[Leica] More on the Canon f1.2

[lrzeitlin at aol.com]

 This discussion of $7000 Noctilux(s) touched my parsimonious soul. For a diffident amateur photographer like me how useful can a saucer sized piece of glass be? Now that I don't have to push Tri X to take pictures of black cats in coal cellars or?people in a dimly lit bar an ordinary f2.8 lens is fine with a digital camera. I described my love/hate affair with my 50+ year old Canon 50mm f1.2 lens in a previous post. So today I tried snapping a picture of the junk on my coffee table on an overcast day in my dimly illuminated living room. Not bad. It was sharp enough at f1.2 for a newspaper although not necessarily for a glossy magazine. The table was about 1 meter away. The total depth of field is only a couple of inches. The glass is in focus but the paper plates just in front and just behind are blurred. Focusing without a rangefinder is difficult but my Olympus digital Pen camera has a zoom viewfinder mode that makes it possible. The 4/3 frame, half the size of a 35mm film frame, uses only the sweet center of the image circle so all the edge fringing is minimized. Here is the image and a picture of the lens on the camera. I really need a Nocti or is it an ego thing? The Canon lens costs only 5% of the Nocti price.


http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/Larry+Z/Wine+glass_+Canon+50mm+f1_2.jpg.html
http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/Larry+Z/Canon+f1_2+on+EPL-1.jpg.html


Larry Z