Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1998/02/25

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Subject: Re-2 (more details): [Leica] 35/1.4 ASPH 1st version questions
From: Alfred Breull <puma@hannover.sgh-net.de>
Date: Thu, 26 Feb 1998 00:56:03 +0100

Sorry, It's 1 am, and I'm already too tired. I forgot to say: Thanks=20
to Marvin Moss who scanned and sent the report to me=B4.

To answer your 1-st question more detailed: Not really.=20

See LHSA's Viewfinder, report by Gilcreast D & Schwartzreich E:=20
The 35 mm f 1.4 Aspherical Summilux vs. the ASPH - Which is Better ?,=20
p 14-15.

They say:

The lenses are petty darn close in performance ... And they are
virtually identical on ordinary subject matter from f/2 on down=20
the aperture scale. We found the only differences worth noting with
the lesn wide open at f/1.4. ... The earlier has a tiny bit more
uncorrected coma showing at the far edges and corners and there is=20
also a touch of positive field curvature ... at infinity... Indoors
and at closer distances, the performance of the two lenses is quite
difficult to tell apart. At f/1.4 the eralier Aspherical lens has=20
perhaps a bit more of what I call "gross contrast", meaning the major=20
darks and brights are a little better separated. But the ASPH lens
however has a slightly better "micro contrast", that is the separation
of brights and darks in very fine detail, resulting in visily better=20
resolution across the frame... (Tests done on a slow high-resolution film
with the lenses wide open)... would probably not show up on a high-speed
film with which ultraspeed lenses such as these would normally be used.

Alf

- -----------------------------------------
At 13:15 24.02.1998 -0800, you wrote:
>Hi Folks,
>
>I have a question. Actually a couple of questions.
>
>Is there any performance differences between the 1st (two ASPH elements)
>and the 2nd (one ASPH element) 35/1.4 M lenses?
>
>And,
>
>Why is the first version commanding such a hefty price?
>
>Many thanks,
>
>Jim
>