[les3547]

More shots testing the R90 pre-aspherical at F2. The rose shows a bit of Leica "glow" . . . unfortunately it's just a foot in front of a very rough plaster exterior wall, so while the lens is not showing its full bokeh potential it does suggest just how well the lens can perform.

Next a test for sharpness at F2 with the bee. I captured two bee shots in focus, the first is uncropped, and the second is a crop of the second photo (but same bee) because it shows detail better. Seems quite impressive to me.

Lastly, I shot a landscape with the R90 at 5.6, and the same scene with the R Vario 35-70 also at f5.6, but zoomed to 60mm; I then cropped them the same. Of course it's not a fair comparison with the R90 having a 30mm advantage, but the Vario came pretty close anyway.



Full 90 f2:




Crop 90 f2:




Full 90/f5.6:




Crop 90/5.6:




Crop 35-70/5.6 @ 60mm:

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Last edited by les3547; 06-07-2019 at 06:34 AM.

[Fenwoodian]

.
Les, interesting series of photos. The close up of that bee is certainly critically sharp.

I do prefer the crop photo from the 90 over the crop photo from the zoom.

I clicked on the photos to see them larger on your Flickr. Flickr would not let me see them as they are marked "Private". If you change your Flickr permissions on these photos from "private" to "public" then we can see much larger images in Flickr when we click on them.

Regards,
Dave

[les3547]

.
Les, interesting series of photos. The close up of that bee is certainly critically sharp.

I do prefer the crop photo from the 90 over the crop photo from the zoom.

I clicked on the photos to see them larger on your Flickr. Flickr would not let me see them as they are marked "Private". If you change your Flickr permissions on these photos from "private" to "public" then we can see much larger images in Flickr when we click on them.

Regards,
Dave

Hi Dave,

I can't de-private my Flickr account right now. I wish I had more time for thorough test instead of just running around at lunch time taking snap shots. Even so, the R90 seems destined to become my favorite.

I don't know if this will help, but I've posted the full sized Vario 35-70 shot I cropped here. Since the Vario was zoomed at 60mm, the full sized picture at least shows how much more I had to crop to match the R90 crop. I also replaced the vineyard pics of the upper post at full size.

Vario 35-70 @ f5.6 & 60mm:

[teiki arii]

Your lenses (90/2 and 35-70/4) are very good indeed. Aren't you happy?

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Last edited by teiki arii; 06-07-2019 at 06:19 AM.

[les3547]

Your lenses (90/2 and 35-70/4) are very good indeed. Aren't you happy?

Indeed!

By the way, I saw in one of your posts about using a Leitax adapter that you said ". . . it seems that you cannot focus to infinity with Leica-R 90/2 AA"

I'm not sure what "AA" means, is that aspherical? Anyway, at first I thought the R90 pre-aspherical didn't focus to infinity because some shots were blurry at infinity. But then I noticed that in other pictures (like the one I posted above) that the R90 did focus at infinity. It turns out that on my copy the lens turns a mere 1mm past infinity, and at wide apertures that makes it very difficult to hit focus just right. Now I just set infinity focus at the minus 1mm mark, which I've identified on the lens' distance scale, and it works fine.

[Fenwoodian]

.

The R90 seems destined to become my favorite.

.
.

That's a very powerful statement - one that really got my attention.

For those of you who don't know Les, he's a long time photographer who has extensive experience shooting a wide variety of premium lenses (e.g. Zeiss, Voigtlander, Leica, etc.).

..

[les3547]

That's a very powerful statement - one that really got my attention.

I think part of it is how much I like 90mm focal length, but the lens' IQ is also blowing my mind. The shots below I took at the grocery of a dog ostensibly guarding a steering wheel . It's a low contrast setting but in the crop you can see the lens' way of smoothly capturing much detail:

Full 90 f4:



Crop:



---------- Post added 06-07-19 at 01:42 PM ----------

.
The close up of that bee is certainly critically sharp.

Regards,
Dave

Here's a crop of the other angle I got in focus:

R90 f2 extreme crop:

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Last edited by les3547; 06-07-2019 at 02:43 PM.

[Fenwoodian]

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Les, I'm curious as to how you feel your new Leica 90/2 compares with your Voigtlander 90/3.5 and Voigtlander 75/2.5 lenses? I've previously owned each of these Voigtlander lenses and think quite highly of them.

[les3547]

.
Les, I'm curious as to how you feel your new Leica 90/2 compares with your Voigtlander 90/3.5 and Voigtlander 75/2.5 lenses? I've previously owned each of these Voigtlander lenses and think quite highly of them.

I think you know the Voigtlander 90 SLii version is one of my all time favorite lenses, but so far I'm liking the Leica better. Like the CV 180, the CV 90 is super sharp, and has great color, but it doesn't quite perform as well with micro contrast as the Leica (or Zeiss), plus I prefer the "gentler" resolution and acuity of Leica. I am not in a rush, but I will probably be (most reluctantly) selling my CV 90.

[Merv-O]

Birthday Boquet

[teiki arii]

By the way, I saw in one of your posts about using a Leitax adapter that you said ". . . it seems that you cannot focus to infinity with Leica-R 90/2 AA"?

Yes you can.

I'm not sure what "AA" means, is that aspherical? .

Leica Apo-Summicron-R Asph 90/2.

PS:
the Leica pre-Asph Summicron-R 90/2 is a Walter Mandler design, which gives the WM rendering...
the Leica Apo-Summicron-R Asph 90/2 is from new post-WM era, an Apo design...

[les3547]

More testing with the Summicron-R 90/2 trying out f2 and f2.8.

It's hard to see but there's a Brown Towhee in the old apple tree. Full shot at f2.8:



Extreme crop:




Someone polished off the ice cream, shot at f2:

[les3547]

Leica R 90/2, cricket on leaf at f2:

[Fenwoodian]

.
Les, nice write up on focusing manual focus lenses "using the camera's viewfinder".


Another option that I always use is putting a 3x Zacuto viewfinder over the LCD on the back of my K-1 camera. I precisely set the diopter on the viewfinder ahead of time. I set focus peaking on. Put the subject in the middle of the LCD. Magnify the LCD screen (4x or 8X). Focus. Un-magnify the screen. Recompose and shoot. Also I'm using a tripod and 2-second shutter delay. While this technique may sound long and complicated, with practice, it takes me no more than 10 seconds per photo.

Yesterday I took about 60 photos using this technique at the Green Bay Wi Botanical Garden. 100% of the images were in sharp focus using a Zeiss Milvus 85mm lens wide open at f/1.4.

[teiki arii]

You can use the 100% instant magnifying button thanks to the LCD display...