[Leica] US navy 90 f1/fuji film pushed

["Gary and Dawn Klein" <gdklein@bytehead.com>]

I thought I had read somewhere that the US navy had Leica whip up a special
90mm f1 lens for them.  Is that really true?  Just what the noctilust folks
need to know.  Not that I would really want to hunt one down, but I am
curious if it did exist, how big is the thing?

I happen to like my 90mm f2 summcron a whole lot.  Its an older style one
from the 70s that has served me well in the darker corners of my world.  I
just used it friday at a gymnastics meet in a YMCA where the light was
mediocre at very best.  I used fuji 800 shoved to 3200.  Between the 70~200
f2.8L eos lens on my 1n and the M4-2 with the 90 and shorter of my summicron
trio, I was able to luxuriate at 1/250 @f2.  Of course they prohibit flash
photography of any kind at these meets, so pushing was absolutlely needed.

We seem to have plethora of these poorly lit sporting arenas.  In fact my
cohort is working tonight in our city's 1940s armory for the two high school
matchups in basketball.  We have to light the event. So instead of 1/500
f2.8 at is 6400 , we shoot 400 speed film at a comfy 1/250 f4.  We dial the
light down purposly to avoid the players complaining our lights.

Yes we could use fuji 1600 and push that, but it is a very grainy film.  We
have found that the 800 seems to push much better.  In fact I think the 800
at 3200 looks better than the 1600 at 3200. I haven't used the kodak PJ film
lately, so have any of you out there used it?  And if so how is the quality
pushed compared to fuji.  I'd hate to buy a pro pack to just test with as I
am after all saving for more M gear.......

gck