This will be an ongoing review of the Leica M 75mm f/2.4 Summarit.
It is a new lens in the Leica M lens line up, the privies version was f/2.5 and being German they have probably tweaked the design a bit to really open up this by 0.1 f stops - Not that it matters at all, just being precise...
I was the first paying customer today at the new Leica Boutique in Copenhagen so here follows a review of the little lens, the size and weight is typical for this series very nice for travel and obstructive and discrete shooting.
It can off course be used on more or less all mirror less bodies that accept exchangeable lenses, I'll make sure Jann Ann shoots it next time he's around with his Sony A7S or A7RII?
My findings for now are from the old Leica M 9
The lens has a metal focus ring with a ribbed rubber grip otherwise similar in design as the usual Leica M focus rings, the grip is very positive. the focus throw on rangefinder lenses is very critical and on this lens it feels quite adequate - Some of the Leica M lenses are really difficult to focus because of this.
Lens has ED elements and feels like it is build really well, smooth focus feel and distinct end stop at infinity. My Leica M lenses has a very different feel to the aperture clicks, this one is perfect. My 35mm f/1.4 Asph is very loose to the point where it is actually too loose... should send it in for adjustment actually.
Grip for mounting and the mount are standard Leica M 6-bit coded for giving the camera info on the lens type.
Lens hood supplied with the lens and it is a simple screw in type very similar to the old school Nikon HN type lens hoods with the added feature from the HS type lens hoods, that it can be reverse mounted on the lens, Nice feature for even more compact travel. Definitely my preferred design for protection of lenses, as an intended shade from sun rays and flare but also damage from bumps etc.
Two lens caps are supplied, one for when the lens hood is used and a smaller for when the small front thread protection ring is used... I don't use lens caps so they stay in the lens pouch, they are always ready in the bag with just a rear lens cap in place.
Now some close ups, that is as close as you get on Leica M - it's definitely not the strong side of the range finder system to make macro images, they have the 90mm f/4 with a macro rig but... just pick up another type of camera for that...
Here I'm shooting more like environmental close up's to show some of the power from this set up, I really like the overall rendering and feel often I state it as a nice smooth even color transition - Anyway I like it
Usually one hear that some Leica lenses has a 'Glow' for sure I see some nice looking glow in some of the leaf shots here - not sure if that was people are referring too though
First up is a portrait of Mette in the shop, no comment, it just works
The first snail shot is a crop the rest are as shot with some PP here and there.
The antenna shot got overexposed by a couple of stops but cleaned up nice and crisp.
Last is a 100% crop sweet lovely rendering IMHO
So far its thumbs up! Super nice - Hope to shoot some more street scenes and landscapes soon...
Thanks for looking!
