Re: [Leica] What russian/east german lenses to buy?

[aglang@sprynet.com]

Marc,

Have a question about the 50/1.5 Sonnar and it's Soviet clone.

Roger Hicks in his book "A History of the 35mm Still Camera" Focal Press 1984 
ISBN 0-240-51233-2

In his brief blurb on the Sonnars:
"It was left to Zeiss to introduce a really fast triplet derivative. They did 
this in 1932 with the f/2 and f/1.5 Sonnars. The f/2 has a single front glass, a 
triplet centre, and a doublet rear, and the f/1.5 has a triplet rear. Because 
they are still essentially triplets, with only six glass-air surfaces, they are 
still adequately contrasty, but they pay for their simplicity in other ways. The 
f/2 is a good deal more than acceptable, and by f/5.6 or f/8 the initially 
rather poor edge definition sharpens up considerably. The f/1.5, on the other 
hand, is sharp enough centrally but never really pulls in the edges"

There was an article in LHSA Viewfinder a while back (forget by who) on another 
Sonnnar clone, the 50/1.4 Nikkor, in which the author describes the same problem 
at the edges, even stopped well down.

Has this been your experience with the Sonnar and Jupiter?

Adam




- ---Marc James Small <msmall@roanoke.infi.net> wrote:
>
> At 10:40 AM 3/30/98 -0500, B D Colen wrote:
> >Marc - When you say "great" user lens, what do you mean? How good optically
> >compared to modern Leitz lenses?
> 
> 
> This cannot be answered unless you define more tightly what you mean by
> "good optically".  That is, there are a dozen or so optical parameters to
> consider.
> 
> The Russian lenses I referred to are clones of Prewar Carl Zeiss Jena
> designs or developments of CZJ Topogons.  As such, the designs are rather
> old, but the lenses are fine performers, especially at their low prices.
> The wide-angle Russar and Orion, for instance, vignette, a function of the
> Topogon design, but given that they run 1/6 or so the price of a current
> Leica lens, this makes a fine choice for folks like me who rarely use wide
> angles.  The Jupiter-12 will probably provide better contrast, less edge
> drop-off, and more resolution than any but the latest 35mm Summicrons and
> will do so, again, for 1/4 or so the Leica's price.
> 
> The 1.5/50 Jupiter-3 IS a prize lens by any standards:  it is a much more
> satisfactory lens than any Leitz lens to the second version of the
> Summilux, and is close to the Summilux in performance.
> 
> Marc
> 
> 
> msmall@roanoke.infi.net  FAX:  +540/343-7315
> Cha robh bas fir gun ghras fir!
> 
>