RE: [Leica] Friedlander & Leica 21 mm lenses

[Buzz Hausner <Buzz@marianmanor.org>]

I rarely use the 21 for landscape work, if that is what Friedlander was
trying to do.  I generally use it for working close-in, often in-doors, and
for desperately three dimensional images.  I own and use a great deal the
pre-aspheric 21 and have never noticed anything like Friedlander's
complaint.  It sounds from the quote, though, like Friedlander would find a
comfortable home on the Lug.

	Buzz Hausner

> As I read through the interesting parts of the recent Eggleston threads --
the ones in which people wrote why they liked or disliked about him -- I
thought about the fact he is extremely difficult to imitate successfully.
This made me think about Friedlander's photographs in "Viewing Olmstead,"
which I think are also extremely difficult to imitate well. In the back of
this book, which contains Friedlander photographs shot with a Leica M and
with the Hasselblad Superwide, there is an interview with Firedlander in
which he explains why he started using the latter:
>
> "The reason I stared using [Hasselblad superwide] was that I was having
some kind of congenital problem with wide-angle lenses [on the Leica] in the
desert, probably because of the light, and probably because those lenses
were designed for flat surfaces. Those lenses are usually used by people who
do architectural work, which deals with flat surfaces, not so much with a
large area with lots of details. I don't know what the reasons were. It
looked as is areas were out of focus and they wouldn't be the same every
time. I call it congenital because it comes with lens; it's not something
anybody can fix and it's not that anybody even knows why. I've talked to
technical people and they don't know. So every time I saw a photographer who
I knew was good technically, like Frank Gohlke, I would ask, 'Hey, Frank,
what's the best wide-angle lens you know of?' The common denominator was the
Hasselblad superwide...reluctantly I went and bought it and then fell in
love with it."
>
> The above was published before the M-21 ASPH came out. I assume that
Friedlander was speaking about Leica M 21 lenses. Three questions:
>
> 1. Has any noticed the problem that Friedlander is talking about?
>
> 2. What is the likely reason for this problem? (Perhaps this can be
inferred from the characteristics of the lens on the Hasselblad Superwide
camera).
>
> 3. Does the new M-21 ASPH solve this problem?
>
> --Mitch
>
>