Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2000/05/25
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]At 9:29 PM -0500 5/25/00, Bud Cook wrote: >I've been through the archives but didn't see anything that compares the new >APO Summicron-M with the previous 55mm version of the 90 Summicron-M. Has >anyone had experience with both of them? If so, what are your impressions? Bud, I've had the A-A 90 for about 9 months now, and the difference is big. Not as big as the difference between the old 35/1.4 and the ASPH, but big. I took a roll using the old 90 (btw, optically the old 55mm version is the same as the 49mm version with the one piece hood that came before it) the new A-A and a thin T-E. The A-A at f/2 is sharper on Delta 100 than the T-E ever gets, at any aperture. At around 5.6 or 8 the two f2 lenses are hard to tell apart, but the A-A still wins. On HP5 it would be even harder to tell. There is very little difference between f/2 and f/5.6 on the new A-A. Basically, the A-A is as sharp at f/2 as you would expect any lens to be at any aperture. Choose your f/stop based solely on light levels and DOF. The old 90 was definitely soft at f/2, and even at 2.8 or f/4. Bokeh is very good with the new lens, quite smooth, but with all the undercorrected spherical aberration that the older lens had, the bokeh contest is still won by the older lens. Only... at f/2, the older lens was all bokeh and no really sharp image. Other points: the new lens has virtually no light falloff at any aperture; a huge difference to any other short tele I have ever used. Also, for IR use, the new 90 does not have to be refocussed. This makes IR shooting with a 90 a true pleasure. All the new Apo and ASPH lenses for the M are amazing, and set new standards, but in my opinion the A-A 90 is the best lens optically that Leica makes for the M. * Henning J. Wulff /|\ Wulff Photography & Design /###\ mailto:henningw@archiphoto.com |[ ]| http://www.archiphoto.com