Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2010/04/02
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Yeah, Doug sometimes gets a little wacky out there with a 180mm. Nothing wider than that for him. I'm surprised no one (I've caught -- maybe I missed one) has mentioned the CV 21/4. By all reports it's better than their 12, 15, and 18mm lenses by a good margin and competitive with the Leicas. From my experience it is an excellent lens and a favorite of mine when shooting film; Even more spectacular on film, I must testify, is an old gem: the Minolta MD 24mm f.2.8, which is perhaps the sharpest. brightest lens I own and which I think has a cult following of sorts. (Steve's shot earlier today of the grasses by the river taken with the Summilux very much reminded me of Velvia shots I'd taken with the MD 24/2.8. Back in the days Leica was working with Minolta I believe they used the then-current Minolta 24/2.8 as a model on which they improved for the 24 Elmarit-R. Or so I've read. No doubt theirs is a pound heavier.... Minolta was back then doing very advanced work in multi-coatings. Again, so I've read. In the end as people are fond of saying around here the proof is in how crisp and charbroiled you can make the pudding. Now that I'm mostly doing digitial width becomes my greatest grief. The Nikon D40x is a 1.5 crop and my widest prime is 28mm. The G1 is of course 2X so I can use the CV 21/4 and the MD 24/2.8 on the G1 and the 28 on the Nikon but all are cropped into what I call the new "para-normal" range. That leaves two zooms: the Nikon 18-55 AF-S DX which Rabs mentioned briefly in his list and the Panasonic Lumix 14-45. Both crop essentially to 28mm. The Nikon is a very good lens for the price, great color and sharp, but least sharp I've found at the wide end, which is where it's most needed. The Lumix at 14mm is just beautiful. There is a hint of over-saturation to its colors for my taste but I assume I could a.) tone that down in-camera by changing settings if it really bothers me and b.) learn how to play with it in PS. I believe in Basics one can easily do this. I really only notice it when doing comparisons with other lenses at longer, comparable focal lengths. Vince On Thu, Apr 1, 2010 at 7:57 AM, Doug Herr <wildlightphoto at earthlink.net>wrote: > Richard Man wrote: > > >WHat are the widest lens people NORMALLY use? I don't mean the occasional > >15mm CV or 12mm usage, but ones that you use all the time. > > I might be an outlier in this survey.... > > Doug Herr > Birdman of Sacramento > http://www.wildlightphoto.com > > > > _______________________________________________ > Leica Users Group. > See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information >