Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1997/03/16

[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]
Subject: Tessar a Contrasty Lens?
From: "C.M. Fortunko" <fortunko@boulder.nist.gov>
Date: Sun, 16 Mar 1997 21:43:40 -0700
 
LUGs and Rolleis,

One of the fellows on the Rollei list just asserted that Zeiss Tessars may
be more contrasty than Planars, because they have fewer surfaces.

I have the newest BAS test results in front of me. To my surprise, the new
50mm/2.8 Elmar lens, which is really a Tessar, does not exhibit superior
contrast and resolution to the 50mm Summicron. In fact, the characteristics
in the BAS test do not lead one to believe that the new Elmar is
exceptional. (I own this lens and do not believe the BAS results.)

Can someone shed some light on the differences between the Tessars and
Elmars. I know that Max Berek, the lens designer at Leitz, used to point out
that the Elmar was very well color corrected.

Thanks in advance,

Chris