Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1999/10/17
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Nathan Wajsman wrote:
>You are in luck, since Leica has just come out with a fabulous new 90mm
>Summicron Apo Asph. This means two things: you can either buy this lens
>and have the very best; or if you can live with a lens that is one stop
>slower, you can buy a second-hand 90mm Elmarit, also an excellent lens
>which is quite inexpensive now (relatively speaking, we are talking Leica
>after all).
If the new 90 Summicron GASPH-APO is as sharp and better corrected as
claimed, I'd be the first to balk at using it for portraits. Reason? While
the buffs on one side of the shutter curtain would love to have the
priviledge of having the sharpest lens that money can buy, their subjects
on the other side would squirm at seeing their every blemish, pock mark,
zit and what have you recorded on film for posterity.
In my experience, female subjects just love to see their pictures taken
with my humble Kodak Xenon 50/2.8 lens on a 1954 Retina IIc (priced at only
$200) purely because the images produced with this lens are so "flattering"
compared to the harsh 50 summicron of current vintage.
Dan K.
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Modernisation is not necessarily in the best interest of mankind.
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