Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2001/11/12

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Subject: Re: [Leica] Leica made me a better photographer because it's a better camera - sorts of
From: "Mārtiņš Zelmenis" <martin@lrpv.lv>
Date: Tue, 13 Nov 2001 09:24:49 +0200

I am late on this - and as those tests have been done before, I won't go
into much detail. to begin with - I got the Nikkor just because I knew it
_is_ an awfully nice lens! And I don't forget that the 2.5 was designed more
than 20-30 years ago, while the 2.8 was computed some 10 years ago.

I did the tests on 2 Fuji 50 ASA slide films developed simultaneously. My F3
has got centre-weighted aperture priority metering, so I set My R7 to the
same mode (in order the camera metering patterns would basically act the
same way).
First - the colour saturation the 90/2.8 provided was obviously deeper - one
could see this with a naked eye. It was actually a blow to me. In a
different age I would have written this down to 2 different films / 2
different processors / 2 different - separete developings, but the films
were the same batch, developed side by side.
Then I took out my microscope and chose 3 middle-of-the-roll frames from
each film for evaluation - it was a brick wall, shot from a tripod,
excellent source of fine detail. The 3 frames on each film were shot - wide
open (f2.5 & f2.8) - at f8 - and completely stopped down. The 2.8
outperformed the 2.5 in terms of sharpness quite visibly - but the most
spectacular difference seemed to be with both lenses stopped down! 2.8
provided a slide with a considerable deeper DOF. In short - technically the
Leica lens is capable to provide slides/negs for signifficantly bigger
blow-ups.
That's about it in brief.

Yours

Martin


I for one would like to see the test results for those two lenses.  I, too,
would expect the Leica to be better but the Nikkor 105/2.5 is an awfully
nice lens.

Mike D



Right - we shouldn't be slaves of our equipment.
I was figuring recently - where do Leicas fit in? For what photo purposes
they are best? Ms for candids/street photography - only? Nope; I've used
mine both for street photos and landscapes. I've used it for portraiture,
too, but not classical style - that would be a little short of challenge -
but maybe not (I don't expect to use it with lenses longer than 75mm - and
then I haven't got one). Rs for nature/landscape/portraiture/macro?
Partially - because nothing beats landscape shots on large format. On advice
of fellow LUGer Pablo Kolodny I comparatively tested Nikon 105/2.5 & Leica
90/2.8 lenses. Well, I am now figuring in what way to present the results
for you all to see - I haven't studied the archives; maybe these tests have
been done before. But one thing is certain. No matter how you put it, Leica
IS superior. I bow my head to its engineers and designers.
But then - does it mean I am getting rid of my Nikon - no.

So maybe them Leicas are best for being collector's items???        ;-))

Martin


Mārtiņš Zelmenis wrote:

"What I tried to say was: for me
nothing beats Leica - and Nikon Fs (I've got MF Nikons only). And I perfecty
understand - what works well for one person, doesn't work for another."

I think your second sentence here is the most important point. Some years
ago I had a very nice black plain prism F that I'd found in a pawn shop, and
I sold it for two reasons: 1) it was in far too good condition to remain in
the hands of a 'user' like me, it belonged with someone who would look after
it a bit better and 2) I had too many cameras and needed to have a clear
out. When it came to a choice between getting rid of the F or the Nikkormat
FT3, I had to admit that *for me* the FT3 was the more useful picture taking
machine.

- --
David Morton
dmorton@journalist.co.uk

"The more opinions you have, the less you see." -- Wim Wenders.
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