Fifty Mil In Color

I don’t like to pixel peep or get too worried about technical details in cameras. They’re all pretty much good enough these days…and after many months of shooting Ilford FP4 almost exclusively any digital camera will be a quality bump.

That being said, I got a wild hair and did some “comparison” shots. All digital, all 50mm equivalent lenses.

The combinations are a Leica M10 with a Summilux 50mm f1.4, a Nikon Zf with a Voigtlander 50mm APO-Lanthar f2, and a Fuji X-T3 with a 35mm f2. I’ll let the photos speak for themselves (they’re in random order)…I shot these and I still have trouble telling which one is which.

As I said, I literally cannot tell the difference at normal human viewing distances. If I blow it up to 200% then the Fuji is resolves less detail. Still more detail than 35mm film.

I think the biggest differences I see are in the lenses. The Summilux is my favorite, no surprise, but the other two are very close.

If I had to pick one I’d probably fall back on ergonomics. By no accident, they’re all very similar: actual dials, “vintage” asthetic, etc. I like the OVF on the Leica and how simple it is overall. The Fuji is the smallest and lightest. The Nikon is a chonker but I love the EVF and think it’s probably the best bang for the buck of the three.