This year’s Photokina ended
and many people are of the opinion that it was an unsuccessful event for
Leica. After all, hardly any new
products were shown. The long anticipated
replacement of the Leica M 240 did not materialize. Of course the Leica haters are having a field
day with all kinds of nonsense like predicting the end of Leica. Because they showed no new M camera? Are Canon and Nikon on the way out as
well? After all, with the exception of
an amateur mirrorless camera by Canon, they had nothing else to show either.
What many don’t realize is
that many things are happening behind the scenes, things that don’t necessarily
translate to flashy objects for shows like the photokina. In the past I have often written about what
Leica does to set themselves apart from their competition, that one major
difference lies in the substantially tighter tolerances they apply when making
their cameras and especially lenses.
These tolerances cannot be maintained with mass production, an otherwise
common approach.
Recently Leica has shown
some new lenses which all set new standards in lens performance. Obviously Leica is doing something to even
outdo themselves. This brings up the
question of what it is they changed.
In an interview by David
Farkas from the Leica Store Miami with Peter Karbe, head of optics at Leica, we find some of the answers. Even tighter tolerances is one of the
answers, but that certainly is not all.
But these new efforts by Leica once again established them as the
foremost manufacturer of high performance lenses. In simple terms, nobody makes lenses like
Leica.
That isn’t to say that
nobody else is able to do so, but with a commitment to mass production, only a
certain performance level can be achieved.
To go beyond that, a manufacturing as applied by Leica is
necessary. That leaves Leica very much
on their own.
Here is the interview with
Peter Karbe:
By David Farkas, Leica
Store Miami
When I showed up for my
meeting with Steffen Skopp, the product manager of the SL System, he greeted me
and said, “I hope you don’t mind, but I invited Peter Karbe to join us for our
discussion.” How could I possibly mind? Peter Karbe is the head of optics at
Leica. He’s designed such incredible lenses as the 50mm APO and 75mm APO, among
many, many others. Ever since he pulled me aside and gave me an education in
lens design back at Photokina in 2008, we’ve had numerous conversations over
the years. I even got to go out shooting with him to try out the first M
Monochrom. Every time I listen to Peter I learn something new. So, no, I didn’t
mind him joining us to discuss the new SL lenses.
After some catching up and
pleasantries, we got down to the matter at hand.
DF: So, jumping right in,
how good are these new prime lenses, the 35, 75 and 90 Summicrons that will be
coming out over the next year?
PK: These primes redefine
everything. They are simply amazing in terms of total optical performance, as
well as mechanical. Fast autofocus. Next level image quality.
Next level? The SL zoom
lenses are already incredible. They are probably the best zooms I have ever
used, at least as good as the best Leica primes. Are we looking at similar
quality with the new Summicron-SL lenses?
Better. The SL zooms are
already very, very good, with prime lens quality. Now, we raise the bar for
prime lens performance. You have not seen a look like this before.
New SL lenses coming in
the next year
When you talk about a new
look, are we talking about sharpness, bokeh, or something else?
Yes, both of those. The
sharpness DOF curve, which you can visualize as a parabola, has been changed
from what you have seen in the past. We’ve tightened and raised the curve, so
that f/2 will offer a look that is similar to f/1.4. It is very unique and
special. And, at the same time, will offer greater sharpness at the point of
focus. The contrast of in focus and out of focus will be more pronounced, which
produces a very 3D effect.
Okay. Let me get this
straight. You’re able to offer an f/1.4 look at f/2 and even higher resolving
power?
Yes. The Summicron-SL
lenses employ a new generation of optical design, lens technologies and
manufacturing processes.
We started with the APS
lenses, T and X series lenses, redefining our performance goals, which we now
take forward with the SL lenses. We also see this in the Q Summilux 28mm and
more recent M lenses like the 50mm APO-Summicron. These were very important
steps for us, but with the new SL lenses, we have taken a really big jump.
So, the SL lens designs go
even further than reference designs like the 50mm APO? How did you do this?
By implementing many small
steps, but everywhere, they add up to a lot in the end. We had a plan of what
we wanted to do for a while now, but from the start, we needed to create a
process that was achievable. We needed to know that we are able to keep such a
consistent quality and performance level at even higher tolerances than before.
This involved changes to almost every aspect of the design and manufacturing
process.
What kind of changes?
Leica is already recognized as having some of the best lenses across the board.
Yes, but we felt that we
need to continually improve. We must always try to push what is possible.
As far as changes, we’ve
slightly improved lens coatings and internal baffling to keep stray light and
internal reflections to an absolute minimum. This increases contrast in
critical lighting situations. We made important upgrades to our in-house
computer aided optical design, modeling and simulation software. We needed to
create new methods of measuring and testing to allow for higher manufacturing
precision of optical elements, which is also done entirely in-house. This
encompasses both new hardware and software. We started looking at entirely new
optical designs that wouldn’t have been possible without important advances in
electro-mechanics. Lens assembly has to
be tighter tolerances. We also use our existing expertise with exotic glass
types to create new combinations. And with more elements, we must be very
precise with alignment and centering. Again, the tolerances must be reduced.
Sounds like quite a lot
went into the effort.
Yes. It has taken us years
to fully realize the potential of all of these changes, and at great cost.
What about the 16-35mm
f/3.5-4.5 wide angle zoom? How will this compare to the other two zooms?
Same level of performance.
Why didn’t you make this
an f/2.8 lens with constant aperture?
The lens would have been
much too large. We decided to focus on performance and keeping the size down.
The new Summicrons are
much smaller than the zooms or the 50mm Summilux. I assume this was done
deliberately?
Of course. Size was an
important factor. We heard feedback from SL users that they wanted smaller
lenses than what the Vario lenses offered. So, we shift our focus now to the
Summicron-SL lenses. They are really quite compact, all with 67mm front
diameters.
The three Summicrons look
almost identical. Was this just for the sake of showing some mock-ups for
Photokina?
Actually, the 35, 75 and
90 all share the same outer lens barrel, as well as other internal components.
This helps in manufacturing and maintaining consistency in the set. The
mock-ups you see on display are the final designs. This will not change.
Peter Karbe with Leica SL
and 50mm Summilux SL
You’ve told me before that
you are now testing TL lenses to 60 lp/mm even though the published MTF charts
still only show 40 lp/mm. Is it the same with new SL lenses?
Yes, this started with the
TL lenses and was part of the move to this next level we are now realizing with
the SL primes.
Also, when you look at the
MTF curves of all Leica lenses, you should realize that they are published to
show performance without in-camera corrections. In practice, on the SL, there
are corrections automatically applied to both DNG and JPG.
So corrections are baked
into the DNG files before software processing?
Yes. In fact, the
correction is also applied in live view operation. The Maestro II processor
performs this in real time for video. Same for M lenses. Chromatic distortion
is removed. This is very import for video where doing corrections in post
production is much more difficult than for still images. As well, it lets the
photographer or videographer see the final image result beforehand.
Well, judging by the
published MTF charts, the SL lenses don’t seem to need much correction.
No. They are already quite
excellent, with our new designs resolving over 70% contrast wide-open. But, if
the technology is available to achieve even a very small improvement in
performance, we will use it.
For the new prime lenses,
are you still using the linear stepper motors like in the SL zoom lenses?
Yes. We still use linear
stepper motors for focus. Ultrasonic motors do not offer enough accuracy or
speed for contrast detect AF. They are more useful for phase detect AF systems,
but still not as precise as stepper motors.
We also look for ways to
create ultra-light internal autofocus lens groups in order to make focus as
quick as possible. But the challenge is to maintain performance from close
focus to infinity. This is always a primary goal for us, while keeping focus
very quick and precise. We think we’ve achieved this with the SL primes, just
as we were able to with the first two zoom lenses.
In one of our previous
meetings, you told me a little about how the optics department approaches lens
design, and that you have moved away from a lens designer for each project and
instead moved to a team approach. How does this work?
Traditionally, Leica is an
optical mechanical company. But today, we need to combine more closely all the
technologies so that we can come up with solution. From the start of each lens
design, we must figure out the best way to assemble. We’ve found the best way
to do this is with a collaborative team approach from the start.
Each design team is
comprised of a mechanical engineer, an industrial engineer, an electrical
engineer, and a couple optical designers. On the the optics side, we try to
combine more experienced designers with those with a fresh perspective. This
provides a balance of experience and new ideas to find new ways to achieve the
design challenges that we create for ourselves. This is how we are able to get
from one level to the next, like we have seen with the SL lenses. It is really
a collaboration and team effort.
For me, leading the optics
department, it’s really good to see how the whole optics team is performing. We
continue to improve and set new standards.
After these next five lenses,
what can we expect?
If you look at the lens
roadmap we released, you might see some other things at the bottom of the
chart.
So, will we see more
Summicrons with this same next-level performance?
The Summicrons were
conceptualized as a set….. We will have to wait and see. (smiles)
After our interview, I
also had a chance to see some early sample images from a prototype 75 APO
Summicron SL. Granted, they were small JPGs on an iPad, but let’s just say that
I was thoroughly impressed. Just as Peter had said, the look of the files was
different than I had seen before. Honestly, it’s one that’s challenging to
describe. For me, the 75 SL results evoked feelings of the 120 APO-Macro-S, one
of my all-time favorite lenses, with tack sharp details and creamy transitions
to out of focus areas. But the look was different. I’ll have to leave it at
that until I can shoot the lens and process some DNG files myself.
For those concerned with
Leica skipping Luxes in favor of rolling out a set of Crons…don’t be. Prepare
to be floored by theses lenses. Just from the handful of samples I looked at,
the results were insanely sharp wide open with absolutely wonderful, beautiful
bokeh. And putting that performance level in a smaller, lighter and more
compact package, the new Summicron SLs should hit all the right notes for a lot
of SL photographers.
________________________________________________________________________________________
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