LEICA SUMMICRON 90MM F2 TEST SHOTS ON R5
I recently inherited my father’s Leica R4s which was the camera he taught me how to shoot photography on when I was a young boy. I’ll talk more about that story in another post. This blog is about the lens that was on the front of that camera the Leica Summicron R 90mm f2.
The first thing I did when my father gave me his camera is buy an adapter so I could mount this beautiful 90mm Summicron on my EOS R5. I picked up the Haoge LR-EOS R adapter. There is a little bit of wobble between the lens and the adapter but it wasn’t significant enough to affect focus or be an issue while shooting. Never the less I’ll be replacing this adapter with a Fotodiox adapter soon.
It was so cool to shoot with the 90mm prime again. I don’t think I’ve shot with another 90mm since I shot with this one as a kid. It’s not a popular focal length for primes. Though the Canon RF 85mm 1.2 is actually an 87mm which makes it pretty close to 90mm. Maybe that would explain why I’ve always had a fondness for the look of Canon’s 85mm lens.
The Leica Summicron 90mm f2 does not disappoint when it comes to sharpness and contrast. WOW! I’ve shot with a lot of vintage lenses and I love that vintage look but this Leica lens was so advanced the images I got from it could rival modern lenses. Images shot with this lens definitely had that 3D pop. It really is exceptional when compared to other lenses from the same era. That being said this lens isn’t perfect it does exhibit some tendencies found in all vintage lenses. It is not particularly sharp wide open at f2 but it sharpens up fast when stopped down. There are noticeable chromatic aberrations around the edges of photos especially when shooting against a bright background. Overall this is a fantastic lens. There really is something unique about how it captures light. Maybe I’m crazy and it’s all in my head but the images I got from this lens have a really unique look about them. There is a certain 3D pop and an abundance of detail in the images. It certainly doesn’t exhibit the typical tendencies you would expect to find in a lens labeled as “vintage”. It makes me wonder of perhaps this lens is too good to be considered good vintage glass. It’s those little imperfections in vintage lenses that make them so interesting. But I guess that’s all subjective. There are so many old lenses out there to shoot with. Enjoy the photos.
