In a recent article here I spoke about a Leica-R Summicron 50/2 being converted to Nikon F mount, by means of a Nikon F mount ring (Leitax). After the conversion, I could not wait to take the lens out for a spin, so I loaded some Agfa APX 100 (@80) into my Nikon F3 and went to my local natural park (of sorts). Weather was pretty cold, windy and somewhat slightly overcast, but all in all decent light.
As I knew the lens will not be able to perform in aperture priority mode (which is how I employ the Nikon F3 usually), I had to meter by stopping down. While not an issue, I wanted to check if metering in aperture priority was possible with this lens, so I shot the entire roll of film by doing just that: focus at f2 (from 5.6 upwards, the viewfinder gets dimmer and dimmer, sort of DOF lever action), set the desired aperture, recompose and shoot.
Well, happy to say that the method did work; the negative was properly exposed and in focus. I haven’t messed with the frames in post, other than slightly cropping the margins. No sharpness or contrast intervention whatsoever.
I do not see any vignetting, which I heard it can happen with this lens, in certain situations. And some of the shots were taken with the sun almost into the glass, but I do not see flaring either. Metering was flawless. The sharpness is something I am quite pleased about, and I do see the images sharp from corner to corner. Maybe I look too much into this, but as I never shot a Summicron R lens with a Nikon F camera, I am quite taken with the combination.
It is better than my Nikkor lenses? While the results do indeed appear sharper and more contrasty than say, Nikkor 50/2, I cannot swear on it. I am not proficient enough to run serious tests on this glass, nor would I engage in making such comparisons for something I would not know where to start. And anyways, plenty of such articles on the wide web, and no shortage of pro and cons opinions on the matter. I am just happy the Leica-R Sumicron 50/2 lens, converted to Nikon F mount, proves to be a good addition to my otherwise beautiful, trusty Nikon lens herd.