Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1996/09/26
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]At 10:49 PM 9/26/96 BST-1, dmorton@cix.compulink.co.uk (David Morton) wrote: >I haven't seen Ken Wilcox's entire message yet (something >amis here, perhaps), but I'm interested in your comment >about "less edge fade-out", because the man in the shop >today said they vignetted badly. > >He also said that he didn't see the point in putting a >non-Leitz lens on a Leica, and I could understand that. >But is the vignetting a real problem? The one I've seen is >only UKP260 with finder, I could *never* justify a >Super-Angulon. Several comments: First, I have no problem on putting a "non-Leitz lens on a Leica" and, frankly, probably would not do business with a dealer so perverted in outlook as to recommend this. There are hundreds of different lenses available in M39, some fine, some poor, but many of these are better for many people than the Leitz originals and to say differently is to ignore the infinite variety of the human condition and to replace it with a marque-mystique of questionable worth. Snobbery is snobbery: sine nobilitate! For that matter, the Super-Angulon is not a Leitz product, coming as it does from those Gnomes of Kreuznach, Messrs Jos Schneider. Second, the basic Topogon design does not suffer from the fall-off in image illumination which marks the Super-Angulon design. The Super-Angulon certainly has many virtues -- greater speed being one of them -- but this difference is inherent in their designs. I suspect that the UK got a bum load of Russars at some point, as the only criticisms to this effect I've heard all emenate from there. (If you all would quit trying to collect the Tsar's World War I debt ... ) In any event, those I know in the US and Asia with this lens seem satisfied with its edge illumination: check out the Kiev Report Web Page as I believe they have some comments there on this lens. Third, 269 Sterling is about par for the ASKING price over here, but an ex-Soviet vendor at a camera show can frequently be beaten down to a much lower price, particularly at the end of the day. I paid $100 for mine, with VF, in box, which works out to 60 Sterling or so. I like mine. I am certain the Super-Angulon is a fine lens and that it is worth its price, but I'm happy with the Russar and Orion for my wide-angle work with my IIIc and M6. Marc msmall@roanoke.infi.net FAX: +540/343-7315 Cha robh bas fir gun ghras fir!