Leica Summilux 50mm F/1.4 ASPH -Three Years with the Lens - Review

Hello photography fans, today I would like to talk about one particular lens, the Leica Summilux 50mm aspherical. I am going to take a look at why this lens is so unique, as well as my experience with it. So let’s get started.

So this is the Leica Summilux; it is a 50mm F 1.4 ASPH prime lens designed for the Leica M system. The lens is in the black anodized finish. You can get it also in Silver, which is a little heavier, or the limited black chrome edition, which is made of solid brass and has the 1959 design. I went for the black one because it is the one that looks best, in my opinion, and it nicely compliments the silver Leica body. It also looks great paired with the black body, but as I said in my video about the M 240, I kind of feel like nowadays, everybody has a phone or camera. Gone are the days when you could say “I am getting the black because it is stealthier.” Whenever you bring your hand holding something to your face everyone will assume you are taking pictures. But, with the retro look of the silver M body, most people will just think you are a hipster with a film camera or you are just playing around. So that way I actually think you are stealthier than with the black version. The silver one, in addition of being heavier, is also not that nice in my opinion. Also a lot of cameras are black nowadays so I feel like it is nice to have something different.

The Summilux is Leica’s second fastest lens after Noctilux. Now, how is this different from the “normal” 50mm leica Summilux? The lens features one aspherical element to reduce spherical aberrations which very simply is the deviation of the lens representation from the reality. As the light passes thru air and glass and air and glass and so on we run into refraction problems. Aspherical lenses help minimize spherical aberrations and other optical problems, which is not my definition but something I have find on wikipedia and here on youtube. If you want to find out more, I will leave the links in description.

The lens is actually pretty heavy. Not that it would be heavy for the general 50mm lens because it is actually one of the smallest lenses but for the size you would actually expect it to be lighter. If you don’t know what I mean, you can try next time when you visit a Leica store to hold the lens in the hand. 
The focusing is pretty smooth and is actually quite enjoyable. Unlike the black chrome version, this one comes with a finger support which I actually use a lot. The aperture ring moves in half stops and you will hear this click every time you turn it from stop to stop. I don’t really mind this. The only instance I could think of when this could be a problem would be a video if you actually want to use this lens for video and change the aperture during the filming. As I already said, the lens is pretty small and I find it just perfect when attached to my M.

The lens comes with built-in hood which you pull and twist to lock, which is great because if you want to use a hood because of the sun or just because, you want to protect your glass so you don’t bump into anything.  You can also use 46mm screw-in filters but I have read somewhere that some people had problems with the hood when they used filters. I don’t have any filters so I could not try it out. Please let me know if you have the filter and this lens if you have any problems with the hood. Other than that the lens is also weather- and dust-sealed.
The lens is pretty sharp at 1.4 and it can go all the way up to f 16. It cannot go to f 22 or 32, which is probably pretty obvious for those who know the Leica lenses but I was actually asked once about that so I thought it would be worth mentioning.

The lens comes with this kind of leather looking bag, which I am not sure if that is actually leather or not. It’s a nice thing to have if you have more lenses and want to store them. I have only one, so I don’t have too much use for it. I actually always have the lens on the camera and when it is not on my body I use this pouch from eBay which can hold the camera together with the lens so I don’t have to bother putting the lens on the camera. Even so, the click is pretty satisfying, I am not gonna lie.

Some people asked me why I picked the 50mm as my only lens. When we take a look at how the lenses work, you can see this if you have a zoom lens or a pair of different lenses. Every focal length compresses the space a little differently. Basically, the bigger the zoom, the bigger the compression. The 50 mm is supposed to be the closest possible to the ratio of the compression, or perspective, human eyes see. (Not the angle; that I believe would be like 28mm or something.) Thorsten Oveergard has posted a great video about it so feel free to check it out if you want to find out more. But it’s not actually that important; I have found out about it only after I bought it.

So, as I wanted to shoot mostly street photography, I wanted to pick either 35mm or 50mm, because that’s what great masters used right? :D Actually you don’t really need lenses that are fast for street photography since you end up shooting F 8 anyways. But having just one lens, I think it is very useful to have a fast lens, plus you can also use it to isolate your subjects if you need to, or for low light photography.

In the end I found great deals on both and picked the one I liked more design-wise. I can appreciate the design and I think when you spend so much time, or when you WANT to spend so much time with a device, in this case with a camera, I think it is important to like it. The best camera in my opinion is the one you enjoy shooting with. And that makes you end up shooting more and bringing the camera more with you. You can have a big expensive camera with huge lenses but if it cannot be with you every day then there is no way you are going to shoot with it as often as with something that is much smaller. Not to say this lens or camera system is cheap at all, you pay for design. It is made in Germany and they do not produce large amounts of them. Leica is a premium company and with that also comes a premium price tag—you can find a new one for 4 thousand USD and a used one for around 2,5 thousand. The black one is also going to be little bit cheaper than the silver one for some reason.

Now, don’t get me wrong you can shoot awesome photographs with cheap cameras or even with your phone. You definitely do not need a Leica for that. On the other hand, to have tools that you like and you enjoy working with makes you, in my opinion, a little more committed to that thing that you decide to do. Let me know what you think in the comments below.

So overall the lens feels very solid. The build quality is pretty good and it is, in my opinion, one of the nicest Leica lenses not only design-wise but also the size-wise it fits perfectly to M body.

If you have any questions, like or dislike the video, and leave me your comment below. As for the future reviews, I plan to make posts either here on Youtube or in my Instagram stories before I do the review so you can ask me before that. That actually makes more sense. Thank you for watching and I will see you next time.