Nine Days, Nine Lenses: Unique photography insights

Let’s start with some clarification. I am not attempting to outdo Sean Reed, or Claus Sassenberg and J-P Rau with their M-Files, or Jono Slack in providing comprehensive reviews of nine lenses. Far from it. The idea was to discover if the nine lenses I possess could be picked at random and used for tasks and types of photography, that they are not necessarily associated with.

Each lens was chosen the evening before. I didn’t know where I was going the next day, what I might do, or what the weather might be. (You might, if you are younger, see that as a “senior experience”)

Total pot luck. I only had one day that required a “do-over” when my D-L 109 decided to randomly change settings for no reason. A reformatted memory card temporarily solved the problem. The restriction was two shots to post in this article for each lens, taken on that day.

Day One:  CL + TL 23mm f/2.0 (12/08/2025)

This is my lightest, most wieldy lens and makes the camera seem smaller than it actually is. It has a reputation for not having the sharpest optics, but I have never had any real issues with it, except one. And that issue is a lack of sharpness.

Compare it with the TL 11-23mm or either Q3 and the difference is obvious. I typically shoot at f/4.0 to f/8.0 which obviously helps with softness. I’m also not printing currently, so that avoids any optical confrontation.

On this first day of the “Festival of nine lenses”, I had just enough time to be out for about an hour before the heavens opened up on me.

You can see the impending arrival of the thunderstorm. This is a spot on the lakefront where people often come to contemplate. This man was there for some time with his bike. He could obviously see and feel the storm coming, but did not move from his spot.

And this is what my world looked like after the storm. Puddles and a stiff breeze moving the clouds along. This is the clubhouse of a public golf course and a great spot to watch the world of golfers heading back to the 19th hole. I tend to like my images to capture some emotion, so I’m always drawn to interesting weather. JMW Turner and Andrew Wyeth are my influences.

As the caption says, this was after the storm. Weather around and across Lake Michigan moves quickly. One minute you have blue sky and soft breezes, the next, angry storm clouds and stiff winds.

Day 2: CL + Sigma 30mm f/1.4 (13/08/2025)

A day downtown with a walk along the river to see what was happening. The 30mm is the other fixed lens to take out with the CL if you’re attempting “street photography”. In full-frame terms, it’s a 45mm, so close to both “normal” view and also (almost) the focal length of the Q3 43.

When you think of it like that, I’m frankly happier losing a 1/3 stop and gaining 36MP and FF with the Q3 43. Apart from having better options with the Q3 43, I’m not really sold on this Sigma lens. It doesn’t always want to focus, so you have to make a second attempt, which means you might have missed your shot. And even when it does capture focus, I don’t believe it’s as sharp as it could be. Should it have been in my “festival of nine lenses” set?

You get to encounter some fascinating people on downtown walkabouts in summer. “Birdman” and his mate were seemingly oblivious of the fact that he was a little out of the ordinary. No “birds of a feather” gathering here: more “McCaw parrot” on acid.

The second character I called “Don’t ask” and his dog. He wasn’t interested in engaging, nor was his dog. The table and three chairs were all his domain. But with an equivalent 45mm view, I could get close enough without being intrusive. Best to move on then! At that point, I felt a need for nine lives more than nine lenses.

Day 3: CL + TL 55-135mm (14/08/2025)

This is a lens I should use more often, but it tends to come out for occasional sporting events, or for something like the annual Chicago Air and Water Show. This year I captured the Blue Angels and a man whose seahorse was struggling to fly. I frankly have had better shots in previous years, but the exercise is about shooting “on this day” and not curating a “best of” series.

My preferences are to shoot on the practice days before everyone descends onto the lakefront and shoots planes flying by at high-speed using a camera phone. Not sure how they make that work, but it’s not for me.

The Blue Angels were shot using manual focus, panning, and a 1/500 second shutter speed. I’m glad some muscle memory remains from shooting car racing many years ago. Why manual focus? The CL’s contrast-based focusing system fails when there’s not much contrast, and frankly, continuous focus simply fails to deliver. I think it’s a sign that the CL and lenses are getting a bit past it for this kind of thing.

Seahorse man was snoozing and being reflective while jets screamed overhead. He was not moving, not preparing for take off, or aerial dog fights, so an easy capture. Previous years I have done much better, but there would have been more cloud cover to create contrast.

Day 4: CL + TL 11-23mm (18/08/2025)

The 11-23 is my favourite TL lens. I get a thrill when I look through the viewfinder.  The difference is blindingly obvious. I love the wide angle it offers which is great for landscapes, and interiors of buildings. Here are two images from today’s episode of nine lenses. And did I mention sharpness?

The first shot is one of my favourite places on the lake front, by the Chess Table. There are multiple chessboards built into the structure, and during summer months it is quite often busy with intensely focused chess players. With a bit of work in post, I could capture both the beginnings of a Churchillian-like storm and the underside of the canopy in shadow.

The second shot, taken close by, highlights the curve of the protective wall leading to a navigation light. And yes, that Churchillian summer storm was approaching! I use Silver Efex Pro for B&W, and here it almost feels like an infrared shot. Look at this on a full screen — all 27 inches of it — and pixel-peep. I never normally do this but with the TL 11-23mm it’s a joy to behold.

Day 5: Leica CL + Sigma 56mm f/1.4 (20/08/2025)

After another storm, you can see the change in wind direction and the stiff breeze that followed it. The Sigma 56 is not a bad lens from the perspective of photographing scenes like this. Yet again, it also struggled with focusing like the Sigma 30mm f/1.4.

It often seemed to miss completely and fall into a funk while it thought about what to do next. And would then hunt for a second or two. It’s a shame it doesn’t give you more confidence. Another possible miss out of my nine lenses saga. Both the shots that follow were taken at f/8, to deliver enough depth of field to help the camera/lens combination find focus.

Two kids playing in the sand, oblivious of how chilly it was, as is the lifeguard looking out across the lake for danger. Foster Beach is one of my favourite places to visit, regardless of time of year or weather, as there always seems to be something happening. It might be sailing one day, beach volleyball another, and the trapeze setup, just out of shot here, gets plenty of visitors on less windy days.

Further south, two windsurfers were taking full advantage of the stiff breeze. It looks like fun until you end up in the water. Like all the Great Lakes, Lake Michigan’s water never really gets warm. A wetsuit would seem essential. And as said earlier, the lens disappointed by hunting to lock onto the windsurfers, despite trying various configurations of focusing and shooting.

Day 6: Leica Q3 28 (22/08/2025)

Downtown on a sunny day with a Q3 is not something you can complain about. It’s compact and discreet for “street” work. You can crop to your heart’s content. The controls are easy to use, and the important ones are analogue. If you like, you can also shoot manual focus and manual exposure to your heart’s content (do you need an M?). I picked out two images that for me tell a little about my day and how I use the Q3.

This scene was taken at the Crown Fountain, which displays moving facial images. It squirts water from the mouths of each face. Kids love it and splash around with relish. If they are allowed to. In this instance, you can almost hear the “STOP THAT!!!” from the kid’s mother.

An image of contrasts. The “hope” sculpture for breast cancer contrasts with the social illness of alcoholism. Hope side-by-side with hopelessness. The man has passed out with his travel bag and empty bottle. You wonder what hope he realistically has in life without help. Did my shot really do them any justice?

Day 7: Leica D-Lux 109 (29/08/2025)

In trepidation, I’m back trying out the D-Lux 109 after a day at a wedding of “Stranger Things” type behaviour. That day, the camera seemed to change settings at random, so I changed the memory card and formatted it in the camera and recharged the battery. Today it chose to behave, but still has a wheezy zoom that has been on the way to failure for at least two years. It’s a bit of a tail-ender in the nine lenses story, and maybe in its ninth life.

The two guys and their bikes, taking a day off by the lake. And I got a wave! In summer on a Friday, this is a great place to be. It was one of those perfect summer days, neither too hot nor too cold, not too breezy and not too humid. So I decided to walk the four miles home along the lake front path. With a camera as light and compact as the D-Lux 109 it’s not a hardship. And a cold beer was my reward.

This is a piece of flotsam that has ended up on the beach. I converted it to B&W using Silver Efex. There’s quite a lot of grain considering the shot was taken at ISO 200. I like the starkness and the impression of the vastness of the lake. The object on the skyline is one of the water filtration plants offshore to provide Chicago with fresh water, and not a ship.

Day 8: Leica CL + TL 18-56mm (01/09/2025)

This is another walkabout around Montrose Harbor, no more than three miles from home. The 18-56 is probably my most used lens out of my “festival of nine lenses” story, as it almost picks itself by default. Reasonable range? Check. Low weight? Check. Compact? Check. Reasonable speed? Check. And that can always be addressed in post if needs be.

I was amused by this “contre-jour” shot of the two ladies with their inflatable pink rings. All that’s missing is an ice cream cone for each of them. It’s quite hard for the CL to handle even this dynamic range, with the highlights right on the edge of being blown out. Aperture was f/5.6 to try to get some separation, but I couldn’t go any further without blowing out the main characters. Did someone say ND filters?

This one of those comic moments you might spot if you’re lucky. The wolf or guard dog is a sculpture that guards this portion of Montrose Harbor. The three people with the canoe look like invaders, which adds a bit of fun to the scene. Mid-contrast keeps the CL + 18-56 in their comfort zone.

Day 9: Leica Q3 43 (08/09/2025)

Some days the downtown river walk is crammed with people and other days almost empty. The ’43 is an easy lens to use and appreciate, so I’m happy either way, as it can “focus through” the clutter you might have in front of you.

This feels like an extra from the TV series “Wednesday” with all the associated weirdness. What was this doing parked outside an open-air bar? Who knows, but it didn’t encourage me to stop, linger, have a beer, or glass of wine. One nice thing was being able to use the LCD opened out to get a lower perspective without hearing my knees sounding like the snap, crackle, and pop of Rice Krispies.

This might be titled “Better days” as the bike has suffered quite a lot of surface damage. The title might also be a self-description, but that’s a different story. I suspect the bike had been on a building site and may have also been tossed in the river. It begs a story.

Conclusions

I’m not sure that there are real conclusions, but there may be opinions to be clarified or questioned, and actions to be taken because of this nine-day nine lenses exercise.

In the back of my mind, there is an implied Marie Kondo moment. Should I be decluttering my equipment and reducing it down to a meaningful rotation? A setup where everything does something a bit different; like the individual blades in a Swiss Army knife?

Disappointment

I am more than a little disappointed in the Sigma lenses and wonder whether firmware improvements were made but never implemented in the euthanised Leica CL? I would love to hear from Sigma or anyone here who may have had similar problems, but found a fix.

The TL lenses all still work as they should. The standout for me is the TL 11-23mm. If there had to be one reason to keep the CL, it would be this lens. When you compare it to the TL 23mm, the 23mm disappoints by comparison, being noticeably less sharp. As a small, lightweight, and faster lens it still works, though.

Little-used

The TL 55-135mm still functions very well, but I rarely use it for the photographs I like to take. The TL 18-56mm is the workhorse. It might be the Goldilocks lens in that it’s compact, light, easy to use, good range, and reasonable speed. It’s a keeper that often becomes the default.

Trade-offs

The two Q3s are outstanding, no question about that. What you miss though is what lenses like the TL 11-23mm and TL 18-56mm offer in terms of increased flexibility. Yes, you can crop. But not always. If you look at the CL APS-C sensor, which offers 24MP compared with what the Q3s offer as you crop them, you begin to see the trade-offs.

Beyond 50mm the CL is delivering more MP (24) vs (19) against the Q3 28. Beyond 70mm the CL retains more MP (24) vs the Q3 43 (20) if using the TL 55-135mm lens. Clearly this is not the complete picture, but it does raise questions about what the right choices are.

Weight

Why not look at weight? The CL + TL 18-56mm is 659g vs the Q3 28 at 743g vs Q3 43 at 772g (battery included). Or the Leica CL + TL 11-23mm at 789g which can go wider, or the CL + TL 55-135mm which weighs in at 903g. The diminutive D-Lux 109 does its 24-75mm thing with only 17MP, but weighs a feather-like 405g including battery.

Add in the ability to denoise images these days and you have to ask; how much do you really need to spend? And how big do you really need your images to be?

What could you live without?

Ultimately, I could probably live with the CL + TL 11-23 + TL 23mm + TL 18-56mm, with the D-Lux 109 as backup. I could sell both Q3s, the Sigma 30mm and Sigma 56mm, and the TL 55-135mm.

Or… keep the D-Lux 109 (or replace it with a D-Lux 8) as backup, and just have the two Qs to cover everything from 24-70 mm. The UI would be almost identical, so easy to switch between cameras.

At that point do I a) Go lie down in a dark room? b) Take my wife on holiday or c) Buy an M…? d) Or SL3…?Don’t ask her!

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More:
From Jon Cheffings on Macfilos	Leica CL on Macfilos
Sigma L-mount lenses on Macfilos	Leica D-Lux 8 review on Macfilos

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