Finally – or should I say already – Steve Huff has posted his real-world review of the new Leica Summilux-M 35mm f/1.4 ASPH. lens, the second and improved version of this lens. The main reason for Leica do develop a new version of the legendary 35 ‘lux was that the old version showed considerable focus shift on Leica’s digital bodies, and many users were upset by this. This new version now adds floating elements to the design, which help to improve close-distance focusing and getting rid of focus shift.
In fact, looking at the samples in Steve’s review, it really looks like they could narrow focus shift down to a point where it isn’t visible in real life usage – this excludes taking close-up pictures of rulers at steep angles! 
If you’re curious to learn how this lens performs, and see a huge load of pictures showing off the new 35 ‘lux’s great character, head over to Steve’s website and read his review!
Emil and I accompanied Jasmin to her riding lessons this evening. On the way, we saw this. I could swear the egg wasn’t hanging there at Easter!
 "Egg, hanging from tree" | Leica M8 + Biogon 35/2 @ f/2, ISO 160 In other news, my Biogon 2/35 doesn’t seem to focus to infinity correctly. Apart from my M8’s rangefinder being ever so slightly off (but accurate anywhere else, at least in combination with the Biogon), I don’t get anything distant sharp with the Biogon at the wider apertures. In a recent f/2 shot, it seemed like the in-focus area went up to about ten meters, and from thereon things got blurred. This must be a problem inherent to the lens, as the lens itself was set to infinity. At smaller apertures this is less of a problem (none whatsoever at f/8), and it doesn’t bother me much as I rarely focus to infinity at all, but I wonder what causes this and if less distant focal settings are off, too. Gotta post this to one of the forums …
Recently, I put the Cosmicar/Pentax 25mm f/1.4 C-mount TV-lens back on my E-P1, after not having used it for quite some time. I was instantly reminded what I loved about this lens so much: It’s a normal focal length, it has a fast initial aperture and it draws some unique pictures, with crazy swirly bokeh, great colours and great sharpness. Add to this the heavily blurred egdes and slight vignetting, and you get some really outstanding pictures – in the literal sense of the word.
The first picture shows a heap of branches that had been picked up around the park after the storm a few days ago.
 Olympus E-P1 + Cosmicar/Pentax 25/1.4 @ f/1.4, 1/125 sec, ISO 200 Continue reading Two new shots with the C/P 25/1.4
Especially with the artificial light in our living room! After finally receiving a filter for my Biogon 2/35 – I had initially purchased one via an online seller, but they had to order it themselves, first, and it wouldn’t have arrived before next month, so I now got a used one from eBay – I took some quick comparison shots to see how much difference adding the filter actually makes. And it makes a huge difference!
 Without UV/IR cut filter | Leica M8 + Biogon 35/2 @ f/2, 1/60 sec, ISO 640 | JPEG from camera Continue reading What a difference a UV/IR filter makes!
Something I see (almost) every day – the water boiler next to my office. On the left: the switches for moving the window shutters on this floor.
 Olympus E-P1 + Cosmicar/Pentax 25/1.4 @ f/1.4, 1/100 sec, ISO 320 I put the C/P 25/1.4 back on my E-P1 just for fun The b&w conversion was done in Lighroom 3 beta 2 using the “High contrast b&w” preset and adding some additional grain.
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June 15th, 2010, 9:03 am | 
