To truly understand why the 75mm APO remains the baseline king, you have to stop looking at MTF charts and look at how it handles the busy  world street scene. In this image, shot on my M11, the lens demonstrates an almost unfair level of separation. Even slightly stoppeed down.

The foreground subject, a simple decorative tassel and braided rope hanging outside a shop is rendered with incredible detail anbd pop.  Every single thread and fiber is incredibly resolved, taking full advantage of the 60MP sensor without a hint of softness or haze.

But wait! Look past the sharpness and observe the high contrast transition zone where the dark wooden support beam cuts across the top left. On a lesser, uncorrected lens or many of the trendy Chinese and third party options flooding the market, ( I hope I am not showing my bias too much here ) this boundary would be plagued by distracting green or magenta color fringing. Because of true apochromatic correction, the edge remains perfectly clean. The background sidewalk melts away  completely isolating the subject. This is what $2,500 on the secondary market buys you. Absolute optical transparency that handles reality flawlessly.

This shot which I just took in Battle Ground WA main street around noonish is an excellent demonstration of why true apochromatic correction matters in real world shooting, especially when dealing with bright, unforgiving midday light.

In this frame, I manage to capture a cluster of white daisies growing in front of a white picket fence adorned with a patriotic red, white, and blue bunting banner. ( Gotta love Battle Ground. 100% Americana at play here. 💯 ) It is a scene absolutely packed with high contrast nightmare zones for standard optical designs.

When looking at why the 75 APO shines so brightly in this frame, the lack of color fringing on the white edges is the first thing that jumps out. If you look closely at the sharp edges of the white daisy petals sitting directly against the dark blue and red of the banner, or the top of the fence pickets against the background, you will notice a complete absence of the annoying magenta or green fringing that plagues uncorrected lenses.

This was processed in DXO photo lab without any corrections to CA.

The 75 handles these high contrast transitions flawlessly, keeping the white tones perfectly clean and the boundaries razor sharp. Man, I love this lens! 

In my opinion, It is a gorgeous image that proves you do not need a massive, heavy f1.25 aperture to achieve beautiful, clean subject isolation.

Framed in a vertical portrait orientation, takes the same challenging elements of the previous scene and compresses them into a tighter, more intimate composition. This vertical perspective gives us a deeper look at the lens's foreground to background transition. The cluster of daisies now dominates the lower half of the frame, showing incredible subject separation against the rich green foliage that climbs vertically behind them. Just like the wider shot, the true power here is how the lens handles the intense light hitting the white petals and the red, white, and blue flag details on the right. There is absolutely zero purple or green fringing bleeding onto the white highlights. Even with the background elements cutting vertically through the frame, the bokeh remains perfectly smooth drawing your eye directly down into the ultra sharp center of the flower cluster.

On a side note, I had my 75  CLA'd by Don at  DAG Camera  who is considered to be one of the Best Leica techs around. With that said, all of the images in theis post were focused using the range finder. No EVF focus aid was used. 

And now for something completely different.

This image moves us away from landscape elements and straight into environmental portraiture. I shot this at f4. It features a food cart vendor in Battle Ground where I had some Thai food for lunch framed inside his food cart alongside an open sign.

Stripping away color makes me look entirely at how the 75 APO handles black and white tonality, skin textures, and contrast. When you look at his expression, the rendering of the hair, eye lashes and beard details shows the incredible resolving power of this beautyful lens. Every individual hair is crisply separated without looking digitally ove sharpened or clinical. The lens captures a smooth, lifelike gradation in the skin tones from the highlighted side of his face to the shadows, preserving a natural texture that gives the portrait its human warmth.

This portrait highlights exactly why the 75mm focal length can be so practical for street work. It provides enough working distance to keep the perspective natural and undistorted, while delivering a level of subject pop that completely grounds the image.

Let us step inside for a moment and look at how this lens handles low ambient light. This was one of those evenings where I was bored and had nothing to do. So I just pulled out the M11 with the 75 and looked for anything to photograph. Being retired can leave you with too much time on your hands. Regardless of my irrelevant rant, this image moves away from the bright streets and looks at a Monstera plant on my dining table shot wide open at f2 indoors under soft, warm interior lighting.

What makes this image a great test case is the way the 75 APO manages the out of focus background highlights, particularly the warm lamp glowing in the distance. On many fast lenses, including some highly praised vintage glass or cheaper modern alternatives, background light sources like this create harsh, hard edged light discs or severe vignetting that turns the bokeh into distracting cat eyes at the borders. Here, the rendering of the lamp is incredibly soft and cream like, melting into the background.

At the same time, the focal plane on the foreground plant stems is exceptionally crisp. You can see the rough, textured details on the main stem standing out in bold relief against the completely blurred background. The color rendering remains rich and lifelike, showing no muddy transitions despite the mixed, warmer lighting of the room. It proves that the 75 APO is not just a daylight street tool, but a highly versatile lens capable of curing a late afternoon of boredom.

To show that this lens isn't just a partner for modern 60MPsensors, lets's look at this one shot a while back on my M10. This street portrait, was captured using my old M10 which I no longer have. It features a man on the street wearing a weathered blue Conrail cap, his face telling a story of a rugged, intense life.

What I love about this shot is how the 75 behaves on a 24MP sensor. Even without the massive resolution of my M11, the way this lens pulls him out from the background and holds onto the tiniest details is just unreal.  Look at the texture of the dirt on his cap, the individual strands of his hair, and the incredible detail in his beard and around his eyes. The lens resolves every bit of it with a crisp, lifelike clarity that gives the portrait its intense presence.

To see how this lens handles multiple subjects, take a look at this capture. This shot moves away from the isolated close ups I have been showing you and captures a fantastic, high energy moment on the street with two performers.

Even at f/2 or f/2.8, I don't really remember, it doesn't just obliterate the background into a flat, unrecognizable smear. Instead, the person in the foreground is tack sharp, letting the 75 cron show off the insane detail in the makeup, the individual lashes, and the texture of the sequins.

But look at the second person just a step behind. It's not dragging (no pun intended) you away from the main subject. The transition into the OOF zone is incredibly gradual and pleasant. You get a perfect sense of the environment and the shared laughter without the background element ever competing for your attention. This predictable, smooth rendering is exactly why I love this lens, why it's fantastic for street portraits, and why I swear by this focal length and aperture combo over a massive monster like the Noctilux.

Don't even get me started on the Chinese made lens hype. Look, if you are on a strict budget and just want a cheap piece of glass to experiment with the focal length, fine. They have their place for affordability. But when we are talking about serious optical performance, they shouldn't even be part of the same discussion.

This next image is one of those moments where you don't think, you just react. I captured this on my way into work one day in downtown Portland. I saw this homeless person completely isolated from his surroundings, sitting on a street bench, and the scene was so powerful I literally had to jump out of my car and hold up traffic just to get the shot.

This is a heavy frame, and stripping the color away highlights exactly why this 75 is such a devastating tool for gritty street work. Look at the textures it pulls out of the large plastic trash bag. The way the lens captures the light reflecting off the folds, crinkles, and creases of the plastic gives the main subject a distinct weight. 

But what really makes the shot work for me is the way the lens handles the background context. A 75mm gives me that perfect focal length I apprecoiate so much to compress the street slightly without completely losing the environment. The people walking by in the upper left and the city street on the right melt away into a smooth blur, but they remain recognizable enough to tell the story of a busy, moving city completely ignoring a human on the bench as if he were just an inannimate object. It gives the image an immediate emotional weight, proving that if you have to scramble out of a car just to grab a single frame in traffic, this lens delivers exactly what you need without missing a beat.

To wrap things up, let's look at one final street portrait that proves this lens doesn't just capture pretty scenes, it captures raw, complicated human reality as so often found in downtown Portland. I found this elderly gentleman on the street, his face lined with incredible character though he is sporting a highly controversial choice of headwear with that old German style military cap.

IMHO, this is a great example of what people mean when they talk about Leica micro contrast. The 75 apo summicron doesn't filter or smooth out the world, it acts as a transparent window. Look at the sheer depth of the textures in his face, the intricate map of wrinkles around his eyes, the stubble on his chin, and the weathered fabric of his cap and jacket. The lens resolves these details with an intense crispness that forces you to engage with the subject, regardless of how you feel about the insignia on his hat.

The background separation here is equally brilliant. The glass storefront and passing figures behind him melt away into a completely smooth, non distracting blur, keeping your eyes locked onto his expression and the reflections in his glasses.  I really believe it is a powerful, heavy image to close on, and it perfectly cements why the 75 APO remains the undisputed baseline king for this specific focal length. While you can certainly capture incredible street stories with a 35mm or a 50mm, the 75 doesn't try to sugarcoat or heavily stylize the scene. It just brings this crisp, clean honesty to the frame, letting the subject matter speak entirely for themselves without the lens adding any gimmicks.

At the end of the day, photography is about finding a tool that stays out of your way and lets you capture the world exactly how you see it. For me, whether I am focusing purely through the rangefinder or pushing the lens through tough, high contrast midday light, this glass delivers every single time. It is an investment, absolutely, but it is one of those rare lenses that completely rewards you every time you press the shutter.

If you can't afford one now, save a bit longer and forego the current alternatives. You won't regret it and you will be glad you did. The others aren't even playing the same game.