Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2000/04/13

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Subject: Re: [Leica] nokton v. summilux
From: Tom Finnegan <tomf@piengr.com>
Date: Thu, 13 Apr 2000 12:12:07 -0700

I think I might get a Summarit until I can afford a Summilux. They have a
wonderful look.
Steve
Annapolis
- ------------------------------

I started off by buying a 50/1.5 Jupiter-3 off of EBay for $75. That way I 
figured I could have a lens to use while I saved up for something nicer. I 
was pleasantly surprised to see how well the Jupiter performed in practice 
for a lens that was designed in the 1930's and built in 1956. At the mid 
apertures, with HP5+ handheld, you would be hard pressed to see a 
difference with modern lenses. Stopped down to f16/22 everything goes quite 
blurry and isn't really useable unless you like pictures with an extreme 
depth-of-blur. Wide open it gets pretty soft and low contrast, but with a 
similar 'finger-paint' quality to the bokeh that the Summarit has. For 
people pictures it can work well if you like a retro look. I would be 
interested in comparing it side-by-side with the Summarit. Considering it's 
cheap price, for B&W work it would be hard to beat the price/performance 
ratio of the Jupiter-3.

Tom Finnegan
Seattle