Light Lens Lab 35mm f/2 + BTS Photoshoot - Why I Chose The Leica SL over the GFX in 2023

The Light Lens Lab is made to be an exact replica of the 35mm f/2 8 Element by Leica. Do you think they did a good job? How is the image quality for 1/4 of the price of a Leica Lens?

Lydia's Instagram:

My Portfolio:

Video Contents:
0:00 Intro
0:10 Why I Chose Leica Over The GFX
1:20 Business - Hobby
2:06 Light Lens Lab 35mm f/2
2:36 Sample Images
5:02 BTS Photoshoot
9:45 Conclusion

#leicasl #lightlenslab #nashvillephotographer

[justcallmesando]

Whatever you feel inspired by and what is useful for you is just perfect. That Lens Lab is finally making it bigger now after a couple of years. Sleek video, love it.

[HatefYaminiOnline]

Glad you love your SL. I love mine too. It’s a little big and heavy, but the M glass helps keep it smaller. Your photography is great.

[Hektormydog]

The Leica SL is great with vintage lenses in general, and really good with film-era M-series lenses. It was designed with this in mind, a custom sensor that has an ultra-thin cover glass that directs the light without detortion. And, the still very good EVF lets you see what the lens is doing, easy to focus, can see and correct for focus shift over the focus range that sometimes happens with vintage lenses, and pinpoint focus (zoomed in) with fast lenses. Of course, it is not an M-series camera which is more compact and still fun to use. But balances well, and has other advantages. Love my SL, but also have a monochrom and film M-series for those times I want to have the rangefinder experience.

[The_golden_charlie]

The colour rendering on the video was really, really lovely, and the tones suited the model and the models clothing exceptionally well. Good job!

[cremephoto]

SL, SL2, CL, S2-P, S3- AND I STILL go back to shoot the original SL with the 50mm Summilux. It begs to be taken out, what it's all about. Great presentation and work Hunter.

[bychrisjones]

I made the same choice back in December then i decided I needed an M and sold my SL for the M240, I definitely see myself coming back in the future though, I loved the way the camera was set up, and having that one button quickly switching to video was great for social media.

[marcusoutdoors]

Great review. The creative use of flare really added life to the shots, but also showed the advantage of using an SL over an M camera. My only gripe with the SL is it made me long for an M camera… I now have both and they’re fantastic, though an expensive addiction. If you’ve not tried it, the Voigtlander 40mm f1.2 is absolutely wonderful on the SL.

[numeroour]

Love the photos and colours! How did you manage to nail the focus when the model was moving towards you at 7:22?

[julienseillier]

I just saw your video and I love it. You have amazing skills and I love your photos ! Congrats for the hard work !

[Hektormydog]

Some vintage lenses (or a copy of them in this case) did not fully correct for Field Curvature. It was a compromise in design with other optical properties a priority. A good example was the original 1930s Zeiss Sonnar 50mm f1.5, very sharp with good contrast in the center even wide open, but very pronounced outer field/corners that focused closer than the center focus plane. It can be used creatively in composition, and the advantage of the EVF of the SL is that you can see what the lens is doing, and not just guess like with the finder of an M-series.

[Seapatico]

Yeah, it's field curvature, for sure. But it's likely more of a combination of the lens being a very old, strictly film camera design on a mirrorless camera. I know the SL is pretty good work adapted lenses, but that's moreso because of the built in corrections.

The same thing happened to me for years using the 50mm summilux on a Sony a7. Eventually I just sold the lens because it only really made sense on an M10 where you wouldn't get that wild field curvature.

[ThePhotographerGuy]

Dude. This is such a great video. Images are rad and that lens looks super fun.

[itacatv]

Field curvature is what you meant I think. It’s not a good sign as far as lens quality is concerned, but I guess it was probably a cheaper “character” lens.

[_parkphoto]

3:05 pretty sure that’s a wild field curvature. Ted Forbes (Art of Photography) has a really good video about field curavture

[valtorf]

The shots are beautiful. Why not M for manual lenses? Are you zooming into an image when focus peaking?

[paulsehstedt]

Nice shots. Maybe you should try lenses from Meyer-Optik-Goerlitz, handmade in Germany and with L mount.

[ckrug]

The lens flare shots at 7:21 and 8:07 and 8:21 are gorgeous. Nice work and cool lens!

Curious if you considered a digital M camera before picking up the SL. If so, what specifically made you choose SL over M?

[abarofigaro]

Man, I want to buy a Leica SL one day. I love my Leica Q and I think I’d enjoy the SL for personal work as well. One thing I’ve heard is that the SL has similar colour science to the Q: have you noticed any similarity?

[matthewjamesmartin]

Gear aside, you are a very talented photographer.

[louiswhite]

Firstly, great video and photography. Your video was populated to my feed probably because I have been doing research on the SL. My “work” cameras are my old and older Canon DSLR’s. A 5DIV and a 1DsIII are my worker tools. I throw in my Sony A7ii or a6000 as back ups at times. My film cameras and my EDC Fujifilm XPro 2 are my for “me” personal work cameras. I have been trying to justify a Leica SL as another personal work camera. It is not lighter than my 5DIV. Nor will it give me markedly better AF. It will allow me to adapt my vintage lenses including my vintage Leica glass. Does it make more sense to get a modern Sony or Canon?