"Leica Glow" Myth or reality?

I am pretty damn certain it exists, as some kind of holy grail of lens

making. I have seen it, many times. Nevertheless, I would really like

to hear from anyone who feels one way or the other that it exists, or

does not exist. I am going to go out on a limb here, and name two

people who also claim that Leica lenses have an edge:

 

Doug Herr sold all of his Nikon lenses after seeing the results of

photos shot with Leitz lenses.

 

Talking with Sherry Krauter, she said that leica lenses give the

subject a "3D" look. I have noticed this interesting effect as well. I

have read, I think, that it is caused by Leica lenses ability to

render greater tonality.

 

So my question is, are Leica lens formulations like the recipe for

Coca Cola, some kind of closely guarded secret that makes them king of

the ant heap?

 

Or is it simply that Leitz designs better lenses than anyone else, and

for all their efforts the Japanese cannot pull of the same trick?

 

Or, if it is no real mystery, then why has no Japanese maker ever made

lenses in the same league? I have shot with Canon, Nikon, etc, and

while they are excellent lenses, I have never seen one that produced

the same "look."

 

1. I think any lens formulations are kept pretty secret, but are pretty easy to reverse engineer. The Leica Glow is a result of 2 things: spherical aberration which the Leica engineers were quite ashamed of, and the micro contrast already present in Leica Lenses. The newer Leica lenses (ASPH ones) do not have this glow. Micro-contrast is perceptible but really hard to measure. You need photo samples of a spectrum from light to dark to see it. There are some clear comparisons of high and low micro-contrast on line.

 

2. I think the trick of spherical aberration has been pulled off in lots of lenses. Micro-contrast is hard to reproduce, but the Nikkor 50mm 1.4 has the Leica glow, too, because of the flaw of spherical aberration and high micro-contrast. The newer lenses that are sharper actually looks less 3D!

 

Try the 50mm 1.4 Nikon lens wide open and I'm sure you'll get that glow. Make sure it's the version that doesn't correct for spherical aberration.

 

Anyways, I created this account just to say there is no mystery. It's just spherical aberration + high micro-contrast. Lots of 2000-ish lenses will do that, but not the newer ones that remove the aberration.

My 18-55mm Fuji zoom has "Fuji Glow", unfortunately mold induced.

Leica glow?

 

My Leica lenses take technically very nice photos with a distinctive Leica look. Even on my Fuji xt1(love it).they have the Leica signature but not on a Sony.

 

Fuji should replace your Fuji lens Sandy.....it would be a good marketing policy and create immeasurable good will among Fuji users.

 

Unfortunately, those who sit in the kiddy heights of these Companies, are lost to the real world, only seeing themselves in the mirrors of their ivory towers...

Too much time has passed Allen. Fuji has taken care of me on some other issues and I've found the 27mm will do just about everything the zoom will do at a fraction of the weight. Mold is a fact of life where I live.

from 2005!

 

let it rest in peace, and start a new thread if there is anything left to say on this age-old topic.

 

Elmar (or was it Elmo?) lens on gold and rosewood Swedish Army "leica"

As some have remarked, the camera component making the single greatest contribution to the image quality is the nut found just behind the viewfinder. In talented and knowledgeable hands, good photos can be made with inexpensive equipment; in the hands of clods, poor photos can be made with the highest quality and most expensive equipment. In the hands of a talented and capable photographer, however, high quality equipment can make a difference.

 

At least some Leica lenses from the 1920s through the 1950s were reputed to produce images with a glow not often seen with other lenses. At a guess, it might have been the result of older, simpler lens designs with some spherical aberrations, uncoated lenses producing some reflection between lens elements, and shooting toward sunlight or strong artificial light sources. Whatever it was, older Leica lenses had that reputation among photographers for years. Some people consider that to be just a romantic myth, but if so, it certainly was a persistent one, shared by a number of experienced and capable photographers.

 

Newer Leica lenses do not have that reputation. They do, however, have a reputation for having high resolution and contrast, few visible aberrations, and good color balance, and for producing images with more of a three-dimensional quality than photos of the same subjects taken under the same conditions with other equipment. The only modern Leica lens I have is a 75mm f/2 Summicron. While I am not an expert on optics, it certainly produces images with very high technical quality, and I like it very much.

 

I have taken some rather nice photos with an old Nikkor 85mm f/2 LTM; 35mm f/2 Canon LTM, and Canon 50mm f/1.4 LTM; with a variety of manual-focus Nikon Ai and AIS lenses on a digital Nikon body; and with some autofocus Nikon AF-S lenses on that same body. Under the right circumstances, they are all capable of producing good images. The 75mm f/2 Summicron delivers the highest technical quality of any lens I have ever used, though, and the results it produces do not feel clinical, at least in my view.