Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1998/04/27

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Subject: [Leica] Re: Noctilux - Rational lens??
From: Robert Rose <rjr@usip.com>
Date: Mon, 27 Apr 1998 17:34:00 -0700

Another Leica astrophotographer!
That makes two?

Bob Rose



>>> Donald Ingram <Donald_Ingram@compuserve.com> 04/26 2:30 AM >>>

>I can't fully understand the desire for a Noctilux....

>The Canon 50/1 ... you get hardly any light fall-off, no tempermental
nature...

>Are you Noctilux owners in love with this lens or with f/1.0? It sounds
like f1.0, which I can understand but not with all that
>light fall-off....


Chris,

The Noctilux is simply the best f/1  ish  lens I have found, its not
perfect, but it works for me both generally and in some very demanding
astrophotography  situations where both speed of lens and film are pushed
to the limits.

My bad experiences with the Noct-Nikkor have left me very cautious about
trying other fast lenses - its a very expensive game.

I also believe from other sources that other Nikon lenses such as the 28
f/1.4, while fine with general photography, exibit  a fuzzy rendering of
point sources.

 Other leica lenses such as the 21 Elmarit (not asph) and 35 summicron (not
asph) I have found also suffer from this but the 35 f/1.4 asph, 75 f/1.4
and 90 f/2 all produce sharp stars - Leica will tell you this if you ask
but:: when I tried contacting Leica, Nikon and Cannon to ask specifically
how their lenses performed with point sources such as stars - only Leica
responded -  the furthest the others were willing to go was to read me  the
brochures.

I would certainly like to try canon both for their 24 f/1.4 and the 50 f/1
- - but someone will have to prove to me first that they are up to the task.

Did you get a chance to do some  astrophotoraphy with the canon f/1 lens
when you had it? I would be interested to hear more of how the canon lens
performed. 

Donald