Sony A7r with Leica 35mm f2 Summicron Version 4 "King Of Bokeh" 1979-1997 Review Test Sample Images

Sony A7r with Leica 35mm f2 Summicron Version 4 "King Of Bokeh" 1979-1997 Review Test Sample Images

Sony A7r with Leica 35mm f2 Summicron Version 4 "Bokeh King"

I just want to make a quick confession before starting the review. Up until starting to write this review I had no idea about the history of this little lens that I have in my possession, or what particular version it was, or if that even matter. I have used this lens before on the Leica M9 and it had been a love hate relationship. It is certainly nice and sharp especially in the center, but it's corner sharpness is not that amazing throughout the ranges compared to other lenses I have used. The thing that really puts me off the lens however is its amazing love of flaring. If you have a light source anywhere even just slightly outside of the field of view, you will get flaring, and I am not talking about strong light source like the Sun either, it could just be something like a computer screen. The type of flaring is also really bad, you just get a "Haze" across the photo. The saving grace of the lens though was that it produces some amazing photos, especially its beautiful bokeh. The transition from the focus plane to the out of focus areas was just so subtle and smooth, just so different and the best I have ever seen.

Since I also have the Carl Zeiss 35mm f2 Biogon, which I feel is "technically" far superior (in terms of sharpness across the frame and flaring) my first thought (and still is) was that this was a lens that you would take out when you just wanted a change of photo style, because it does have a unique look to the photos it took, but if you were on an assignment and needed to take clear and sharp photos I would take the Carl Zeiss everytime. The other thing I love about this lens over the Carl Zeiss is its size. It is much smaller, lighter and much more compact and most importantly for me it just looks so good on the camera with its better proportions :). 

 

Sony A7r with Leica 35mm f2 Summicron Version 4 "Bokeh King"

Having done some research however I have found that this particular 35mm f2 Summicron was one of the most famous version of the lens. It is version 4, which has been given the nickname "King Of Bokeh", to be honest I can see why. What's funny though is that while doing my research online I saw one person giving this lens the nickname "King Of Flare", which is exactly what I was thinking. 

I also found that this lens is selling second hand at about twice the price of a brand new Carl Zeiss 35mm f2 Biogon!!!

Having read this far you might be guessing that if I had to buy one I would buy the Carl Zeiss...and you would be right. I just feel that overall it gives you the better value and is better overall.

Having both lenses however, I would often choose to use the Leica because sometimes instead of getting lots of really good photos you just want a few really magical ones, which you have a good chance of getting with the Leica's unique look. I mean if you take 10 photos with the Carl Zeiss you might get 9 really good ones (technecially), while with the Leica with its shortcomings you might get 5 not so good shots, 4 good ones and 1 magical shot.

Vignetting

 

Sony A7r with Leica 35mm f2 Summicron Version 4 Vignetting Test at f2

Sony A7r with Leica 35mm f2 Summicron Version 4 Vignetting Test at f2.8

Sony A7r with Leica 35mm f2 Summicron Version 4 Vignetting Test at f4

Sony A7r with Leica 35mm f2 Summicron Version 4 Vignetting Test at f5.6

Vignetting is a technical area where this lens performs very well. Its exhibit very small amount of vignetting wide open just right at the corner of the frame but just stopping down to f2.8 got rid of most of it. By stopping down further you do get a bit more improvement but not much more since there is hardly any left already.

Corner Sharpness

Sony A7r with Leica 35mm f2 Summicron Version 4 Corner Sharpness Test at f2

100% Crop at f2

Sony A7r with Leica 35mm f2 Summicron Version 4 Corner Sharpness Test at f2.8

100% Crop at f2.8

Sony A7r with Leica 35mm f2 Summicron Version 4 Corner Sharpness Test at f4

100% Crop at f4

Sony A7r with Leica 35mm f2 Summicron Version 4 Corner Sharpness Test at f5.6

100% Crop at f5.6

Sony A7r with Leica 35mm f2 Summicron Version 4 Corner Sharpness Test at f8

100% Crop at f8

The corner sharpness of the 35mm Summicron is capable but not amazing. The corner sharpness improves quickly, just by stopping down to f2.8 the lens pretty much is near its peak and stopping down further does not improve sharpness much. The problem however is that its "peak" is still not as sharp as other lenses I have tested, it is not bad but not amazing. Another thing you can see is that even from these test shots for corner sharpness you could see the flaring "haze" in the photos.

Conclusion

As mentioned right at the beginning of the post, this lens' technical performance might not be amazing, but its real strength is in being able to produce photos with a "unique" and beautiful look. If you do not yet own a M-Mount Rangefinder lens and are looking to buy one you might get better value and all around performance with other lenses, but this lens might be worth it if you really love its "unique" looks.

Hopefully I will be able to go out shooting more with this lens in the near future to bring you real life samples of this lens in real use for those who are interested.

Leica 28mm f2.8 Elmarit NON ASPH works better on the Sony A7r than the ASPH Version

Testing of the Leica 28mm f2.8 Elmarit ASPH Version sadly yield pretty poor results when used on the Sony A7r, which is quite sad since it is such a great lens. Afterwards however, I started to wonder whether the older NON Aspherical version will be the same. Since the design might be different I still held out some hope that maybe, just maybe it might perform better.

Sony A7r with Leica 28mm f2.8 Elmarit NON ASPH Version - a little bit bigger and heavier

And after some testing there is indeed good news to be reported. The NON ASPH version does infact performs significantly better on the A7r than the ASPH version in every aspect.

Sony A7r with Leica 28mm f2.8 Elmarit NON ASPH Version - a little bit bigger and heavier

Maybe it is because the lens is longer and it is further away from the sensors so the light is hitting it at a less extreme angle I do not know, but whatever the reason it is great news considering that the NON ASPH version is even cheaper to buy.

Vignetting

Sony A7r with Leica 28mm f2.8 Elmarit NON ASPH Vignetting Test at f2.8

 

Sony A7r with Leica 28mm f2.8 Elmarit NON ASPH Vignetting Test at f4

Sony A7r with Leica 28mm f2.8 Elmarit NON ASPH Vignetting Test at f5.6

Sony A7r with Leica 28mm f2.8 Elmarit NON ASPH Vignetting Test at f8

Just from the vignetting test we could straightaway see that the NON ASPH performs so much better.  Right from wide open at f2.8 there is not much vignetting and just by stopping down to f4 pretty much all vignetting are gone.

Corner Sharpness

Sony A7r with Leica 28mm f2.8 Elmarit NON ASPH Corner Sharpness Test at f2.8

100% Crop at f2.8

Sony A7r with Leica 28mm f2.8 Elmarit NON ASPH Corner Sharpness Test at f4

100% Crop at f4

Sony A7r with Leica 28mm f2.8 Elmarit NON ASPH Corner Sharpness Test at f5.6

100% Crop at f5.6

Sony A7r with Leica 28mm f2.8 Elmarit NON ASPH Corner Sharpness Test at f8

100% Crop at f8

The corner sharpness of the NON ASPH version is also much better, which I think is very important for the usability of the lens. There is certainly still some softness/edge smearing at f2.8 but it is much better compared to the ASPH version. By stopping down though the problem disappears quite quickly.

Edge Smearing

Sony A7r with Leica 28mm f2.8 Elmarit NON ASPH Edge Smearing Test at f2.8

100% Crop at f2.8

Sony A7r with Leica 28mm f2.8 Elmarit NON ASPH Edge Smearing Test at f4

100% Crop at f4

Sony A7r with Leica 28mm f2.8 Elmarit NON ASPH Edge Smearing Test at f5.6

100% Crop at 5.6

Sony A7r with Leica 28mm f2.8 Elmarit NON ASPH Edge Smearing Test at f8

100% Crop at f8

As you can see, these are the same scenes I took previously with hte ASPH version. This lens definitely still suffers from edge smearing but to a lesser extent. You still would not want to take any landscape shots at f2.8 or even f4 but certainly stopped down to f5.6 or even better yet f8 and everything will be fine with hardly any edge smearing problem.

Conclusion

Although this lens still suffers from the same problems as the ASPH version, the extent to which they occur is much less. So much so in fact that I think unlike the ASPH version, it is actually very usable on the Sony A7r. At f2.8 there are going to still be edge smearing, but it will certainly be usable for things like street photography (which if you are shooting at f2.8 you probably do not want the entire frame to be sharp anyways). If you are shooting landscapes and such or want the entire frame to be sharp you will probably stop down to f5.6 or f8 anyway and so then edge smearing would not be a problem either. So overall if you are looking for a 28mm Rangefinder lens for your Sony A7r this might be an option, considering you can get one now for about $1,000.

Sony A7r with Leica 28mm f2.8 Elmarit ASPH Review - Corner Sharpness, Vignetting, Color Fringing and Edge Smearing Test Sample Images

Sony A7r with Leica 28mm f2.8 Elmarit ASPH

I have been so busy testing other lenses on the Sony A7r that I forgot to test one of the best reviewed Leica M-Mount lens out there, the 28mm f2.8 Elmarit ASPH that many people say is better than the more expensive Summilux version. I have got to say the lens looks great on the camera, it is also amazingly light and small.

Sony A7r with Leica 28mm f2.8 Elmarit ASPH

But those reviews were based on using the lens on Leica camera bodies, both film and digital. Sadly however, when used with the Sony A7r despite showing flashes of brilliance it suffers from so many problems (at least in my experience) that you are probably better off looking at other lenses.

Vignetting

Sony A7r with Leica 28mm f2.8 Elmarit ASPH Vignetting Test at f2.8

Sony A7r with Leica 28mm f2.8 Elmarit ASPH Vignetting Test at f4

Sony A7r with Leica 28mm f2.8 Elmarit ASPH Vignetting Test at f5.6

Sony A7r with Leica 28mm f2.8 Elmarit ASPH Vignetting Test at f8

The vignetting test was the first test I did and straightaway I could tell that this lens is probably going to suffer problems when used with this camera. Not only does it suffers from significant vignetting, some color casts could already be seen. Also even more worryingly the vignetting is not symetrical which in my experience suggests that the lens is suffering from something more than just natural vignetting.

Corner Sharpness and Edge Smears

Sony A7r with Leica 28mm f2.8 Elmarit ASPH Corner Sharpness Test at f2.8

 

100% Crop at f2.8

Sony A7r with Leica 28mm f2.8 Elmarit ASPH Vignetting Test at f4

100% Crop at f4

Sony A7r with Leica 28mm f2.8 Elmarit ASPH Vignetting Test at f5.6

100% Crop at f5.6

Sony A7r with Leica 28mm f2.8 Elmarit ASPH Vignetting Test at f8

100% Crop at f8

If you just look at the sample pictures above you might think that the corner performance of this lens wide open at f2.8 is not very sharp and it get progressively better as you stop down until you reach f8 when the lens is at its peak. I have seen tests of this lens before however, and know that its sharpness is actually really good right from being wide open so I am pretty sure it is suffering from some edge smearing effect.

Sony A7r with Leica 28mm f2.8 Elmarit ASPH Edge Smearing at f2.8

100% Crop at f2.8

Sony A7r with Leica 28mm f2.8 Elmarit ASPH Edge Smearing at f4

100% Crop at f4

Sony A7r with Leica 28mm f2.8 Elmarit ASPH Edge Smearing at f8

100% Crop at f8

By taking some more shots with more fine details at the corner of the picture we can clearly see that the lens suffers quite badly from edge smearing and it is not just soft in the edges. You can see this in the foliage and leaves at the edge of the photo.

Close Focus at f2.8

100% Crop at f2.8

One thing that I have finally figured out is that the further away you focus the more the lens suffers from edge smearing (especially at infinity). This holds true not just for this lens but all M-Mount and Rangefinder lenses used on the Sony A7r. This seems to explain why when using the same lens I would notice severe edge smearing in some shots but not other.

Conclusion

If you already have the lens you might be able to use it for street photography where the focus is usually pretty near or shots where you do not need the entire photo to be sharp. If you are however planning to buy the lens to use on the A7r I do not think it will be worth it.