Member David Farkas

I appreciate that this post is 2 years old. I recently reactivated my membership here and was looking for information on lenses where the AF motor fail occurred. I have two lenses, one that failed and one that has not and is 4.5 years old. I am in Australia and repairs through the national distributor go to Wetzlar of course. I was considering the preemptive service, based on what I understood to be a new warranty period afterwards, as mentioned here.

My 70CS had the AF fail and was repaired free of charge, Six months later the central shutter failed. I had to pay for that repair and the advice from Wetzlar was that the warranty only covered the AF motor fault. It does not cover any other faults.
That makes paying for the preemptive fix much less attractive in my eyes

Amazed with your reviews, David!

Honestly, I just didn't think to use ISO 50. There is not much of a real-world quality difference between ISO 50 – 400. Some theorize that ISO 50 is actually a PULL setting and that the SL has a base ISO of 100. But…. I haven't received official confirmation of this.

Funny you should mention this…. I had the same thought, so repeated the test with the same setup, tripod, etc. with the 50 APO on the M10. Same result. Besides slight color differences between the SL and M10 files, the detail level was exactly the same.

Thanks for the link. Interesting stuff. I will need to ask the SL team at Leica about this next time we chat.

I agree that the 50 Summilux-SL is one of the best 50mm lenses Leica has ever produced, and would add that it's AF is infinitely better than the 50 APO-Summicron-M. 🙂

In all seriousness, though, I have also found the 50 SL's AF speed to be lacking, especially when compared to the lightening quick AF of the 24-90 and 90-280. It's not a fault of the SL's AF system. Rather, the fault lies in the massive glass elements inside the lens that take considerably more energy to move than the feather-light tiny focus elements in the zooms. The zooms were built for speed. The 50 SL? The priority was on absolute best image performance at a much wider aperture. Wider than the zooms. And wider than the 50 APO for the M. Take a look at the test shots and 100% crops. The 50 SL actually resolves more detail at f/1.4 than the 50 APO does at f/2. That is no small feat. One that, unfortunately, requires large and heavy lens elements to achieve.

While the speed isn't great, I have found the AF to be deadly accurate. And with razor-thin depth of field at f/1.4, I wouldn't call this level of accuracy and repeatability to be antiquated. Or the ability to select focus anywhere in the frame.

So, yes, the 50 SL represents a compromise. Are you willing to accept slower AF for higher optical quality? Some photographers will be. Others won't.

Karl,

I compared the 50 f/1.4 SL to the 50 f/1.4 M and the 50 f/2 APO. The 50 f/2 APO SL isn't available yet. It will certainly be interesting to see how the upcoming Summicron-SL will compare to the Summilux-SL.

The difference in quality with the 50 SL would be significant. The SL lenses are the best that Leica has ever produced.

No M10 🙁

Hey all, I am not sure what I'm doing wrong, but when I log into Leica's members area I can't seem to find any Lightroom plugin download at all . Can anyone help please ?

Jeff, thanks for catching that! Fixed.

Thanks David, great review. Really nice to see the dynamic range and ability to pull out shadows when needed. Also nice to see the 10,000 iso shots come out with great color and so smooth. – David Knoble

Great review David,
I'm in a bind right now maybe you can make a recommendation.
I am all in with Leica having the M262, SL and a S006.
I was thinking about upgrading my S006 to the S007, yet with everything I have read as of recent it seems that Leica is abandoning the S system, with the issues with the S lenses AF motor issues and now with the X1D and Fuji GFX.

I love my SL and would love to upgrade to the M10 also. My delima is what to do with my S006, I love the S but was wondering if it's time to trade in my S system for a M10
I realize they are totally different systems, yet for the days I don't want to shoot my SL and want to shoot a RF I like the idea of the M10 with it's new sensor, better color and DR.
Thanks

Hi There David
I really enjoyed that – great writeup and pictures. I also really enjoyed your interview with Jesko and Stefan. . . and of course meeting up again at Wetzlar. Hopefully we'll meet up again before too long.

With all best wishes
Jono Slack

incisive and comprehensive….
great job as usual!
Albert

Thanks, Danny. The optical viewfinder in the M10 is the best Leica's ever put into an M camera. You are more than welcome to use the viewfinder.

The advantages of the EVF are more precise framing (WYSIWYG), accurate exposure preview and the ability to zoom to 100% to aid in manual focus. Additionally, the Visoflex 020 for the M10 also confers GPS functionality for geotagging your photos. The great thing about the M10 is you can use a combination of both, which is exactly what I did when testing.

Yep, I had the camera set to Auto WB the whole time.

The M10's auto white balance algorithm is excellent, even under mixed and challenging lighting.

I'd have to check to see if additional lenses were added. My main point for improved 6-bit coding was to say that if you had a manual code selected for a non-6-bit coded lens then changed to a modern 6-bit lens, the camera will automatically assign the correct profile even though you might have forgotten to change from Manual to Auto.

Sorry. The oldest 50 Cron in the manual selection menu is a version III, model 11817, introduced in 1969. Honestly, I don't think the lens corrections would be much different between this and a version II.

Excellent review David, all pertinent and to the point !!! Much appreciated.

Have been able to shoot the M-10 enough to agree with all the information written, it is one sweet camera, hope to be getting a spare once there are readily available !!! Thanks

al

Nice job as usual , glad you included lots of low light shots which most reviews never carry

Best review I've read on this camera, I have a follow up question, the saturation of the colours is amazing, did you use any filters or do any post work?

I used the 35 Cron ASPH for many years before moving to the 35 Lux FLE. Both are wonderful lenses. The Cron has a little more pop, with higher contrast and more saturated colors. The bokeh is pleasing and natural. The only shortcoming of the 35 Cron ASPH is that is prone to flare under the right conditions.

The 35 Lux FLE is stunning. I love the way the lens handles direct light. It is incredibly sharp wide open, with lovely bokeh. The lower contrast of the lens lends itself to higher contrast lighting situations. The Lux has no drawbacks that I have found. It is my desert island lens and the one that I most often shoot with when I want to just have one camera, one lens on my shoulder.

So while the 35 Cron is a great lens, the 35 Lux is just that much better. If you can swing it, I'd go for the Lux.

Hi David

Reads like an end-game version of the digital M has arrived — almost!

I would really like an M with just one frameline per lens. Is there some reason why Leica do not do this and do you think they ever will?

Thanks

Robert

Thanks for the feedback.

Tips for getting colors like these: use a Leica 😉 All kidding aside, Leica doesn't get the credit they deserve for the color science in their digital cameras. Doesn't look fake, flat or overdone. The resulting look is like real life, but the better version.

The M10 has a usable ISO 10,000. The M9 tops out around 1,000. So, about a 3.5 stop advantage.

The Visoflex is also very useful with anything shorter than a 28 mm and anything longer than 50 mm. Also nice to use with extra-wide-aperture lenses (f2 and below) to check precise focusing.