Re: [Leica] 28mm R or 28mm M

["Patrick G. Sobalvarro" <pgs@sobalvarro.org>]

Michael Yuen wrote:
> 
> Hi,
> 
> Can someone give me an opion on the performance of 28mm R ?  How is it
> compared to the 28mm M ? Since most people in this group use either the
> 21mm, 24mm or 35mm.  There were not much discussions on the 28mm. I've
> found the 28mm suits me better than the 35 or 24 for the kind of
> pictures that I want to take.

I'm not in a position to compare the 28 Elmarit-R to the 28 Elmarit (M),
because I don't own the latter.  I do own the former, though, but not in
the most recent version (this lens was recomputed about two years ago). 
I can tell you something about my older version, though.

First, wide open, this lens has the most distinctive out-of-focus
rendition of any of my lenses.  This is definitely not the lens to use
if you want a smooth, unobtrusive transition from things that are in
focus to things that are out of focus.  Things in the background look
unusual with this lens at f/2.8.  I happen to like the effect, but it's
certainly obtrusive.  I can e-mail you a (large) scan if you want to see
what I mean.

I have never tried to do lens performance tests, but subjectively, I
would say that at f/4 this is definitely a sharper lens than the 21/4
Super-Angulon-R, and even at f/2.8 it produces quite sharp photos that
enlarge very nicely.  My subjective impression is that it is nearly as
sharp as the 50/2 Summicron-R, although I know that that probably would
not be borne out by resolution tests.

I really like the lens, but I don't use it so often nowadays, because
it's not wide enough for a lot of what I've been doing lately.  If I
were really concerned about sharpness I would probably use the 28 more
than the 21, but I'm not an acutance nut.

- -Patrick