Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1998/04/01

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Subject: [Leica] Re: Tri-Elmar
From: Lucien <Lucien_vD@compuserve.com>
Date: Wed, 1 Apr 1998 14:56:10 -0500

I was thinking like you until I had it in my hands
this afternoon.
I don't know the quality of the results,
but mechanicaly it worth every penny of $2.000.
Incredible !

Lucien

>I must be missing something here...Collectability aside, the prime
attraction of >the M series its the outstanding mechanical quality of the=

camera and the equally >outstanding quality of the lens optics. LUGERS
debate endlessly about which >version of which l!
>ens, with how many elements, is how many gnat hairs sharper than what
other >version of the same lens. Fine. So why the excitement about the ne=
w
Tri-Elmar?
>According to the literature posted at the Leica website, the new lens "i=
s
>distinguished by a good to very good renedition at all three focal
lengths...
>"Aberrations such as coma, vignetting, and curvature of field are small =
to
begin >with and can be virtually eliminated by stopping down to f/5.6-8..=
=2E"
>"Good to very good"? For $2,000
>"stopping down to f/5.6 to f/8" ? For $2,000
>What happened to "excellent to very good"?
>Granted, this is the first sort-of-zoom for a rangefinder - right? But
given the >quality of each of the individual lenses, and given the small
size and weight of >each of the individual lenses, and given that while n=
ot
all of us have 28s but >virtually all of!
>us have 35s and 50s that will fit in the same coat pocket and will produ=
ce
razor->sharp images, what gives?
>I know it's a Leica...But that doesn't make it worth running out to spen=
d
$2,000 >for. In fact, it sounds like the Leica equivalent of the original=

Nikkor 35-85 (?) >zoom. It was compact, but the images it produced sure
weren't up to Nikon quality.
>Any thoughts?