A tale of four Nifty’s

This is a quick roundup of four of Leica's premium 50mm prime lenses. Three of them are manual focus M-mount lenses, the other is an auto-focus variant made specifically for the new SL2 cameras, using the L-Mount. The M lenses can be used on L-Mount cameras with an adapter, but the L-Mount lens can't be used on M-mount cameras as there are no electronic contacts to operate the aperture, or AF functions.

Left to right, the APO M f2, The Summilux M f1.4, The Noctilux M f0.95, and the 50 APO SL f2.

The 50mm focal length has for a long time been considered the 'standard' lens in the 35mm film world because it's field of view is close to how the human eye sees things. What this means in reality is that the perspective distortion is fairly minimal and things look normal, i.e. not stretched or compressed.

Camera kits of old used come with a few lenses. Wide, Standard and Telephoto usually. The standard was always a 50mm prime lens with a reasonably wide aperture, typically f2.8 or larger.

All manufactures offer 50mm lens upgrades with apertures of f2.0, f1.8 or for a bit more cash f1.4. Canon's 50mm f1.8 was where I first heard the term 'Nifty Fifty'. Aside from being an excellent lens, it only used to cost around £79.00 which was a bargain. Most self respecting photographers have at least one fast prime lens in their kit bag. A prime lens has a single focal length such as 50mm.

It's worth noting at this point, that some people consider 35mm lenses as the new ‘standard’. Being a little wider, they are slightly more 'universal' than 50mm so I can understand why this came about.

A fast prime lens opens the door to much creativity with improved low-light capability and the option to use narrow depth of field when shot wide-open producing the effect known as 'Bokeh' (pronounced Bow-ka, or Bow-kay as you prefer). It describes the buttery smooth out of focus areas typically in front of, or behind the subject when using a wide aperture.

If I could, I would shoot only 50mm lenses. It's been a long term favourite focal length of mine but it's not really universal for all photography so doing so would severely limit what I could photograph. For this reason, I drop to 35mm or wider, or use a telephoto as required depending on what I’m photographing.

50mm does however suit much of my photography, so and unlike other focal lengths, I've got a few favourites, with specific traits and character.

By way of a short review this article looks at four of Leica's premium 50mm lenses side-by-side and is a very concise summary of what I personally like, or dislike about each. I share my thoughts on using them and with a simple table, award points for different features which hopefully may help in your decision making. Thanks to Tom at Leica Camera Exchange, Bristol for loaning me some of the kit for this comparison.

Leica 50mm Summilux M - f1.4

Considered as a fast 'upgrade' to the legendary Summicron f2 which in itself is the reference 50mm lens by which other manufacturers judge optical performance. The 50mm Summilux is known as the 'King of Bokeh' to many. It is sharp and small / light enough to travel with. It's a brilliant, do everything lens with incredible low-light performance, fantastic contrast, nice colours and render. Being physically slightly longer than the Summicron, it blocks the optical view finder a little, especially if you use the built in lens hood but not so much as to cause a huge problem framing shots. I purchased a used example a few years ago and it's the one lens I don't think I could ever sell. It's more expensive than the 50mm Summicron but it's the least expensive of these four premium 50's. It's also fairly readily available on the used market for a relatively good price. Quite possibly, the only 50mm lens you'll ever need and highly recommended.

Leica 50mm APO Summicron M - f2.0

At the time of writing, this is Leica's newest 50mm M lens. A substantial upgrade in optical performance to the legendary 50mm Summicron M, which is already known as a reference lens. Being a Summicron this APO version still has an f2.0 maximum aperture. Some would say this is the best 50mm lens ever made for the M. It boasts MTF curves that are more or less flat, in short it's optically perfect. Razor sharp right out to the edges at all apertures, perfect colour reproduction and virtually no chromatic aberrations. The smallest of all lenses on test here, very light and doesn't block the optical view finder on the M cameras. This lens is very difficult to make and therefore very expensive, second only in this review to the Noctilux M. It is a delight to use, but not as fast or artistic as the Summilux the images of which I personally prefer. Being quite a recent lens, and being so hard to make, it is rare to see them on the used market and command high-prices when they appear. On the newer higher mega-pixel M cameras, this lens will help to resolve even more detail in your shots than ever seen before but if it’s creativity you’re looking for you might want to read on. Whilst this lens is capable of taking stunning images, it lacks the creative depth of field available on some of the other lenses. That said, the bokeh effect is very beautiful and buttery smooth, just not as deep as the other lenses. If they ever do a ‘close-focus’ version of this lens like they did with the 35mm APO, it’ll be a game changer for M cameras.

Leica 50mm Noctilux M - f0.95

In 2008 when this lens was first launched, Leica were pushing the absolute limits of what was possible and trying to prove an engineering point. For an M lens, it's large and heavy and blocks a good portion of the optical view finder on an M camera. Oddly it feels better balanced on the SL platform and the SL's electronic viewfinder will help considerably to tame the super-narrow depth of field and nail focus every time. As you might expect, it's a low-light and bokeh monster with it's very own unique look. It's sharp too, but not as tack sharp as the other lenses in this test. It can however isolate subjects from both the foreground and the background in a way normally associated with telephoto lenses and produce some of the most dreamy 3D like effects you'll ever see taken with an M camera for a very unique look. It's quite possible to focus with the rangefinder even wide open but undeniably easier with the help of the optional electronic viewfinder on an M camera, or the fantastic EVF on the SL cameras. Like the APO M, It's very difficult to make, and unsurprisingly the most expensive lens in this test. It's the fastest lens in the current Leica lens line up and you don't see many of these in the used market. When they do come up, they hold very good money. Many will consider this lens over the top and a bit of an indulgence but driven properly (and it does take some understanding to get the best out of it), it produces some quite unique and amazing photos with a 3D-like render that will stand out from other images and do things no other 50mm lens can. Whilst I say this is a large lens, all things are relative. Compared most AF lenses it’s actually not that large at all. It’s even smaller than the APO primes of any focal length on the Leica SL.

Leica 50mm APO SL - f2.0

Unlike all the other lenses in this test, this was designed for the SL platform and uses an L-mount, so it’s not usable on an M-mount camera. This lens has been called the best 50mm lens ever made. Personally, I think it's even more superior in performance to the M version because it has all the sharpness, colour, contrast and optical performance as the APO M, possibly even more, but also allows close focus down to 30cm which produces some of the most buttery smooth bokeh effects of all the lenses. It's a brilliant lens for product shots because you can easily frame even small objects and capture incredible detail full frame. Being larger than the M version, is easier to make which is also reflected in the price. It is much less expensive than the APO M, but costs a little more than the Summilux M. It is readily available on the used market for similar money to a used Summilux M and very well balanced on the SL being a much smaller in form factor than any of the Leica SL zoom lenses. It's IP54 rated, so completely weather sealed and as rugged as the SL camera itself. The build quality is outstanding with smooth manual focus which despite being fly-by-wire, is the best non-mechanical manual focus I've ever used. The manual focus is configurable for 'throw' and linearity on the camera allowing you to customise to your own needs. There is a Summilux version of this lens, available for much the same money, but it's very large and heavy. I'm sure the performance is staggeringly good but it’s as large as some of the SL zooms, a form factor that I don’t enjoy using simply because of their size.

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In an effort to make a comparison between these four fabulous lenses, I’ve put together some tables, scoring each lens against some standard criteria that’s important to me. Scores in each category are from 1 (poor) to 5 (exceptional). To support these scores, I spent a full day just testing all four lenses shooting the same scenes with each lens. For the tests, I used a Leica SL2-S full frame digital camera running 24 mega pixels and a Leica M11 rangefinder M series camera running 60 mega pixels.

I shot a series of photos with each lens deliberately designed to address each category including some very tricky images designed to trip the lenses up and provoke some bad behaviour like purple fringing in high-contrast areas.

In this review, I’ve deliberately avoided technical detail about these lenses. Enthusiasts will be well aware of the technical merits for each lens and there are plenty of data sheets available from Leica. Furthermore, there are a ton detailed reviews for all the nerds out there. From my perspective, images are very personal and I judge lens or camera performance on how the final result makes me feel. All comments and opinions are based on my personal opinion only. I’ve never seen these four lenses up against each other so I thought it would be interesting to compare them.

From the above, you can see that I rate the 50mm APO SL the highest. It’s really quite an exceptional lens and has extraordinary performance. It is however only usable on an L-Mount camera so no good for ‘M’ shooters.

You would therefore expect the APO M to be second on my list and when I started the test, I also thought this would be the case. The fact is, I was able to find fault with the optical performance that didn’t appear on the SL version, such as purple fringing which really surprised me. It was not as obvious as the Summilux or even worse the Noctilux but the SL version didn’t exhibit this trait at all. Whilst images were crisp and sharp and the bokeh smooth and buttery, I was able to push this to extremes on the SL version because of the ability to close focus.

So, second choice was the legendary Summilux M f1.4. Actually it’s first choice for the M. You simply can’t go wrong with this lens in my opinion. It does everything really well. It doesn’t have quite the staggering optical performance of the APO M, but value for money and its incredible bokeh make it a clear winner as far as I’m concerned.

So last on the list is the Noctilux. Don’t get me wrong, this is an absolutely fabulous lens and I really enjoy using it. The images really are quite unique and give an appearance which is classically Noctilux, a category in it’s own right. What puts this lens in last place is primarily the price of owning one, the minimum focussing distance of 1m and finally the optical performance in general. If it could replace all of your other 50mm lenses and be the universal choice, it would score higher, but the fact is, it’s heavy, blocks the viewfinder and shot wide open, you need to be careful of purple fringing. 1m minimum focus is going to limit you on some shots and the fact that you can buy a car for the price of this lens seals it’s score. But, if you can afford it and have another 50mm lens in your bag to use where you can’t, or won’t take the Noctilux, then it is a creative photographers dream and will give many of your pictures the creative edge, unachievable without this lens.

Personally, I love the Noctilux for what it can do. When I’m struggling for inspiration on the street, I put the Noctilux on my camera and shoot wide open. It can turn the most mundane scene into a work of art. I’ve not seen or been able to recreate the Noctilux effect on any other lens. More recently, I’ve been using this lens with my 1967 M4 film camera. I’m able to produce dreamy portraits with all the character of film. I’m also still able to use it successfully with the range-finder of this 56 year old camera.

I shot hundreds of images with these four lenses and this article will run on and on if I include in-depth comparisons between all of them for every test. I will attempt to include a cross section of highlights and lowlights.

Test 1 - Purple Fringing and sharpness all shots wide open for each lens. APO SL is clearly the best performer showing no purple fringing and is the sharpest. Summilux M shows the next cleanest image with regards purple fringing, but clearly not as sharp as either of the APO lenses. The APO M, is sharp, but suffers some purple fringing. Noctilux has the most purple fringing and is the least sharp of all four lenses.

Test 2 - Subject Isolation & Bokeh plus colour, contrast & vignetting. All lenses shot wide open from a tripod mounted SL2-S approx 2-3 metres from the subject.