Leica 28mm Summaron-M f/5.6 Lens Review
LEICA
Summaron-M 28mm f/5.6 Lens
This little lens is absolute magic.
I’ve owned it for a few days now, and I rarely want to take it off my camera, especially when I’m out on the street and it’s bright outside.
This is the ultimate street photography lens.
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Selfie (taken indoors) with the new limited Leica 28mm Summaron-M f/5.6.
The Perfect Street Photography Lens
- It’s incredibly small (smallest M lens ever made!).
- It has an absolutely fantastic rendering, very classic look while retaining a modern edge.
- At f/5.6, nearly everything is in focus — perfect for street photography.
- 28mm is a great focal length for street photography.
Sample Images
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As you can see, the microcontrast rendering of the 28 Summaron-M lens itself incredibly well to black and white photography, and colors, while muted, can easily be “popped” in post production, with much success.
Things to Note about the 28mm Summaron-M
- This lens’ minumum focus distance is 1m, not 0.7m like most modern Leica glass.
- The focus mechanism does not rotate between 9 o’clock and 6 o’clock like most Leica glass does. This range is used for the standard street distances you’ll be shooting it with — but for closer objects, you have to go all the way to 1 o’clock, which definitely takes some getting used to.
- Because the lens is so small, it’s easy to accidentally have a finger at the edges of your frame. This just requires some adjustment to the handling vs. standard Leica glass.
- The focus mechanism locks at infinity, and requires a depress of the adjuster to unlock it. This comes very naturally, but takes a little getting used to.
- Mounting and dismounting the lens is a little difficult, as there’s little to grab on to, other than the focus adjuster. This is why it locks at infinity.
I highly recommend this lens for street photographers.