Performance of 75/1.4 M

[KEVIN BURKE <KBURKE@iterated.com>]

>From: Hubert Nowotny

>The differences were mainly in overall contrast and also in color
>saturation. Example: Rainy day in the alps, a slope with some water
>running down, foggy situation. The Noctilux brought a crisp,
>contourated, living-green foggy situation, the 75 mm was overall
>flaw, "grey all over" (although it certainly delivered the color
>green). Same film, same camera, only 1 or 2 frames difference, only
>say half a minute difference in shooting time, no visible difference
>in light conditions in between.

>Other shoots confirmed my diagnosis: I know that the lens is said to
>be contrasty, but what made me feel sad with it was the low contrast
>it delivered. So I parted with it ...

Hubert,

I am certain that the lens you had gave you the performance you report.
For that significant of an amount of difference between the 50/1 & 75/1.4
makes me suspicious of that particular 75.  I've not had the pleasure of
using the 50/1, but I've not heard of such a large difference between it
and other lenses.  Both 75/1.4 lenses I tried were definately in the same
general class of all of my other M lenses : 21,28,35,50,90,135.  The
differences I saw were more "second order" than what you have described.
I would recommend that if one were interested in the 75mm focal length,
to try a different one - possibly borrow or rent before buying.  It sounds 
as
though the one you had might have been defective or damaged in some
way?

Regards, Kevin

kburke@iterated.com