Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1996/10/20
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]At 09:03 AM 10/20/96 +0200, you wrote: >the many qualities of a lens in just 1 number. Arthur Kramer, who used to write for Modern Photography agrees with you on this point. There are way to many characteristics to be able to give an overlal evaluation of a lens with one number, but this number is a subjective assessment, based on more objective tests. > >To be specific, Mr. Barnim A. Schulze (BAS) rated the old Summilux-M 35mm >f/1,4 (2 aspherical surfaces) optical quality 9.6, mechanical quality 9.6. >The new Summilux-M 35mm f/1,4 (1 aspherical surface) got 9.8 for optical >quality and 9.8 for mechanical quality. This is hard to understand as the >old Summilux-M is slightly better than the new one. Where do you get this idea? Some people automatically assume that two will be better than one aspheric surface, but there are newer glasses used in the new version, and that assessment concurs with Leica's own claim the newer version is better. And my experience is Leica gives realistic assessments of their own lenses, compared to other Leica lenses. Because some people favor another is no indication that all will agree. >BAS is publishing his tests in the German "Fotomagazine" which has the same >commercial constraints as Pop Photo. Eric is absolutely right on the shady >relationships between magazine and advertisers: BAS for instance will ne >v e r say anything negative on Leica or Zeiss. Fotomagazine publishes a >yearly listing of BAS lens tests (approximately 300) in the January or >February issue. Certain tests are also available on Internet at >www.uni-karlsruhe.de/~unl4/leica.htm (in English). Yet, bit even so, I talk (on Compuserve) to a man who was an editor of this particular magazine, and he claims to be very independent, and also feels like even though the BAS tests do have a bias for German glass, the comparative tests to coincide with most people's experiences with the lenses in question in the field. Not always, but most of the time. =========== Eric Welch Grants Pass, OR Ever notice how fast a Mac runs? Neither did I.