Inspiration

Soccer mom.

2012, Inspiration, Leica M9(P)/M-E (CCD Lives!), Portrait, Street, The Beautiful Game, Voigtländer 75mm f/2.5 Color Heliar LTM

Taken partially against the light — wide open — with the “bargain” 75 Color Heliar.

The 100% crops (not shown) are quite impressive; the detailed rendering is obvious, even in this web-sized image.

More than the sharpness, I really appreciate how this lens is handling the light in this scene.

(please click on the image to view)

↑Leica M9 and Voigtländer 75mm Color Heliar LTM @ f/2.5.

Voigtländer 75mm f/2.5 Color Heliar LTM (hmmm….).

2012, Inspiration, Teaching point, Voigtländer 75mm f/2.5 Color Heliar LTM

I’m beginning to see some magic from this Voigtländer 75mm f/2.5 Color Heliar… I may have to revise my opinion that the Leica 75mm Summarit bests it.

If this lens is even close to its Leica equivalent, I would call it a remarkable achievement at 25% of the price.

It’s a shame it’s discontinued.

—Peter.

Voigtländer 75mm f/2.5 Color Heliar LTM (test crops).

2012, Inspiration, Teaching point, Voigtländer 75mm f/2.5 Color Heliar LTM

As I mentioned in yesterday’s post, this lens is pretty impressive — beginning wide open @ f/2.5.

For my own comparison purposes, I shot this test scene to evaluate central sharpness.

Focus is on the leaves inside the red box:

[Note: these are DNG files converted directly to JPG using Aperture 3, with no sharpening added.]

(please click on the image to view)

↑Leica M9 and Voigtländer 75mm f/2.5 Color Heliar LTM.

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Here is the 100% crop of the above @ f/2.5:

(please click on the image to view)

↑Voigtländer 75mm f/2.5 Color Heliar LTM @ f/2.5 (100% crop, no sharpening).

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And here is the 100% crop @ f/4:

(please click on the image to view)

↑Voigtländer 75mm f/2.5 Color Heliar LTM @ f/4 (100% crop, no sharpening).

Amazingly sharp, don’t you think?

—Peter.

Debut of the 75/2.5 Color Heliar.

2012, Inspiration, Print, Teaching point, Voigtländer 75mm f/2.5 Color Heliar LTM

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The test image below marks the debut of my Voigtländer 75mm f/2.5 Color Heliar LTM.

The lens was discontinued a while ago, but I was fortunate enough to find a “new-old stock” one, which arrived yesterday.

Over the years, I’ve read quite a bit about this lens and how it compares quite favourably to the Leica 75mm Summarit (a wonderful lens in its own right — please see my user report here).

What piqued my interest was the reported performance-to-size ratio — I’m always looking for small and lightweight lenses that are capable of powerhouse performance (which, as far as I’m concerned, represents the ethos of the Leica M system).

Having now seen it, I can definitely state that the Color Heliar is indeed incredibly light and and incredibly small.  Some performance trade-off must have been made in order to achieve this state of airiness, but in my limited time with it, I just don’t see it.*

In a word, the Color Heliar’s performance @ f/2.5 is impressive.

I’ll try and post another test shot — including 100% crops — tomorrow.**

—Peter.

(please click on the image to view)

↑Leica M9 and Voigtländer 75mm Color Heliar @ f/2.5.

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*More often than not, the more sought after — and more expensive — Leica counterpart lenses will excel in the areas of build quality, micro-contrast, flare resistance, sharpness wide open, corner performance, etc… but sometimes the differences are very subtle and some of those qualities, for my type of shooting, are not critical.

**Please note that I have no intention of writing a review, I’m just sharing the information I gather during my evaluation of this lens.

Blue.

2012, Inspiration, Leica 50mm Summilux ASPH f/1.4, Print, Teaching point

Monochrome floral.

Incidentally, this image was processed in Lightroom 4, because my copy of Aperture 3 crashed and wouldn’t re-start when I was processing images for a client.  It’s the first time I’ve used LR4 (the first image I processed with it was this one) and the experience has been positive.

My copy of Aperture is finally back up and running, but Lightroom has earned a permanent place in my post-processing toolbox.

(please click on the image to view)

↑Leica M9 and Leica 50mm Summilux ASPH @ f/1.4.

Halo [Flare].

2012, Favourite, Inspiration, Leica 50mm Summilux ASPH f/1.4, Life's Little Moments, Portrait, Teaching point

I’m of course referencing the ring of light found in religious and literary iconography.

The dramatic halo effect in this image is courtesy of the optical “flaw” known as lens flare — something I’ve harnessed in the past to convey my view of life as a dream.

(please click on the image to view)

↑Leica M9 and Leica 50mm Summilux ASPH @ f/1.4.