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Lenses

Which One? Battle of the Leica 50mm Summicron Lenses

Chris Gampat
No Comments
09/06/2011
1 Min read
Chris Gampat The Phoblographer Ricoh GXR with Leica product photos (2 of 6)

With both the Leica 50mm f2 Summicron collapsible and newer version of the Leica 50mm Summicron on me, I decided to do a head to head test with the Ricoh GXR and A12 module to see if one really needs to get the latest and the greatest lenses for the best image quality and sharpness.

Let’s see if your pixel peeping skills are up to the challenge.

Conditions

Both lenses were mounted on the Ricoh GXR and A12 module and focused the same distance away. The camera’s setting were set to ISO 500 and was set to aperture priority with a two second shutter delay. I fired a shot at each aperture on the lens and then repeated the test with the next lens.

All lighting conditions were the same. The camera was mounted on the Vanguard Nivelo.

After shooting in DNG, the images were sized down to 500K at the most with no vertical or horizontal resizing. I also keyworded and converted them to JPEGs.

Purpose

Once again, the purpose of this test is to see whether or not one can tell the difference between the old Leica lens and the new one if they are considering investing in the GXR system.

Test

Lens 1 at f2.0
Lens 2 at f2.0

F2.8

Lens 1 at f2.8
Lens 2 at f2.8

F4

Lens 1 at f4
Lens 2 at f4

F5.6

Lens 1 at f5.6
Lens 2 at f5.6

F8

Lens 1 at f8
Lens 2 at f8

So can you tell which lens is which? Let us know in the comments below and also be sure to let us know why you think so.

50mm f2 a12 GXR leica lenses ricoh sharpness summicron
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Chris Gampat is the Editor in Chief, Founder, and Publisher of the Phoblographer. He provides oversight to all of the daily tasks, including editorial, administrative, and advertising work. Chris's editorial work includes not only editing and scheduling articles but also writing them himself. He's the author of various product guides, educational pieces, product reviews, and interviews with photographers. He's fascinated by how photographers create, considering the fact that he's legally blind./ HIGHLIGHTS: Chris used to work in Men's lifestyle and tech. He's a veteran technology writer, editor, and reviewer with more than 15 years experience. He's also a Photographer that has had his share of bylines and viral projects like "Secret Order of the Slice." PAST BYLINES: Gear Patrol, PC Mag, Geek.com, Digital Photo Pro, Resource Magazine, Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Finance, IGN, PDN, and others. EXPERIENCE: Chris Gampat began working in tech and art journalism both in 2008. He started at PCMag, Magnum Photos, and Geek.com. He founded the Phoblographer in 2009 after working at places like PDN and Photography Bay. He left his day job as the Social Media Content Developer at B&H Photo in the early 2010s. Since then, he's evolved as a publisher using AI ethically, coming up with ethical ways to bring in affiliate income, and preaching the word of diversity in the photo industry. His background and work has spread to non-profits like American Photographic Arts where he's done work to get photographers various benefits. His skills are in SEO, app development, content planning, ethics management, photography, Wordpress, and other things. EDUCATION: Chris graduated Magna Cum Laude from Adelphi University with a degree in Communications in Journalism in 2009. Since then, he's learned and adapted to various things in the fields of social media, SEO, app development, e-commerce development, HTML, etc. FAVORITE SUBJECT TO PHOTOGRAPH: Chris enjoys creating conceptual work that makes people stare at his photos. But he doesn't get to do much of this because of the high demand of photography content. / BEST PHOTOGRAPHY TIP: Don't do it in post-production when you can do it in-camera.
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