Shooters.

How lucky can one be! A couple of days ago I was given a Leica M9 and the brand new Leica Summilux 35/1.4 Asph (II) to give them a try. I had 23 hours only before I had to return it. I was sort of relaxed, not anticipating that the upcoming experience would drive me into becoming a lottery maniac. To make a long story short: This combo is my dream combo among everything that’s on the market right now. As you already know I like small cameras, cameras smaller than DSLRs. But I’m also a sharpness fanatic – I admit I seem to have a fetish here. Two years ago I was a big fan of the M8 and the old Summilux – at least up to ISO 160, which was the lowest ISO-setting anyway. As reported in other reviews the M9 betters out the M8 in high ISO-performance. It’s still far away from being fantastic, but it’s better and you can go up to ISO 1.250 and still have usable results without necessarily converting your pictures into black & white to justify the noise. This alone makes the M9 a much more versatile package. The fullframe sensor does the rest. A 35mm lens eventually IS a 35mm.

I always felt I could do 80% of my photographs with a bright 35mm equivalent. So the M9 with the new 35 promised to be a worthwhile experience. I knew, I wouldn’t be able to do a comprehensive review from a 23 hours experience. So this is all about first impressions and an evolving love.
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A couple of days ago I had the chance to use the least expensive Leica 35mm lens, the Leica Summarit 35/2.5 on the Panasonic GF1.
I’d like to provide you with just a couple of images I got out of this very nice combination. Most people are put off by the very high price of Leica lenses. Yes, they are expensive but you also get a good resale value.
I personally can’t imagine buying a new Leica lens. Neither my bank account, nor my credit card nor my wife would allow it. And in most cases you’re better off to buy a used one anyway. But if you’re looking for a relatively affordable new Leica 35mm-lens, this may be the way to go.
All pictures at f2.5, from RAW, PP in Lightroom 3
(Click on the images to enlarge)

The Summarit 35 is sharp, provides a nice bokeh and before all is really small and a nice companion for a micro 4/3 camera. I have yet to do some testing of how it behaves on APS-C sensor Smaccs (Small competent cameras) like the Sony Nex. In a view days I should have some results.

Since I got my Sony Nex-3 a couple of weeks ago I have been eager to try lenses from other manufacturers on it. I really love using fast lenses and the original Sony E-mount lens selection didn’t serve me well in this respect.

A couple of days ago I eventually got two Kipon adapters: One to use Nikon AF-lenses on the Sony and the other to use Leica M-mount lenses on it.
After doing a couple of shots with my Nikon lenses (Nikon AF-D 35/2, AF-D 50/1.4 and AF 85/1.8), I was sort of disappointed, especially shooting wide open. So I decided to do some testing, not on test charts, but using a real world subject – the view from my living room.

Here are the results. I let you form your own opinion.
I will do some testing with “real good” Leica M-lenses in a couple of days and see if it gets better – I really hope so. So stay tuned and follow me on twitter to get informed as soon as the new test is online!

All pictures are from JPG:

First there’s a 35mm comparison between the Nikon AF-D 35/2 and the Sony 18-55/3.5-5.6 at 35mm setting.
Click here to download the 100% comparison at 35mm.

Then there’s a 50mm comparison of the Nikon AF-D 50/1.4 and the Sony Kit zoom at 55mm.
Click here to download the 100% comparison at 50/55mm.

Finally here’s a 85mm comparison of the Nikon AF 85/1.8 and the M-mount Konica Hexanon 90/2.8.
Click here to download the 100% comparison at 85/90mm.

I know neither the three Nikon lenses nor the Konica lens are the best lenses in the world. But the Nikons worked quite well on the Nikon APS-C and Nikon FX-cameras I’ve used. I never saw this sort of bad behavior wide open before. I guess it might be the Kipon adapter.

Since so many visitors come from countries, where German is hardly on the fringes, I decided to give you guys an english version of some of my blog entries. Let me apologise for my English first – I know there will be a lot of mistakes, since it’s not my motherlanguage, but I figured, it might be better than those often funny google translations.

I’d like to start with this real world comparison of these three small competent cameras: The brand new Sony Nex-3, the Olympus E-PL1 and the Leica X1.

Why are they milestones among cameras? Because they are reasonably compact and still have a large Sensor in them, that promises image quality similar to DSLRs.
The choice between those Smaccs gets larger and larger. Photokina is coming in September and a lot of rumors tell us, there might be new models being introduced in the upcoming months.

I wanted to know, which one of the small competent cameras – let’s call them Smaccs from now on – suits my needs and my likings the best? I wanted to do a comparison in a real world setting and not in a Lab. I appreciate technical reviews but figured that only the realworld reviews available on the net from great guys like Steve Huff and others eventually influence my choice making process.
So this comparison isn’t meant to deliver scientific charts, but everyday experience to give you a feeling for the cameras. Technical data on paper and using these cameras are totally different stories.

The contestants

I made a choice of three different brands and three different concepts:

• The new Sony Nex-3 with the 18-55/3.5-5.6 OSS kit lens
• The Olympus E-PL1, which has been on the market for a couple of months and prooved to be a great camera.
• And the Leica X1, being the most expensive among Smaccs right now. I’d like to thank my friend René, who gave his camera to me for a weekend (www.digitalcameragraz.at)

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