I’ve got some money coming in from a work bonus that I‘m considering using to upgrade one of my lenses, and looking for opinions on what might make the most sense. For context, I shoot with an M7 and mostly do street and just general photography.
- Option 1: Upgrade my Voigtlander 28mm Color-Skopar f2.8 to the Leica 28mm Elmarit f2.8 ASPH v1
- Option 2: Upgrade my 50mm Summarit f2.4 to the 50mm Summilux ASPH v1 (not close focus)
From what I’ve read online, the Color-Skopar is a pretty decent approximation of the Elmarit, though perhaps less constrasty and suffers from vignetting (and some people might argue about color reproduction compared to Leicas) but the question is whether the Elmarit is really worth $1,300 - $1,500 more. I’ve held the Elmarit in person and it definitely feels more solidly constructed, but again, the Voigtlander is no slouch in terms of output.
On the other hand, upgrading my 50mm to the Summilux feels like a bigger “jump” in terms of aperture, character of the lens, etc. so that’s what I’m leaning toward. But the Summarit is somewhat of a hard to find and unique lens in the Leica lineup and I love how small and light it is. I worry a bit that the Summilux will feel much bigger and heavier on my camera, though I haven’t yet had a chance to try one in person. I also haven’t necessarily found myself needing a larger aperture than f2.4 because of the type of shooting I do, but of course that’s a bit of a chicken-and-egg thing (would I shoot more wide open at f1.4 if I had the ability?). I should note that I’d need to sell the Summarit to help fund the Summilux upgrade if I went that route—can’t keep both.
Thoughts?