[Leica] Date: Thu, 7 May 1998 04:36:01 -0600

["Greg Bicket" <gbicket@email.msn.com>]

Hello all,

I am new to the list and new to Leica use, and am finding the dialogue
fascinating.

I have a some questions.  My leap into Leica is on the SLR side, after 12
years with a faithful Nikon F3HP, and my lens awareness of Leica R lenses is
wanting.  First, of the mid-range zooms.  I have heard nothing flattering
regarding the f3.5-4.5 28-70mm zoom; flare, vignetting, etc.  I seek to
learn if LUGers have experience with the new f4 35-70, and if they'd share
their thoughts on optical quality.  This is a Japanese lens.  There is also
a German f3.5 35-70, but I  understand it lacks close focusing capacity, and
this seems to me a useful plus of the new zoom.

Second, I have twice experienced multiple firing of my R8 [of the same
nature as the sequence when loading with the winder on] well into rolls of
film.  This occured between the 20th and 30th frames on both rolls.  It
cycled just as it would when initially loaded, with three shutter releases
from a single pressing of the shutter release.

Not a monumental flaw, but not right; certainly disconcerting and
distracting, not to mention confidence-eroding.  My retailer mentioned that
another recent buyer had reported the same thing.  Somewhat mysteriously, I
got an email response in this regard from Leica USA that indicated the
sender would be speaking with the R8 technician the next day, and s/he would
be letting me know what s/he learned.  Then nothing, even after a follow up.
Is this an insider secret or rite of passage for new Leica users?  Is this
subject to executive privelege??

I purchased the f1.4 80mm for primary use as a portrait lens.  It is already
back at Leica with mechanical problems, the likes of which never experienced
with any of my Nikon lenses over years of hard use.  Just bad luck, I hope,
but my question regards the lens' minute depth of field at wider than the
middle of its aperture range.

I am myopic, but find the R8's eyepiece correction and non-eyepiece,
eyeglass corrected focusing to take me to exactly the same spot looking
through the camera. Early photographs reveal the lens' focus point to be a
few centimeters further from the film plane, and with the lens' critically
shallow focus, unacceptable focusing error.  How does one get it right while
using wider apertures?  If the answer to sharpest focus is to stop down, the
utility of this lens' speed is wasted.

Finally, as I delve into Leica history, I am fascinated by the naming of the
lenses.  Is the naming driven by approximate focal length groupings?

Many thanks,

Greg Bicket