Re: 85-90 M and SM lenses

[Donal Philby <donalphilby@earthlink.net>]

Nicholas,
Current wisdom is that modern Leica lenses are optimized for color 
depth, not sharpness.  My Nikkors are very sharp, but don't have the 
color and especially the flare control of Leica.  Look at Salgado's book 
"Workers" or especially Marc Riboud's old book "Faces of North Vietnam" 
and you will see a soft richness in the b/w that doesn't seem to come 
out of Nikkor or Canon lenses.  It is not about sharpness.

Recently I shot an informal natural light color portrait of daughter 
with both Nikkor 105macro and a borrowed R4 and 90 2.8.  Both were 
absolutely tack sharp.  But the Leica image just glowed with life. The 
difference was stunning.

Donal Philby
San Diego

 

Nicholas Hartmann wrote:
> 
> I have just finished printing some pictures taken with <brief mention of
> non-Leica equipment> a Nikkor 85 mm f/2 AIS on an FM2 body. At
> wide-to-moderate apertures and fairly close range, the results are very
> appealing: tack-sharp down to the grain of the fast film I was using, and
> with a very smooth, unobtrusive quality to the out-of-focus areas. That
> same lens also yielded excellent results when used at infinity for
> landscapes.
> 
> However, the center of my photographic life is now an M6 with 50 and 35
> Summicrons, and I am not going to drag a Nikon around just for those
> occasions when I might want a tighter head shot. So this is going to sound
> like sacrilege, but:
> 
> Can the LUG in its collective wisdom recommend a Leica M- or screw-mount
> lens that is as good as this Nikon optic?
> 
> Notes: 1) I once tried out a Canadian 90/2.8 Tele-Elmarit and was
> underwhelmed: the definition, at infinity and f/8, was perceptibly poorer
> than with either of the Nikkor 85s (f/2 and f/1.8) to which I compared it.