THE SUMMICRON ARRIVES! THANKS FED EX MAN!

So, after getting a quick taste of the Ultron, I eagerly awaited the arrival of the Summicron to see how much better it really was. I mean, I was pretty happy with the results from the Ultron. As stated earlier, I did notice some soft corners in some shots, as well as the ugly cyan casts in the corners. This is due to the M8 though and NOT the lens. Coding it for the M8 should have fixed the problem, but it didn't (as you will soon see in the technical comparisons on page 3).

When the 28 Summicron arrived, I opened the box and it looked like a new lens. Silver box, leather case, instructions, lens wrapped in plastic, and the lens itself was a 9.7 out of 10. Dale Photo came through and were fantastic. My usual shop is B&H, but no way I could afford this lens at $4000. If I could, I would have bought the silver version, but that one is $4195! Crazy crazy crazy...

There I was...ecstatic. A kid in a candy store. I now had TWO fast 28’s and I would soon be able to really know if the Voigtlander could even come close to the Leica. The best part is, I can share this information with you!

So once again I slapped on a UV/IR filter and away I went! The lens itself is built about a notch above the Ultron and its focusing and aperture dial is a bit smoother as well. The hood is a MONSTER that makes the lens look 2X as large as the Ultron, but honestly I kind of like it. Its still tiny in comparison to a Canon 5D and 24L. The hood does block a little of the viewfinder, but nothing that distracted me in my real-world shooting.

Since moving to a smaller town, it has been a challenge for me to find new things to shoot. I am used to city life where I could go out and find people, places, or whatever. Here, my main subjects have been run-down barns and houses as that is what I have been finding during my drives.

This first shot of an old factory is one I took a few months ago with my Leica Elmarit. I wanted to compare the performance and see what my final result would be like, so this file has been heavily processed. I made the sky more dramatic, added the fence on the bottom left, and did selective dodge/burn/color on the building. Still, the Ultron would have failed here with its soft corners, softer center, and CYAN drift on the M8 when using a filter. Click any image for larger sized version.

As I drove down a dusty, old road, I saw this tree and thought it would look really cool if the Summicron could render it how I imagined it. The lens did not disappoint. Sharp edge-to-edge with really nice rendering. Not harsh or too contrasty. The original file is AMAZING, but it’s 17MB and I have bandwidth limits, so I can not put it up. But, I will show you a crop of the left corner.

100% CROP OF EXTREME BOTTOM LEFT CORNER

I spotted this farmhouse and the sun was hitting it head on. I wanted to see how the 28 Cron could handle the contrast WIDE OPEN at F2. My Leica Elmarit ASPH would have rendered this in a harsher way. The Cron has a way of “drawing” a scene in a pleasing way. It is smooth, yet detailed at the same time. Click image for larger version.

While hiking with my son, we stumbled upon an old house in the woods. We hiked for about a mile through weeds, sticks, bushes, and hills. We roamed around and found two more houses as well. The 28 Cron was my “Lens Cap” for this trip. Processed in Adobe Camera RAW.

BTW, like the Ultron, the 28 Cron is also great with portraits. The one of my son Brandon below was processed a bit too hot, but I kind of like it. Bold, colorful, smooth, and a little different.

This one of my wife was shot at PF Changs in low light. The lens was wide open at F2 and it was shot at ISO 1250 and all I did was convert it to black and white and then I resized. This shot to me looks just as good as any film shot (well, in its own way) and I am sure the lens helps here.

I took this one from my car window. Saw the “No Trespassing” sign on the left and even though I wanted to wander down the path, I did not want to be face-to-face with a shotgun-wielding land owner! I stayed safe and decided to just take this one picture. Shot at F2, the color and drawing are very nice.

After shooting with the 28 Summicron the things that really hit me were its better color rendering, sharper files and a certain look that was different from both the Voigtlander and my previous Elmarit. When shooting buildings or landscape, this lens does not exhibit the soft corners of the Voigtlander Ultron. BUT, I was starting to find that for portraits, the Ultron was an extremely forgiving and a classic looking lens. I liked it, but I was starting to LOVE the Summicron. It was pretty close to a perfect 28mm.

CLICK HERE TO GO TO PAGE 3 FOR A HEAD TO HEAD COMPARISON OF THE TWO LENSES ---->