Leica 75mm Summarit M f2.5 Review

It has been a while since I got my 75mm f2.5 Summarit M, I have been using it more regularly now, and here is my short review on it. I won't dwell too much on the background of this lens, since if you are interested to buy one, its most likely that you will know it well.

The 75mm Summarit M is one of the 4 lenses in Leica's "Budget" Summarit line for M mount. First of all, it doesn't look like your typical Leica lens, as the most prominent feature of this lens is the large rubber grip focus ring. Many Leica purist didn't like anything thats not metal, but the rubber grip is actually very comfortable to use and gives a good grip. The only slight downside is that focusing ring on my copy is a bit firm, should become smooth as I use it more. The build of the lens is typical Leica, doesn't feel any cheaper than other lines of Leica lenses at all. The diameter of the lens is 46mm, and its only slightly longer than the 50mm summilux pre-asph, the slenderness ratio and the weight makes it just right to hold with one hand on the camera and one hand on the focus ring when mounted on the camera. The focus throw is on the short side, but enough to focus accurately, Im not complaining as I like short focus throw.

The image come from this lens is one of the sharpest I have seen, its sharp corner to corner. In terms of sharpness, I would say this is sharper wide open at f2.5 than 50mm Summilux pre-asph at f2. Microcontrast is pretty good too, so you will get a lot of details in your shots.

Look at the detail on the Lantern, this is at f2.5

The colors from this lens is nice and rich, slightly on the cool side, but definitely not subdued. It is also more contrasty than older lenses, but not as much as asph lenses. Overall the colors are correct, and contrast well balanced.

Colors are Nice and Rich

There are no visible distortion from the shot I have taken so far, no visible purple fringes that I have noticed either.

Now the important part for people who love Bokeh (and we all do). The bokeh from this lens can be smooth. creamy when you focusing on close subjects. But could be slightly harsh when your subject is at medium distances. Overall, its not too bad, If you shoot a lot of portraits and still subjects, the bokeh would be very nice. If you shoot mainly street, then you can occasionally end up with slightly harsh bokeh.

Smooth Bokeh

Slightly Harsh Bokeh?

75mm focal length is a bit hard to use at first (at least for me), the reason been its so close to the 50mm frame lines (Leica M9 shows 50mm and 75mm frame lines together), one would mistaken 50mm frame lines for it in a hurry. Although its frame lines are close to 50mm, it gives a lot more compression to the photos than 50mm, so the overall look from it will be different than the 50mm. I have found it to best capture individual subjects, or a cutout of the detail if you are shooting landscape or architecture. Trying to capture the scene or surrounding environment by stepping back don't really work, as theres more compression than 50mm and 35mm. As I use it more and more, I found it more enjoyable to use, it is very different to 35mm which I use the most, unlike 50mm feels like a slight crop of the 35mm shots. After using this lens for a while, I think I have found my perfect pairing, 35mm and 75mm, there are enough difference between them yet they are not too far away from the "normal" perspective, and with both of them, one can cover both wide angle to portrait formal length.

Overall 75mm Summarit M is a great lens, great sharpness, colors, contrast, and good bokeh if you are careful. The build is excellent and I personally find the handling perfect. For a 75mm focal length, you will not regret getting this one. I know theres the more expensive and more perfect 75mm Summicron and Summilux out there, but this is close to half the price of the Summicron, unless you need perfection, I think this lens won't disappoint you.

Long Weekend of March

Last weekend March 10-13th was a long weekend in Victoria with Moomba festivities. Went out to shoot both Super Saturday horse racing at Flemmington and Moomba festival on Monday.

Horse racing wasn't my cup of tea, a bit boring especially when you don't like to gamble, you wait for hours to see horses run for a few minutes. Good place for photos though, lots of glamorous ladies and gents, cross dressing people (yep, thats right), jockeys and their horses, and of course, a few very sweaty punters. So a nice variety of people for you to snap away.

Moomba festival on the other hand is awesome, great deep fried food, stomach churning rides and great water sports on the Yarra river. A lot of screaming kids and adults on the rides, great fun to watch, I never understood why you need to scream on those rides, holding on tighter is understandable, screaming just hurts the ear of the person next to you.

Here are some shots taken with Olympus EP-2 + 17mm Zuiko and Leica M9 + 35mm Summarit. Couldn't see a damn thing on the EP-2 LCD during under the glaring sun + wearing sun glasses, but the large depth of field allowed me to shoot without framing and focusing at f5.6.

Mario and Luigi?

It has been a month and hafl since I have posted, got a new job, and that has taken over 90% of my life, only able to shoot once for the whole time been :(, hopefully life gets more relaxed after I ease into the new job.

Used my 75mm summarit m again, still haven't got use to the fact that is a 75mm, still thinking like a 35mm, so alot of shots went to waste. I guess shooting a 75mm needs completely different mindset than a 35mm or a 50mm (35mm and 50mm are similar). 75mm is best used to isolate the subject, and infersize on the subject alone, where 75mm shallower depth of field narrower field of view comes in extremely well. When I shot it like a 35mm, trying to show more background by stepping back, it just doesn't have the spacious feel of a 35mm, instead it brings the background closer to the subject, and make things look clustered. I guess I just have to learn to use this focal length more. On a positive note, 75mm summarit is extremely good, great resolution, excellent colors and the rubber focus ring (which I didnt like before I used it) was very comfortable to use.

So heres my short rant, and some not so great photos. I have also placed an order on fujifilm x-pro 1, I am selling my film Leica to fund this. If the fujifilm x-pro 1's image quality is 75% as good as M9, and the handling is similar to a rangefinder (with exception of AF of course), I might consider replaceing my Leica gear with the fuji, I need money to travel :) no point keeping the M9 if I can't afford to travel.

I think she is beautiful

 This is an example of "I shot this like shooting with a 35mm"