Re: [Leica] Noctilux

[Jeff Moore <jbm@instinet.com>]

At 02 Jun 1998 19:52:56 -0700, bentua <debugger@jps.net> wrote:

> I'm considering getting a 50 Noctilux to use as a general-purpose
> lens, ... I've heard it's a great performer at the wide-open
> apertures, but how is it at the other apertures, in brighter light?

A question I'm still answering for myself.  Seems to be a mite less
contrasty than, say, a Summicron, and if you're shooting chromes
you might just notice its slight yellow cast; but this isn't to say
the effects are necessarily unpleasing, or even obvious without a
side-by-side comparison.  Once I established that the thing and my Ms'
rangefinders were properly calibrated together, I stopped testing and
just started using it.  Sometimes I think I see a characteristic "look",
even at middle apertures in the sun, but then again I could be talking
myself into it.  I can state definitively that it isn't terrible.

> I can see it's a huge lens, so how does it handle?

Since acquiring one of the beasts, I've been toting it around altogether
too much just *because*.  With 1600-speed film behind it, pictures by
streetlamps aren't a problem.  With lovely high-quality 100-speed color,
you can keep shooting well into twilight.  The handling?  Yes, a decent
chunk of the bottom-right of the viewfinder is obscured, but after so
many years with Ms it hardly occurs to me to notice that any more.  With
an M3 or an HM, if you're right-eyed, you can open the left and have
some of the missing bits filled in.

I have this feeling (which I'm not prepared to try to test
systematically) that the Noctilux's huge gaping glass maw might be a bit
more off-putting to subjects than, say, a cute little Summicron.

The focus ring is a great deal slower (longer travel) than the other
50s.  Good for precision, bad for speed (especially if you're forced
to release and re-grasp it).  If you carry just a Noctilux, though,
chances are you'll end up calibrating your hands for its focusing, with
an associated increase in speed.

The lens doesn't focus closer than 1m.  Compare with a Summicron at
0.7m.  To me, this is the only meaningfully annoying and limiting
characteristic of the lens.  I suspect many others don't work so close,
would be staying outside subjects' personal space, and thus wouldn't
find this to be as much of a problem.

Am I glad I have it, despite its quirks and horrific cost?  Absolutely.
I've been able to take many pictures which just wouldn't otherwise have
been possible.  And aside from the back pain :-), I don't find wandering
around with just an M6HM and a Noctilux has too many drawbacks.  Even,
yes, when the sun's out.

Now, a query of my own:  I seem to recall one mention awhile back of a
body's lens mount coming loose from the strain of a heavy diet of the
75/1.4.  Anybody else have problems which might indicate that daily,
habitual Noctilux or 75/1.4 use lies outside the expected M design
parameters?

 -Jeff Moore <jbm@instinet.com>