Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1998/02/25
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]You are experiencing what Ted & I have been championing for the past year. People who see your photographs will exclaim... "how'd you do that!" Jim At 08:36 AM 2/27/98 +1100, you wrote: >G'day Guys and Gals, > >I've now shot my first roll of film through the R7 and with the 15mm Super >Elmar. It arrived just as I was about to decorate our new branch in Bacchus >Marsh, so Helen and I headed down to the "Marsh" to shoot some scenes. For >tele shots we used the Rollei 3003 and the R7 had the 15 and a 50. When the >shots came back, there was an initial disappointment. On analysis however >we slowly 'loved' the wide shots more and more, as we recognized that our >dismay was due to some of the outstanding features of this lens. Let me >explain, and please comment and critisize, as I need to learn more about >this lens if I am to take it to Japan in April. > >The lens is almost normal. We had expected more of a wide angle distortion >that we were used to with our other lens. When it was not there we went >'ho-hum', but the more you looked, the more you thought 'gee these are >bizarre, and very good.' Some shots were with the lens focused at its >limits, and these had a quality all their own, so my summary of the lens >is; > >This lens will take a scene and if held horizontally will reproduce an >image which seems to mimic real life, with only minimal distortion. The DOF >is of course huge, and the clarity of the image out to the corners is >great. Wide open there is a slight drop off vignetting of about 1 - 1.5 >stops which seems to disappear as the lens is stopped down. Even held off >horizontal, the wide angle effects are minimal, but ---- > >when focused closer than about 2 - 3 feet, the lens takes on a new quality. >Its DOF disappears and at very close range, the background develops a >swirling motion which seems to sent the image at its edges speeding off the >page. This can create a focus on the static central figure. One rose shot >almost looks as if the flower is moving away from its background and coming >towards the lens, [which given that it was about 2" from the front element >is not surprizing]. > >As you can see, I'm a bit taken aback by the qualities. How do my initial >impressions fit in with experience? Guidance needed ;-) > >Cheers > >Alastair Firkin, > >http://users.netconnect.com.au/~firkin/AGFhmpg.html >