Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1998/10/06
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]On 06-10-1998 00:29 Francesco Sanfilippo wrote: >I just worry because I hear so much about the lens tests and ratings >of M lenses, but not much on R lenses. I want to make sure I am getting >THE BEST of Leica.....if the best lenses are M, I will go with M. >If R lenses are coming out ahead, I will choose R. Francesco: no need to worry. Maybe M lenses do get more attention because they belong to the legendary Leica M system. By comparison, the R system is less "legendary". The French photo magazine Chasseur d'Images treats both series the same way without favoritism. As far as optics are concerned, there is really no meaningfull difference between the two product lines. During my visit to the Leica factory in Solms last week, we were showed both R and M lenses production rooms, as well as the M6 manufacturing and finetuning rooms. I asked a couple of questions on lenses, while we were being shown the production process of aspheric lenses, like why the M series get all the ASPH treatment, unlike the R series (until the Japanese made zoom 35-70/4.0 -where the aspheric element is not even advertised- and the new Solms made 35-70/2.8 ASPH). The reason is quite simple: until recently it was practically impossible to have excellent quality aspherical glass for such large diameters as is needed for R lenses. This has changed now, with a new method of grinding the lenses (instead of the way the Summilux-M 35 ASPH, Summicron-M 35 ASPH, Elmarit-M 21 ASPH and Elmarit-M 24 ASPH were made), which makes things practical for R lenses as well with the same high quality as the aspheric treatment for M lenses. Maybe Erwin can tell the difference between these two production methods. The main practical consequence of this is that we may expect to see some more ASPH's in the R lenses, like e.g. the much-awaited and much-rumored replacement of the Summicron- R 90 with an ASPH version in the very near future, and the replacement of the Summilux-R 35 with an ASPH version a bit further off. I am not sure whether the addition of an ASPH element in the Summilux-R 80 is seen as an urgent need, although it would certainly be useful (I myself am not too satisfied with its performances at the two widest f-stops). It looks like there are a couple more exciting things to come from Leica in the future ! BTW, I wanted to try out the new 35-70/2.8 ASPH zoom, but not even the Leica Akademie had this lens available. It apparently only exists in very small numbers for now. Rollout should follow in Q1 of 1999. But the price in the new Leica pricelist brochure (German version) is pretty steep and well over 5,000 DEM. Pascal - -------------------------------------------------------- Check out: http://members.xoom.com/cyberplace/ - ------------------------------------------------------- Who else than Leica could make a camera like the R8 ? With that unique design and above all: that ergonomics. Nikon ? Canon ? Nobody but Leica ! - ------------------------------------------------------- <<< PGP public key available on request >>>