Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1998/05/01
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]What will I see in an image taken with a Leica lens stopped down to f/16 or f/22? Will artifacts be visible or what should I look for? At 01:01 PM 5/1/98 -0400, TEAShea wrote: >< I must admit, I have NEVER stopped a Leica lens down below f/8. >> > >One thing to consider is that as a lens is stopped down, diffraction becomes >an issue. Diffraction can degrade an image substantially. For this reason, >usually try not to stop down to the smallest stop or two, depending on the >situation. > >In general, Leica lenses seem to differ somewhat from other lines of lenses >regarding the ideal aperture range. Your sense is correct. Present >generation Leica lenses seem to generally perform best at about two stops to >four or five stops down (until diffrations starts to be an issue). However, >the range of excellence is quite wide. The very newest Leica lenses seem to >reach peak performance ( or very very close) at even one stop down. I cannot >speak to previous generation Leica lenses. In contrast, most of my Canon >prime lenses are best at about three or four stops down from max. Zeiss >Contax lenses seem to be closer in this regard to Leica. > >Tom Shea > Francesco Sanfilippo, Five Senses Productions webmaster@5senses.com http://www.5senses.com/