[Leica] Don't Trust Everything You Read On The Internet, or: 2 Myths of the Biogon Lens

[Mark Rabiner]

On 4/23/15 5:44 PM, "George Lottermoser" <george.imagist at icloud.com> wrote:

> And the 60s through 80s 'blad Zeiss glass, that I own, definitely always
> pleases the eyes.
> 
> Regards,
> George Lottermoser

George the Hassy wides, 40 through 60 were as I'm sure you know retrofocal
wides just like you'd find on any SLR or beam splitter unite camera its not
symmetrical at all as there has to be nothing going backwards into the
camera body very much getting in the way of stuff.
But in the case of these Zeiss Distagon's made for a Hassy and also perhaps
for Rollei and Alpa these were beyond the standards of the industry. They
were the premium choice for medium format wide angle photography and roll
film just like Leitz was for 35mm. If you used a medium format back on a
view or technical camera perhaps you'd get to shoot with Schneider Super
Angulon (SSA) and just typing those words out makes my heart skip a beat.
The look the Zeiss Distagon's brought to the image is imbedded in our
collective minds from all the commercial and magazine photography we'd ever
seen especially before they got competition from the Japanese camera
industry in the 80's with medium format Mamiya, Bronica and Pentax which
undercut them by quite a bit on the price point.


-- 
Mark William Rabiner
Photographer
http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/lugalrabs/