Leica Noctilux-M 75 mm f1.25 ASPH Announced:

If the 50mm f0.95 Noctilux-M isn’t your cup of tea but you still want an ultra fast lens, you’re in luck because the new Leica Noctilux-M 75 mm f1.25 ASPH has been announced for the Leica M system today.  Some quick notes about it: It has a close focusing distance of 0.85m, and 11 aperture blades for ultra smooth bokeh.  It also has even shallower depth of field than the 50mm f0.95 Noctilux.

Knowing Leica, this will be one legendary lens to say the least.  Not just in terms of optics but apparently, also physically.  It looks huge.  With a 67mm filter thread, this is a big lens for the M system.  I would also imagine that it would be somewhat challenging to focus the 75mm Noctilux on an M as it can be challenging to focus my 75mm Summilux at times (even with the attachable EVF).  Still, for those up for it, the images will be truly unique.  Also, this lens will probably be great on the SL :).

As for the price, you might want to sit down for this one…the price of this beautiful masterpiece is a whopping $12,795.  Yes, you read that right.  We’re talking car price here but in my opinion, it was kind of expected given the price of the Noctilux-M 50mm :).  Still, this is probably going to be a very special lens, and it’ll be one of those classics in the long term.  I’m probably not buying one anytime soon, especially since I’m still impatiently waiting for the 90mm APO SL lens to be released but I think the Noctilux-M 75 mm f1.25 ASPH will be a masterpiece of a lens.  Leave a comment below and let me know your thoughts are on the Noctilux-M 75 mm f1.25 ASPH.

Preorders are available: B&H Photo

Leica Press release: [continue reading…]

A Look at The Fujifilm XF 56mm f1.2 R APD Lens:

I imagine some of you are getting ready for Thanksgiving, so I’m going to keep it short today.  I know I still have to do a little last minute food shopping myself but I thought I’d write up one more post before Thanksgiving.  So, last night I was working on some of the pictures for my upcoming Fuji X-E3 review (which I’ll probably post next week), and I started to look at a couple of files I took with the XF 56mm f1.2 APD.  The lens is my own copy, not a loaner but I haven’t used it in months until a couple of days ago with the X-E3.  The funny thing is it’s been so long since I’ve used the XF 56mm APD that I kind of forgot how much of an impact this lens has in terms of rendering.  The smooth bokeh is so pleasing…to be honest, it kind of surprised me in a good way. [continue reading…]

Billingham 72 vs. 4 Other Billingham Bags:

Today, I’m going to talk a bit more about the new Billingham 72 camera bag.  For those interested, I wrote a long review earlier, and it can be found here.  Anyway, a reader wanted to know how the new Billingham 72 compares to the M Combination, and the Hadley Small.  I was actually going to write up a comparison between the 72, Stowaway Compact, and Stowaway Pola but I figured I might as well just put it all together, and compare all five bags at once. [continue reading…]

The ACROS Film Mode in the Fujifilm X-E3:

Hey everyone!  So, I am definitely a RAW shooter.  I have friends that shoot in jpeg, and they even edit from them but my personal preference has always been to shoot in RAW.  In fact, pretty much every photo on this blog has been processed from a RAW file.  So, when Fujifilm came out with the ACROS film simulation mode for their X Series cameras a while back, I thought it was really cool but I haven’t really used it much.  I think I tried it once or twice but that was about it. [continue reading…]