Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1999/07/07
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Bob $380 for a Russar MR-2 with caps and finder is about par for the course, so you seem to have gotten a good deal from E-Bay, one of the very few of which I've yet heard! The lens is of a disputed heritage, and I've not disassembled mine to check. Most of my sources indicate the lens is a Topogon design (a wide-angle design originally formulated by Richter at Zeiss in the '30's for aerial-recon photography and later adapted as a 4.5/2.5cm or 4/2.5cm for the Contax RF system), though Wright, in his LENS COLLECTORS' VADE MECUM links it to the LF Russar design, a more complex formulation. In any event, it does suffer from a falling-off of edge illumination: the edge of the frame is about 1 stop slower than the center. This provides a nice effect to emphasize the center of the image in some cases -- for instance, I have a picture hanging in my office I shot of my son at the beach, with the edges a bit darker than the center, causing him to stand out a bit. However, under other circumstances, this edge fall-off can be a decided minus. Other than that, it is a fine lens optically. It doesn't suffer from noticeable distortion and is of good sharpness, contrast, and resolution. Marc msmall@roanoke.infi.net FAX: +540/343-7315 Cha robh bas fir gun ghras fir!