Some Mini Leica Magic

The (old) G9 and Leica 9mm have become a low light staple.

Bought early on at the paper as a weight reducer (40-150 f4, 9 and to a lesser extent the 15mm were all purchased under the feeble excuse of weight reduction, but they did actually make a difference).

Lovely flare control, contrast and sharpness and I really do not care where I point it.

A find I can hand hold in almost any light and the combination of a fast, super sharp and well controlled M43 wide angle, which even at f1.7 gives me tons of depth of field.

The more I use it, the more impressed I am becoming.

The series below were shot basically directly into a strong stage spot light literally just cropped out of the top left side of the frame.

I would normally not push my gear that hard, asking it to see what I could not with my own eyes.

Turns out, it had some cool tricks up it’s sleeve.

“Bubble flare”, very in keeping with the vibe of the night.

With a little, just a little de-haze applied in C1, it held detail and contrast, while allowing the funkiness of the flare to still rule.

I particularly like the larger ring around the side. For comparison, I also tried the trusty 12-40 Olympus in the same spot and got a wall of white light, much as I expected.

So the list of goodness this little lens has to offer now includes;

  • Super light weight.

  • Weather sealed.

  • Small, but comfortable.

  • Flare resistant to a huge degree.

  • When not, flare enhancing it seems.

  • A wide angle macro (3cm close focus).

  • Sharp at any aperture, but I rarely move away from f1.7 to 2.8.

  • Near infinite depth of field, even wide open (it is a 9mm).

  • Near telepathic AF.

  • Nice manual focus.

  • In video it performs brilliantly and provides an 18/36/50mm focal length.

Zero space, lots of things going on and point and hope focussing, no issue.

Only inches from touching the handle bars.