. So its again usable with some restrictions.

Clearly visible on the upper left and down left corners of the photo: the smeared corners of the Summicron (left side) and the Nokton with its heavy vignetting (right side), that you can’t get utterly rid of.

Voigtlaender Ultron 35mm F2 Asph.

I testet this lens directly after the 50mm Voigtlander and completely missed the focus on the F2 shot, but there was even more vignetting than at F2,8. I only spent very little time in editing, as to me it was clear that the lens does not cover the whole sensor good enough.

This first test is more about the corners, not so much about sharpness. For those who care: Sharpness was poor at F2,8 and only ok until F5,6. Good at F8 and F16.

Now that was one of the more interesting facts, that this lens performs pretty poor on the GFX while other Voigtlanders do well. Even more interresting as the 35 Ultron is the newer design compared to the CV 1.5 Nokton – and in fact is a lovely little gem on the Leica M almost as good as the legendary Summicron 35mm!

Voigtländer 35mm Ultron F2 – edited & unedited at different f-stops

Zeiss Biogon C 35mm F2.8

The Zeiss 35 C Biogon was probably the lens I was most curious of. If you own this lens, you know why. It is the sharpest lens I ever owned. On the Leica M sharp across the frame, from F2.8 on incredible optical performance – so to say a landscapers dream.

So I thought – maybe, maybe if there is another lens than Leicas 50mm APO, that can handle Mediumformat, then it could be this one.

Zeiss Biogon C 35mm F2.8 – edited & unedited at different f-stops

Well – Almost!

From F8 on the Zeiss comes VERY close to covering the Sensor in terms of vignetting. Sharpness is incredible in the center, good on the egdes and also pretty good in the corners.

So this might be a landscapers lens, IF you already have the zeiss or want invest 700 Euros, IF you like very small, leightweight stuff and IF you are willing to sacrifice about 200 Pixels on the longer side. At 8000 x 6000 pixels there is no vignetting visible. I know its a lot of „ifs“ but the Zeiss has incredible rich details, sharpness is almost perfect, only at the extreme end of the corners might be a little soft.

Lets take a look at the sharpness: Center, corner and edge. I haven’t aplied any extra sharpening, so this is the file with a little colour correcture, exposure and I tried as good as possible to get rid of the vignetting. I spent only little time in editing.

As you can see the Zeiss gets really close, no smeared corners, good sharpness, but you have to crop a little

So here we have a lens that could work on the GFX, with an equivalent of 27,6 mm, it weights 200 gram and a lenght of 55mm. I am curious how much difference there is in terms of sharpness and IQ compared to Fujis own 30mm lens. Does it get close?

Voigtlander 21mm 3.5 Color Skopar VM

Another little Voigtlaender that I really love on the Leica M. The 21mm would be a 16,5mm lens on the Fuji GFX, its tiny and a joy to use. Lets see how it performes on this big Sensor…

Voigtlaender Color Skopar 21mm F3.5 – edited & unedited at different f-stops

The Skopar gets close – not as close as the Zeiss C Biogon, but it performes surprisingly well. This lens is tiny – a tad slow for some of you, but on Mediumformat it becomes a 16mm F2,8 if my math is correct.

BUT: We have two little Problems here. You cant get utterly rid of the dark corners, and even if, there is some smearing visible. On the other hand – compared to its size and prizetag, the little Skopar does a great job if you crop the corners a little.

In terms of sharpness it is a little behind the Zeiss Biogon, great in the center, very good at the edge and good in the corners IF you cut away the dark corners and the smearings.

Other M-Mount Lenses testet

Minolta M-Rokkor 90mm F4: Sadly this Miolta lens does not work so well. Strong vignetting, clearly visible at every f-stop.

Leica Summicron 40mm F2: The smallest existing Leica M Lens has a lovely rendering on M-Film Bodies as well as M9 and M(240), but unusable on the GFX. Probably the funniest combination of Lens/Body mount.

Zeiss ZM 25mm Biogon: I was very curious to see this lens on the GFX, because of its (almost) legendary IQ and rendering. I have shot some of my best landscape pictures during the last years with this lens, though it is quite tricky to use in order to avoid cyan/magenta edges. Sadly it does not perform well. Dark Corners from F2.8 to F22.

Conclusion

Not what I hoped for, but quite expectable: Leica M-Mount lenses are optimized for a Fullframe Sensor, and built as small as possible without sacrificing too much image quality. In fact they are way better than most of my other lenses – but as I said they are made for Leica M. So its no surprise to me, they don’t work perfect on the Fuji GFX.

But we have seen 4 pretty decent performances on the GFX. The Leica Summicron 50mm and the Voigtlaender Nokton 50mm both deliver very good Image Quality, if you crop the corners, or shoot in 4×5 mode.

The Zeiss 35 C Biogon came closest with a very good performance across the frame, especially from F11 on, where just the outer corners are darkened. Cropping 200 pixels solves the problem and you are good to go with a incredible small and affordable lens, that can mounted on almost any mirrorless system.

The Voigtlaender 21mm Color Skopar is just a tad behind the Zeiss lens, when we consider vignetting as well as sharpness. If you want a tiny ultrawide angle lens that is a 16mm lens on the GFX – pretty sharp except for extreme corners – there you go!

Final Words

If you already have some decent Leica M lenses at home and budget is tight, you might start with an adapter and try out your lenses. If you do not have any Leica M glass, you probably should go for Minolta MD, Leica R or Mamiya 645 and Pentax 645 lenses. All of those have decent lenses in their line-up that will perform better on the GFX and are way cheaper than Leica M Mount.

Juni
04

Summicron 40mm – small budget, big performance

The smallest Leica Summicron!

When it comes to Leica, the name Summicron stands for outstanding performance at a reasonable seize. The 40 mm is not an exception, but is oftenly overlooked. It is still a Summicron, a tiny and lovely one!

Leica Summicron 40mm

The pros

  • Its perfectly sharp – center is almost as sharp as my 50mm ‚Cron.
  • Renders beautyfully, especially in black and white, creating a classic look.
  • It’s tiny, which makes it the perfect travel and street lens.
  • Contrast is on the lower side, but still good.
  • Probably the cheapest Leica lenses you will find – and still a Summicron.

The cons

Might be challenging or unaccaptable for some, but completely irrelevant for others:

  • the Leica M has no 40 mm framelines. The 40mm Summicron was originally designed for the Leica CL, so you have to kind of guess what you are shooting. One could say: 40mm is close to 35mm, just choose the 35 framelines and don’t compose too tight – well that doesn’t work, unfortunately the M9 natively activates the 50mm framelines. However, there are workarounds how to fix it, but I rather just leave it as it is, and bare in mind that there is still a little space around the frame.
  • The filter size is kind of special (5.5 Filtzers – 40.5 mm), also the hood is hard to find – but i never missed it.

Lets look at the image quality:

Portrait einer blonden Frau mit dem Leica Summicron 40mm F2

As you can see, the bokeh is very nice, probably not matching the Summiluxes, but for my taste a little ahead of the 50 ‚Cron. I spent only 5 minutes in the raw conversion, applied some contrast and a little sharpness and the picture is almost perfect. Shot at F2, 1/160.

Smooth black and white rendering. If you consider, that this lens was originally designed for a 70ties film camera, the quality and sharpness is even more impressive. F4, 1/90.

Not at all a good photo, but good for checking corner sharpness. Again, I only applied some contrast and only little sharpness. Shot at F8, 1/200. Sharpness is good enough for almost anything. Not tack-sharp, (especially in the extreme corners) but still quite good. The right corner is not as sharp as the left one, probably a little outside depth of field – which could be solved if shooting at F11.

The Corners are good, but not outstanding.

Conclusion:

This lens is exactly your choice, if you can life with guessing the frame a little and work without filters. It’s the perfect start into the world of rangefinder photography. If you just spent a huge pile of cash on a Leica M, chances are, there is not enough money left to buy all the lenses one desires to have. Start with the 40mm, like I did. I never regretted buying it because its the lens I pick, whenever I want a really lightweight and small camera with a versatile lens. There are better lenses on the market, no doubt, but at a price.

Alternatives:

The 35mm Summicron is the biggest competitor due to the same aperture and close focal lenghts, but is almost ten times the price. I bought my 40mm at my favourite local camera store for 300 Euros, while thelatest 35 Summicron asph. sells at 3.000. Even a used 35 ‚Cron (V1 & V2) is beyond 1.200 Euros.

If budget is tight but you still want a new lens, you might as well consider the Zeiss 35mm F2,8 C Biogon, or the Voigtlander 35mm F2 asph. Both very good lenses!

Jan.
12

Leica M9

Leica M9 – the journey

It took almost 10 years of photography to find my soulmate – the Leica M9 (built in 2009).

Wait – what? Quite old, isnt it? As a long time Canon enthusiast, I was used to fast autofocus, ridiculous fast prime lenses (F1,2) and pretty good high ISO performance. When I bought Canons stellar 85mm F1,2 II and 50mm 1,2, I thought that nothing could beat it. The good news for DSLR-Shooters: I still use my Canons – at weddings, quick portrait sessions and sometimes at beauty- or fashionshootings where I am very happy with the results. With the lack of autofocus I would clearly miss some great shots.

Now, the main question is: How and where can the 2009 made Leica M9 outperform the latest Cameras with it’s finest lenses?
We will find out at least.

Leica M9 seems far from beeing a special camera, when you only look at the stats. It has

  • no autofocus
  • no videos, no live-view
  • „only“ 18 Megapixels
  • you have to manually set the aperture at the lenses (program-modes are for loosers, baby)
  • ISO is good until 1000 and only acceptable to 1250 (what? I cant shoot at night in a dark room, with just a match as main light?)
  • when using older lenses, or third party lenses, you have to manually select their profile whenever you switch from one lens to another, or sometimes deal with some ugly quirks (such as magenta and green edges with wider lenses – called „italian flag“).
  • The Sensor is a CCD, not CMOS.
  • New lenses are unbelievable expensive, old lenses are old and still expensive – at least those with the Leica brand on it.
  • The Camera is still pretty expensive

Quite simple. Set aperture on the lens and shutterspeed on the camera.

Doesn’t sound like a camera to spend a big amount of your money on, right? The current Leica is the M10, which costs around 7000 Euro. Usually you can get the M9 around 1800,- but mine was way cheaper, (Black friday deal) so I am a lucky boy.

There are arguments that every leica user comes up with:

  • The lenses are LEGENDARY!
  • It’s lightweight and small but still fullframe
  • the purest photography – and minimalism at it’s finest. Only a few buttons, but all you’ll ever need.
  • beautiful and classic looking rangefinder camera
  • CCD Sensor is actually better with skin tones and colours

From my experience after using the M9 for a almost three years – also on trips to thailand, Croatia and hiking in austria – I have to say that these arguments are true.

Shot in Thailand, with the Zeiss 25mm Biogon

Lets start with the lenses: They are truly legendary. Very small, very sharp wide open, loads of micro contrast and built for a lifetime. Leica creates a more realistic and natural look than any other camera. Even old lenses from the 50ties are optically very good and add a classic rendering to your pictures. If a Leica user says a lens is rubbish, it still might be better or at least equeal to most other modern lenses. I didn’t believe it, until I tried.

When travelling, hiking or even for small portrait-sessions, I used to carry around a backpack with 3 lenses, tripod, batteries and filters – a total weight up to 6 kilos (13 pounds). At my trip to Amsterdam my back hurt every evening.

The Leica gear is very small, even my biggest Leica Mount lens (which is the „huge“ Zeiss 35 mm 1.4) is smaller than any Canon lens I own – maybe except the Canon pancake. I now have a very small bag, containing 3-4 lenses, camera, SD-Cards, filters and batteries – altogether a little more than 2 kilos (4-5 pounds). For the first time since ages, I was able to carry some hand luggage – thats marvellous!

I shoot less and different, but somehow it looks better. Colours are perfect straight out of camera, so I spend less time in front of the screen. What confused me the most: when shooting wide open, I nail 99% of the shots with the M9 while my Canon 6D – which is quite good at autofocus – paired with the 50 F1,2 is around 95%, sometimes worse.

Good for hiking: The Leica M9 and the Zeiss Biogon C 35mm. Perfekt sharpness and compact size.

Conclusion:

The M9 outperforms almost every new DSLR- or Mirrorless-Camera with some exeptions:

  • Sports (or any fast moving objects) – this might be pretty challenging without fast AF, and with a rather moderate high ISO performance.
  • Weddings – there are wedding photographers out there who shoot exclusively with Leica M’s, and they do a great job, but it doesn’t suite my style.
  • Polarizers are difficult to use, because you don’t see what you are polarizing – the leica filter is expensive. They still can be used, with some hacks.
  • long tele lenses – the Leica M is a rangefinder, long tele lenses are unusual and difficult to use. We are talking about more than 90 mm.
  • no tilt-shift lenses. If you have to use one – use another camera. Unless you have liveview, you don’t see what you are tilting and shifting.

The M9 shines:

  • Portraits – natural skin tones out of camera and a very realistic look. Only a small part of your face as a photographer is covered, which is mostly appreciated by your subject.
  • Street – the Leica M is THE camera for shooting street. Get a 35mm lens, set to F8 and Focus at 1m and shoot. It’s that simple.
  • Landscape & Travel – loads of micro contrast adding details and those terrific sharp Leica, Zeiss or Voigtländer lenses combined with a ridiculous small bag – I can’t wait to get out hiking.
  • Architecture – if you don’t need tilt-shift lenses

CCD Sensor at its best. The M9 delievers smooth and natural colours. Shot with the Summicron 50mm

Dominique Hammer Photography 2023. All rights reserved. DSGVO