Sometimes a lens comes along that gives you a special something in a space where you thought you had all you needed.
Stymied by a shortage of 30mm Sigma lenses to fill my order, curious about the “Leica” factor I seem to be seeing in the 12-60 and 8-18 lenses and after a fast G9 solution (aperture and AF), I grabbed the quite expensive 15mm f1.7 Leica.
A shot for book week taken for the paper, a similar one was published today (this one is from the next second after, so a different image technically), the little Leica shows it’s character and quality.
The centre is bitingly sharp (no processing after C1 default import and some highlight recovery) and has that clean separation I was hoping for, basically a wide angle with a little telephoto depth control.
Even though Cap was slightly out of focus, a little localised sharpening still picks him up.
Another of two parents in their happy space. Same clean cut away of the subjects, but enough depth to guarantee a useable file.
One of my favoirite lenses if =s the 17mm Oly, but I have to say, the slightly cleaner and crisper image wide open, the slightly wider angle and surprisingly sure footed AF performance, not only on the G9’s it was bought for, but also on an OM10 mk2 (a camera that has been troubled by other Pana lenses), may push the Oly into street and travel only where it excels.
Matching the 15mm with an Olympus 45mm (on an Oly camera), reaps rewards in cohesion and balance.
Similar performance, although the Olympus files have a “denser”, warmer feel to them.
Added to this, but not properly tested yet, is the 30mm Sigma, found through a different source.