Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1998/09/25

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Subject: Re: [Leica] vs Zeiss/ 16 X 20s
From: Dominique PELLISSIER <pelliss@droit-eco.u-nancy.fr>
Date: Fri, 25 Sep 1998 21:17:43 +0200

>Lugnuts,
>
>I caught the tail end of a Zeiss seminar ( quite a creature ;-) in
Minneapolis the other day. They had on display a number of Ektar 25 prints
made from Carl Zeiss lenses. The prints were all incredibly sharp.
>
>What was of interest were the following statements in a
>handout describing the gear involved: 1.) " One hundred
>twenty to 130 lppm is necessary to make a high quality 16 X 20 print". 2.)
Describing their Planar 50 f1.4, set at f8; "This is the highest resolution
( 200 lppm across the entire field ) lens available in the world for
general photography".
>
>Questions are as follows: 1.) What Leica lenses would meet the 120-130
lppm criteria? 2.) How does the new R-50 f1.4 compare to the Zeiss 50 f1.4?
 3.) Does the RTSIII  vacuum back ( flatter film )enhance the sharpness of
a lens significantly? 
>Tom D.
>
#############
I can only give the results of the tests made in 1987 by Chasseur d'images
for the 1.4/50 lenses.
The summilux R (old type) is better than the planar at full stop and up to
2.8. The summilux has field curvature ; the planar is...plane.From f4, the
quality is the same for both of the lenses: excellent.
If, according to Leica Camera, the new summilux is better than the old
type,it is obvious than the Leica lens is superior to the Zeiss one.

Dominique Pellissier