Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2012/03/04
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]because the 43 Biogon is a lens famous for having zero to no distortion. And on a level that a retrofocal or non symmetric lens can't despite all the well meaning computer design, high end glass and cutting edge coatings. Hasselblad also used to put out very well designed square brochures which were really like books. One on the superwide. Now we have search engines. Bing or Google or whatever. And you can shoot a grid and it will come out with every square square just like it came in. Just make sure the camera is level. As in real level perfectly level. In the last decade they came out with a thing added on to the back which is like a groundglass with magnifier to aid in this. They don't work on an old superwide as a Polaroid back wont work. As the levels on the camera can be not quite enough. And the viewfinder tells you nothing. I have just finished going over some very carefully made room views of my old house in Portland which I shot level with a tripod with a pristine 21mm Elmarit ASPH. A few perhaps with a 24mm Elmarit ASPH. And as excellent as this glass is they are retrofocal not symmetrical. I had to set it to 12 to get rid of barrel distortion in adobe camera ready raw. That's a lot of cash to spend and not get much closer to perfection. To this day I have never owned a true wide angle symmetrical lens. And I am a big boy. As in old. And just a all around great guy.. But some day soon I can feel it in my bones. A cool thing about them is they are quite low key. They mainly exist behind the lens board. Most of them are in the camera not out. Like say the 21 SA Super Angulon from Schneider which many have found to be the main reason to get into Leica M for many decades. Not so great with digital I'm afraid. I head there is a CS 21 which is a true wide angle and you can use it. Very tiny. And proably very much better corrected than lenes costing very much more. A retrofocal lens I've read is like looking through a telescope backwards. Bottom line a very crude way to design a wide angle lens. But with a mirror to avoid and a metering path to avoid it was the only game in town. -- Mark R. http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/lugalrabs/winterdays/ > From: Richard Man <richard at richardmanphoto.com> > Reply-To: Leica Users Group <lug at leica-users.org> > Date: Sun, 4 Mar 2012 04:04:01 -0800 > To: Leica Users Group <lug at leica-users.org> > Subject: Re: [Leica] Biogon SWC (lack of) distortion > > Yes, but my question is, how come the SWC Biogon doesn't seem to have the > distortion of circles becoming oblong on the edges, or am I incorrect in > saying that? > > > > > -- > // richard <http://www.richardmanphoto.com> > > _______________________________________________ > Leica Users Group. > See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information