Street and travel photography with the Leica APO Summicron-SL 75mm f/2 ASPH lens
Some background and context
It’s been a year since I invested in the SL, my first Leica, coming from over two decades of being an enthusiast Nikon fanboy and after exploring the Fuji X system. What finally made me invest in a Leica was not just the combination of brand, build and image quality, but the full-frame mirrorless body with it’s amazing EVF and that exceptional 24-90mm zoom. As gorgeous as the M cameras are, I just can’t work with rangefinder focussing and those fiddly little lenses. The real-time large EVF with WYSIWYG composition was enough for me to divest myself of some savings. Enough real world amateur sample images had convinced me that the results would be worth it; no more waxy skin tones being a key deal-maker. I’m not getting into a cost-benefit analysis or value for money comparison with other brands. Suffice to say that the difference was worth it to me.
One of the great elements of the Leica SL is the real-time, WYSIWYG EVF display that enables immediate exposure compensations for tricky lighting. Leica Summicron-SL 75mm f4.5 1/2500th ISO400.
Leica Summicron-SL 75mm f2 1/100th ISO400.
I was also taken with the idea of adapting a range of legacy manual focus lenses, but had also seen the Photokina announcement in September 2016 promising bespoke AF lenses for the SL. In the meantime I experimented with Leica M, R and Voigtlander lenses, as well as some old Nikon F and M42 cold war ‘novelty’ lenses. I’d been tempted by the SL-50mm but it’s size, weight and slow speed put me off, and it’s not a focal length that I imagine using enough to justify the cost. I very nearly bought a new Summicron M 75mm, but with the promise of the SL version I delayed my gratification. Little did I know that I would be waiting a full 18 months for it. But, in late January 2018 the lens was released from captivity. I managed to secure one of the first out of the Wetzlar fold from Dale Photographic of Leeds, UK, who securely and quickly shipped the lens to me at my workplace in Doha, Qatar. It arrived just a few days before I was heading to Bangkok for a week of street and travel photography. How excited was I?
The Leica APO-Summicron-SL 75mm arrives on my desk from Dale Photographic, UK.
This is not a lens test. I include one pair comparison images, but this article is intended as a user review, and a case for using the 75mm focal length as a street photography lens. What follows are my impressions and user experiences with the lens. Bear in mind that these are 300kb images. Larger versions are viewable at this Flickr page: Bangkok market portraits Enjoy.
