While in Paris, my friend Simon from Germany joined us for a couple of days. He did take along my dream lens, that is the Leica 24mm Summilux and let me use it during his stay. So here I found myself like a kid with a new toy, wandering the streets of Paris on a rainy afternoon.
Make no mistake, shooting street photography with a 24mm lens is extremely challenging. Yet the use of an ultra wide field of view together with a F1.4 aperture does open up new creative opportunities since it allows the use of selective focus (provided of course that your subjects are relatively close to you). The lens itself is rather large but I found it to balance very well on the M9, and obviously the build is what can be expected from Leica. Image wise, well, that is simple, it would fit perfectly along my 35mm Lux Asph and 60mm Hexanon. Same kind of performance and rendering; sharp center at F1.4, high contrast and butter smooth bokeh.
Now I just need to find €6000. Ouch. That is not going to happen. Or perhaps I could use a little more my 24mm Elmarit, which is definitely no slouch either.
More to come on this topic.
Nun by Hotel de Ville – Leica M9 with 24mm Summilux Asph at F1.4, 1/4000, ISO160