Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1998/01/20

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Subject: Re: Re[2]: [Leica] deception -- None
From: "Patrick G. Sobalvarro" <pgs@sobalvarro.org>
Date: Tue, 20 Jan 1998 23:56:56 +0000

On 20 Jan 98 at 20:33, thibault collin wrote:

> I admit that most of the excitement twinkling around the M's is 90% voodoo
> and 10% true logic! I love the M's even though I'm currently using a Nikon.
> The nikkor lens (50mm f/1.8) is obviously better than the 1960s summicron I
> have and it's not a matter of taste, it's a matter of fact! The summicron
> has really poor contrast and vignets from f/2 to around f/4. At smaller
> apertures it's good. Good but not awsome and at least the nikkor is clearly
> better. The debate concerning M's versus reflex leads to real conclusions,
> ie. the noise, the absence of lightning mirror...But what the hell, Robert
> Doisneau used reflex cameras and did good shooting I think. 

Yes, but towards the end of his life at least Robert Doisneau used a 
Leica R6 as his reflex camera!  (There's a very charming photograph 
of him sitting at a table holding it.)

In any case, given that lots of people on this list report 
experiences different than yours with the 50/2 Summicron, does it 
seem possible to you that your particular example of this lens may 
not be typical?  Perhaps it needs an internal cleaning and should be 
collimated to your camera.  I ask purely as a matter of curiosity -- 
it doesn't really matter much to me if a 50/2 Summicron is less sharp 
than a 50/1.8 Nikkor; this just seems to run counter to most of what 
I had heard in the past.

- -Patrick