Last night I was looking at some Provia slides with a loupe. The slides came from the same roll, half of which was shot with a Contax G and the other half with an M6. (I took the roll out mid-roll from the Contax to put into the M etc.)

The pictures were shot outdoors in daylight. I was really surprised to notice the apparent differences in color rendition. The Zeiss images appeared to be notceably cooler, whereas the Leica pictures looked very much warmer. To my eye, the Leica pictures seem to be closer to neutral. But I guess this is subjective.

I also noticed uniform corner-to-corner sharpenss with the Leica images. On the other hand the sharpness of Zeiss images deteriorated a bit towards the corner.

The lenses used were 35/Summicron ASPH, 50/Summicron, and 45/2 Planar G.

For a long time I have been a Zeiss advocate. I shoot mostly on print film and was always very pleased with images I got from my Zeiss lenses. When I bought my Leica system half a year ago, I merely wanted an all manual camera and wasn't really anticipating any image quality beyond the Zeiss. But now I guess.......

-- Maestro Logos (Maestro_Logos@mac.com), March 04, 2001

Answers

Different lenses do reproduce color differently--I have seen this on many occasions. My M lenses have a very pleasing color rendition to me, and I think my 90mm Elmarit may be my favorite. Color reproduction is influenced by the coatings, and the type of glass used, and possibly even the optical design. It can be a very subjective evaluation to determine what lens reproduced color "better", but I agree more neutral or slightly warmer are my preferences.

-- Andrew Schank (aschank@flash.net), March 04, 2001.

By the way, the sharpness issue you saw may be more of a function of the AF on the Contax not acquiring a spot on focus, and not the lens. I have taken some shots of a resolution chart by both AF and manual focus with my Nikon, and the MF shots are usually sharper. AF is faster, but often not quite as accurate if you have the time to make a precise manual focus (especially with an accurate focusing camera like a Leica M)

-- Andrew Schank (aschank@flash.net), March 04, 2001.

In addition to my Leica and Nikon gear, I also shoot with large format equipment. With LF, you can mount any brand or lens on your camera, and thus you immediately notice the differences in color casts with lenses from different manufacturers. Often times the difference is so significant that you have to filter for it to keep the color cast of your transparencies consistent! In general, lenses of German munufacture are "cooler" than those of Japanese manufacture. Try a Tiffen 812 warming filter on your Contax lenses - they are relativiely inexpensive, and should bring the color cast pretty close to that of your M lenses.

-- Jack Flesher (jbflesher@msn.com), March 04, 2001.

What were the approximate times of day when you were shooting? I wonder how much of the color difference was caused by differences in the lenses and how much was caused by differences in the color temperature of the light. There's a huge difference in the color of light between midday and later afternoon.

-- Mike Dixon (mike@mikedixonphotography.com), March 04, 2001.

I've always found the color differences between film to be far bigger than that between (modern) lenses. Try shooting Provia and Astia through the same lens and you will probably see much more difference than you see between brands of lenses. Like black and white film and developer, the combination is far more important than the individual elements, and there is probably a way to get similar results from both lenses by varying the film.

-- Jeff Spirer (jeff@spirer.com), March 04, 2001.

I have been using Leica M and Contax G systems side by side for some time now. I also noticed that characteristics of M and G lenses are different on slide films. To my eyes, Leica lenses render deep and rich color with extraordinary sharpness and resolution, while Zeiss lenses have a clear and crisp rendition with a beautiful blue tone. IMHO, the real advantages of M over G are the availability of large aperture lenses and the build quality. Other than that, I think the Zeiss G lenses are every bit as good. Don't dismiss your G system based on one roll of test.

-- Cing-Dao Kan (cdkan@yahoo.com), March 05, 2001.

In similar way I have noticed distinctly cooler and greener colour rendtion from my 135 elmar (1960's) and my 50/2 (new), same subject, light aperture etc.

-- Charles Curry-Hyde (charles@chho.com.au), March 05, 2001.