I just had a look at the lens schematics of the Leica 50mm Summicron-M and the Zeiss Planar 50 ZM, just out of curiousity. They’re remarkably similar. Now, I’m not a lens expert, but I find it striking how close the two lenses are in terms of their optical design. But look for yourself.
 Leica 50mm Summicron-M (current version) schematic. Picture © Leica Camera AG  Zeiss 50mm Planar ZM schematic. Picture © Carl Zeiss AG Striking, innit? The main difference seems to be in the second group, where the Leica lens has two elements with plane surfaces, whereas the elements in the Zeiss lens are both curved. The rest is almost identical, as are the basic specs: 50mm focal length, f/2 aperture, six elements in four groups. Both made for M mount rangefinders, both purely spherical constructions, designed to deliver high sharpness. If we are to believe what is being said about both lenses, they’re also pretty close in overall performance.
EDIT: After reading a bit more into the matter, I realised that both lenses exhibit a so-called “double Gauss” design, that’s why they are so similar in terms of their optical construction. I also found an interesting note Erwin Puts wrote on the topic of Planar vs. Summicron:
For several generations the Planar design has tried to challenge the Summicron 50mm and never became as good. Now at last we have a lens that equals the Summicron-M 50mm and is even a trace better in the curvature of field area. The optical performance of the Planar is simply as good as that what can be expected form the Leica Summicron. The Double-Gauss design has been studied exhaustingly and it is now possible to equal but not surpass the Summicron design as long as you stay within the D-G limits. It is worth some study to note that the curved elements of the Planar bring no significant improvements in comparison to the many planar surfaces of the current Summicron.
(Source: http://www.imx.nl/photo/zeiss/zeiss/page65.html)
The German newspaper “Die Zeit” has published a quite interesting article on Leica, their history and their current status. It outlines Leica’s financial struggles a couple of years ago, explains how they managed to get back into the black (financially), and sketches out what the future of the company might look like.
Inbetween, you learn lots of interesting details about Leica’s history, and you get some insights into the structure of the company and their philosophy. Definitely worth a read for all Leica aficionados.
The article is written in German, but you can find an English translation here.
Finally! After all these months of waiting, users of the Leica X1, Leica’s homemade large-sensor-compact, get the firmware update they’ve so desparately been waiting for!
The Leica X1 made it to the news not only for featuring a large, 12 megapixel APS-C CMOS sensor, a 24mm f/2.8 Elmarit lens, and for bringing Leica’s finances back into the black, but also for being rather slow and unreliable when it comes to autofocus. Leica promised addressing the issues with the X1 months ago, but as they’re a small company with just over a thousand employees and order books constrantly overfilled, these things take their time.
According to the L-Camera Blog, the new firmware addresses the following issues:
- Enhanced image quality in JPEG files (could you please do that for the M8 as well?)
- Enahnced AF speed in low light and low-contrast scenes
- Enhanced manual focusing including a depth-of-field scale (this was specifically asked for by users — yes, Leica listens to the needs of their customers!)
You can download the new firmware directly from the Leica website here (in German) and here (in English). There, you can also find additional information on the X1 and the new firmware.
In another note, Leica are asking everyone to donate for the victims of the earthquake and tsunami in Japan earlier this year. They’re calling for donations to the Japanese Red Cross, who are having a hard time helping the flood victims all over the country. Again, you can find more information in the L-Camera Blog.
I just received the L-Camera Forum newsletter, which calls for beta-testers for the upcoming firmware updates for the Leica M8 and M9. According to the newsletter, Leica wants the new firmware to be tested by a broad range of users before releasing it officially, to make sure it works correctly with all Leica lenses and under all lighting conditions:
In den nächsten Tagen steht eine Betaversion zur Verfügung, die darauf geprüft werden muss, ob sie mit allen Leica Objektiven und in allen Lichtsituationen perfekte Bildresultate erzeugt.
I take from this that the new firmware is more than a mere bugfix. It might containt an improvement to auto white balance, judging by the above statement. If they could now also implement an M8-like lens selection menu in the M8 firmware, then we could finally get rid of the hassle with getting our third-party lenses coded!
According to the newsletter, the new firmware will be released “within the next weeks”. So stay tuned!
Here’s the announcement in the L-Camera Blog, where you can also sign up as a beta-tester if you’re interested.
The Luminous Landscape, a website most reputed for their coverage of landscape photography and medium format topics, have just published another review of the Leica M9, yet again written by a landscape photographer.
Today, it’s Bill Caulfeild-Browne, treasurer of the Nature Conservancy of Canada, who writes about his experience with this state-of-the-art digital rangefinder camera, some twenty years after his last engage with Leica gear (he used to own an R4 and M6 back in the eighties).
It’s especially interesting to see the M9 valued by so many landscape photographers, who you’d expect to be mostly Medium Format users. So is Bill, who is working with Phase One backs since his switch to digital. The M9 is his companion whenever he desires to go light, yet does not want to (or can not) do without top-notch image quality.
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April 8th, 2011, 8:55 am | 
