Re: 35mm f2 v.s. 28mm f2.8

[pgs@thillana.lcs.mit.edu (Patrick Sobalvarro)]

    Hi All

         I am about to buy a medium wide angle lens for my Leica R5.  I 
    would be interested in hearing your thoughts on a 35mm f2 as compared 
    to a 28mm f2.8.

I haven't used the 35mm f2, but the (old) 28mm f/2.8 Elmarit-R is the
lens I use most of all, and I'm quite happy with the results.  I find
it a little soft at the edges for very close work when it's wide open,
but this is true for most lenses, and it's uniformly quite sharp down
a couple of stops.

Stefan Thurnhofer mentioned some problems with fitting filters to the
old version of the lens, and I thought I'd add some info: the lens
takes 48mm screw filters.  These can be hard to come by, but can be
found at swap meets and the like: I recently managed to buy 10 new
48mm filters of varying sorts, in faded boxes, for $1 each at a flea
market.  If you have the cute rectangular hood, you can fit Series VII
filters inside it; the hood has a knob for rotating circular
polarizing filters.

You can only fit one 48mm filter on the lens and still fit the hood;
you can't stack them.  Also, two 48mm filters stacked give a bit of
vignetting, but nothing dramatic.

The new 28mm Elmarit-R sounds like a better lens: it has a floating
element to give better performance close up, and the hood is integral,
and Stefan mentioned the filter size.  But despite the old lens's
idiosyncrasies, I'm pretty happy with it.

-Patrick