Need new 50mm - Zeiss vs Leica

[Denny Smith]

The terms Summicron and Elmarit usually correlate directly with the f/stop, thus "SUMMICRON" means the very best f/2 lens, both in optical design and a fast f/stop for a normal photography lens. The bigger difference is between lenses made befor the 1990’s and those later, which are an APO design added in then1990s. Summicron lenses are all f*2.0, and a little larger than the Elmarit, which are f/2.8.
Both optically are excellent lenses, with the Summicron being one stop faster. So the trade off is a faster lend or s smaller lighter lens.
Cheers

[Nomad]

I own a (nearly) full set of CY lenses, but the 18mm is sometimes too slow for me at f4 and the 21mm too expensive.
So I combined them with the Sigma 18-35mm for the wide end. With a bit of diffusion on the Sig they can be matched quite well in post, color characteristics are not too far off. Leica are phantastic lenses too, but in my opinion harder to match.

[vvvvv]

For information about different Leica R lenses, I found this site helpfull:

https://www.l-camera-forum.com/leica...x_Focal_Length

The forum discussions under each lens are useful when deciding what lenses to get. Itīs not always so straight forward with these lenses. For example 90mm 2.8 being sharper then 90mm 2.0. etc.

[Nomad]

Reduser has a lot of information on Leica-R lenses too.