Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1998/10/20

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Subject: Re: [Leica] 35 mm Summilux-R vs. Summicron-R
From: Eric Welch <ewelch@ponyexpress.net>
Date: Tue, 20 Oct 1998 22:13:12 -0500

At 10:09 PM 10/20/98 -0400, you wrote:
>Hello Everyone,
>                Have any of you compared the 35mm Summilux -R to the
>Summicron-R ? If so, I'd like to hear your comments, particularly with
>regard to distortion and light fall-off in the corners at the wider
>apertures. Can I expect the Summilux-R to be at least as sharp as the
>Summicron from, say, f 4.0 on down, out to a 12 mm -14 mm image circle ?
>Optically, how close is the Summilux - R to the pre-aspheric       
>Summilux - M ?

It blows the Pre-ASPH Summilux out of the water. In fact, in the world of
35mm lenses, only the Summilux ASPH (and Summicron ASPH) are better. It is
actually better than the 35 Summicron R. I'm not the only one who has said
that. Jim Kuehl sold me on it with that claim. 

I have owned two of them, and they are superb lenses! There is one failing,
or  I guess there are two. Wide open, the fall off is pretty noticeable.
But stop down a little and it's gone. And performance is superb. In the
light you need f/1.4, and you won't notice the fall-off as being
significant. It's also quite big. And you can't use thick polarizers on it.
Vignetting becomes impossible to accept. 

And I would own one right now, except I already have a 35 Summilux ASPH.
- -- 

Eric Welch
St. Joseph, MO
http://www.ponyexpress.net/~ewelch

Logic: The art of being wrong with confidence...