[Leica] The Zeiss Choice

[henningw at archiphoto.com (Henning Wulff)]

At 10:57 AM -0500 1/13/05, B. D. Colen wrote:
>Oh, NO!!!! Part of the image is obscured by the lens when using wide
>angles on the new Zeiss!!! Damn, that piece of crap has the same problem
>the M6 does when using the 35 Summilux ASPH, the 28 Summicron, the 24,
>and the 21 ASPH. Those Zeiss bastards!!! But, wait, it's obviously not a
>problem with the Leicas - so why would it be a major issue with the
>Zeiss, especially given the fact that the Zeiss will allow photographers
>to move in tight and still focus with wide angles, as they can with many
>SLRs? Oh, right, never mind. No red dot. ;-)
>
>(NOTE - I have NO idea whether the new Zeiss lenses and bodies are, in
>terms of quality and function, vaguely competitive with Leica products.
>But then neither does anyone else. ;-) )

It's just that closer focussing makes all the problems with finder 
obscuration and parallax error a lot worse.

Zeiss can make the lenses focus closer, but it can't get rid of the 
geometric difficulties brought on by closer focussing. There has been 
a good reason why rangefinder cameras don't focus closer. Som P&S 
cameras focus closer, but with their slow, small, lenses and lower 
user expectations smaller viewfinders can be placed closer to the 
lens axes and sort of handle the problems.

The finder obcuration that Leicas have is miserable enough; the 
closer focussing of the Zeiss cameras/lenses just makes this 
significantly worse.

-- 
    *            Henning J. Wulff
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