As I previously posted, I recently acquired a Leica Noctilux f/1.0 and added it to the stable of lenses I normally use.

Now, I am not a lens tester by any stretch of the imagination – I don’t photograph test charts, or brick walls; I don’t place my camera on a lab bench with a tripod taking repeated measurements.

But, like all disciplined photographers, I do carefully observe how each of my lenses behave under different shooting circumstances.  I pay particular attention to each lens’ strengths and weaknesses in environments in which I regularly find myself, and – finally – look for the general character of the image output.  That’s what I’m most interested in.

By doing this, I have conceptually set aside certain lenses for daylight use, for low-light, for action, for situations where cold-hard details are required, for situations where soft and dreamy portraits are my priority, for scenes in which “interesting” bokeh is desired, for scenes where neutral and smooth bokeh is preferred, etc.  Each lens has a particular flavour that potentially lends itself to a given situation.

So, that being said, I took out my new-used Noctilux f/1.0 for a walk – to start acquainting myself with it.

Normally on this site, I only post photos that have some emotional significance to me.  However, I thought some of the the sample images from my “test” walk would be of general interest.

Please note that all of these images were shot at f/1.0 – the aperture in which I’m most interested.  A neutral density filter was used to overcome the brightness of shooting at f/1 in daylight.

The first thing I was looking for was general sharpness.  Lens sharpness isn’t everything, but it is important.  It’s the one thing you can’t add to a photo during post-processing, if the photo is blurry to begin with (whereas you can always take a sharp photo and make it blurry).

When I write sharpness, I’m referring to central image sharpness and not sharpness across the field.  As a (mainly) portrait shooter, I really don’t care if the corners of an image are blurry – in fact that’s a positive thing for me.  Landscape shooters, of course, would care.

The first image is of a Monarch butterfly I encountered:

(please click on any of the images below)

↑Leica M9 and Leica f/1.0 Noctilux @ f/1.0.

The sharpness seems pretty good (the focus was on the butterfly, of course).  The bokeh looks pretty good too – smooth but not too smooth for my taste.

Let’s look at the 100% crop.  The sharpness holds up but we also see something commonly encountered with fast lenses shot at their widest apertures:  purple fringing.

↑Leica M9 and Leica f/1.0 Noctilux @ f/1.0 (100% crop).

Purple fringing tends to occur in high contrast transition points, typically on the edge of dark structures  – in this case the edge of the butterfly wing – against bright backgrounds.  In actuality, purple fringing is an example of longitudinal chromatic aberration (forget the technical stuff, just know when you’re likely to see it, as I’ve illustrated above).

Let’s look at another image.

I next encountered this scene of a man sitting on a park bench and focused on him:

(please click on any of the images below)

↑Leica M9 and Leica f/1.0 Noctilux @ f/1.0.

And here is the 100% crop:

↑Leica M9 and Leica f/1.0 Noctilux @ f/1.0 (100% crop).

Once again, pretty darn good considering this was shot at f/1.0 in harsh daylight!  It’s not as sharp as the (newer) Noctilux f/0.95 ASPH is at f/1.0, but the “old” Noctilux’s ability to capture details is mighty impressive.  I would go further to say that I appreciate the character of this lens at f/1.0 more than of the newest ASPH Noctilux.   It’s hard to explain, but this old Noctilux seems to create images where the in-focus elements are simultaneously sharp and soft… Again, perfect for portraits.

OK, enough of sharpness and image crops.

The other thing I noticed while shooting was that at f/1.0 this Noctilux vignettes.  Here is an image where the vignette has been exaggerated by adding contrast to the image as a whole (i.e., I did not add a vignette, but by adding contrast to the entire image, the vignetting that was naturally produced by the lens was exaggerated):

(please click on the image below)

↑Leica M9 and Leica f/1.0 Noctilux @ f/1.0.

Why am I evaluating vignetting in an image that I’ve already post-processed?  Well, as I wrote above, I’m not scientifically evaluating but I’m examining this lens under the conditions in which I work.  In the native file, I already see the vignetting but, by adding contrast to it, the vignetting is emphasized.

Again, vignetting may be a negative thing, depending on your style of photography, but I appreciate it in the case of portraiture, where the darkened borders help to “bring out” the central subject.

Speaking of “bringing out” the subject, I’ll include two more images taken during my walk that I believe highlight the subject isolation abilities of this lens, when shot at f/1.0:

(please click on any of the images below)

↑Leica M9 and Leica f/1.0 Noctilux @ f/1.0.

↑Leica M9 and Leica f/1.0 Noctilux @ f/1.0.

What do I mean by subject isolation?  In each of the above images, the in-focus elements seem to “pop-out” of the image; some refer to this as the “3D” effect.  Whatever you call it, this look is secondary to the shallow depth of field conferred by shooting at f/1.0.  At f/1.0, there is only a razor-thin plane where things are going to be in-focus; the rest of the scene will out-of-focus.  This is one of the qualities people covet when they seek out a lens like the Noctilux and why they shoot at f/1.0 – even in daylight.

I could write more (about bokeh, flare resistance, etc.) but this discussion is already proving to be lengthy so ‘ll end it here for now.

OK, I lied… here is one more 100% crop, of the Balloon Walk image above:

(please click on the image below)

↑Leica M9 and Leica f/1.0 Noctilux @ f/1.0 (100% crop).

You can actually read the Happy Birthday text on the balloons; as I wrote above, the in-focus elements in the image are simultaneously sharp and soft – I really appreciate this.

Thanks for taking the time to read this.

If you wish to view more of my images taken with this lens, as I keep shooting with it, please click on the link here.

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