[Leica] Lens Choices

[Mark Rabiner]

I think a guy or gal can use any lens they feel like using if that's the
lens they are in the mood to use that day.


On 4/24/15 8:51 PM, "Jim Nichols" <jhnichols at lighttube.net> wrote:

> Hi Mark,
> The lens you admired then is the lens I admire now.  Produced around
> 1971, someone took good care of it before I got my hands on it a few
> years ago.  I am having fun with it, and it, in turn, is giving me some
> good images of my great-grandkids.  What else can I ask for?
> 
> Jim Nichols
> Tullahoma, TN USA
> 
> On 4/24/2015 7:41 PM, Mark Rabiner wrote:
>> " Super-Multi-Coated Takumar" may have been a mouthful but it was on the
>> lips of all the photo people I knew who hung out at the school darkroom and
>> all sat at the same table over French fries at the student lounge which was
>> called the Red Carpet.
>> This was the lens and camera, a Spotmatic that I used often as I'd check it
>> out from the school on the weekend. It was so much lighter with far better
>> ergonomics than my new Nikon f2 with 45mm GN lens which only focused to 3
>> feet.
>> We all loved this lens and this camera at my school, Webster College in St.
>> Louis in the early 70's it was the first to get checked out. A Canon FTb was
>> the last as it always pulled the film out of the cassette on the last frame.
>> It also came out in 1971 I see now.
>> The Pentax Super-Multi-Coated Takumar 50/1.4 was the first lens anybody
>> could get their hands on which had this advanced coating which everyone was
>> very hyped on and was developed by Pentax in conjunction with Zeiss said to
>> have as many has 6 micro thin coatings the same lens service the idea blew
>> everybody away.  Its all they talked about in any of the photo magazines..
>> Was said to ad noticeable contrast to your final image and it turned out to
>> not be hype.  And contrast by the way is a good thing. The Hasselblad lenses
>> the next year had T* on them which indicated the same thing though
>> Hasselblad claimed they'd been doing that previously a bit anyway for a year
>> previously. Soon any lens which was not super multi coated or T starred was
>> not worth a hill of beans in this crazy world. Other companies had other
>> nomenclatures.
>> 
>> On 4/23/15 6:13 PM, "Jim Nichols" <jhnichols at lighttube.net> wrote:
>> 
>>> George,
>>> 
>>> I realize I am going against the grain here.  I am resisting the
>>> conventional "wisdom" that, if it is not made by Leica or Zeiss, etc,
>>> then it has to be junk.  The same holds for earlier models.  I feel a
>>> lens should be evaluated on what it can do for ME, not what the
>>> "experts" claim.
>>> 
>>> This is to show, especially to me, that my lens of choice, which happens
>>> to be a Pentax Super-Multi-Coated Takumar 50/1.4 (7-element lens) from
>>> around 1971, can do a reasonable job for me without having to spend a
>>> small fortune for the latest and greatest lens, that is admittedly
>>> somewhat better, but at what cost?
>>> 
>>> Since I'm getting few comments, I suspect no one else cares.
>>> 
>>> Thanks for commenting.
>>> 
>>> Here is my favorite image made with this lens, several Christmases ago:
>>> 
>> http://www.gallery.leica-users.org/v/OldNick/Katie+Grace+_amp_+Kristin.jpg.ht
>> m>
>> l
>>> Jim Nichols
>>> Tullahoma, TN USA
>>> 
>>> On 4/23/2015 4:30 PM, George Lottermoser wrote:
>>>> On Apr 23, 2015, at 4:00 PM, Jim Nichols wrote:
>>>> 
>>>>> This third image, shot from my neighbor's yard across the street, shows
>>>>> that
>>>>> things are greening up at my house, and the bushes are in real need of
>>>>> trimming.  As a general purpose lens, this lens provides plenty of detail
>>>>> without enhancement.  This raw image was converted with no special
>>>>> adjustment, and the image was resized.
>>>>> 
>>>>> http://www.gallery.leica-users.org/v/OldNick/House.jpg.html
>>>>> 
>>>>> Comments and critiques welcomed.
>>>> As you're presenting "lens tests" with the subject line "Lens Choices"
>>>> It would be a bit more interesting if you mentioned what lens we're looking
>>>> at a sample from.
>>>> 
>>>> Not in the text and not in the EXIF - so what "Choices" are you making?
>>>> 
>>>> Regards,
>>>> George Lottermoser
>>>> 
>>>> http://www.imagist.com
>>>> http://www.imagist.com/blog
>>>> http://www.linkedin.com/in/imagist
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> _______________________________________________
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>>>> 
>>> 
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>> 
>> 
>> 
> 
> 
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-- 
Mark William Rabiner
Photographer
http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/lugalrabs/