Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1998/09/18

[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]

Subject: RE: [Leica] Critical test reports by CDI
From: "B. D. Colen" <BDColen@earthlink.net>
Date: Fri, 18 Sep 1998 11:45:18 -0400

Naaah - Don't get the shorts knoted. But...I contend that the most
interesting thing about those tests is the comments regarding price and
value....And there I think they really do have a point. It's one thing for a
lens to cost a bit more because it's a bit better, but when it costs several
times what a lens that is only very slightly inferior costs, the market
begins to shrink quite radically...

> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us
> [mailto:owner-leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us]On Behalf Of Eric Welch
> Sent: Friday, September 18, 1998 8:56 AM
> To: leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us
> Subject: Re: [Leica] Critical test reports by CDI
>
>
> At 10:14 AM 9/18/98 +0200, you wrote:
>
> >If they did not test the newer 180/2.8 APO than it is more
> likely Leica's
> >fault for not supplying it to them and giving an old 180/3.4 instead. It
> >is more a question of, again (did you notice the pattern...), bad
> >marketing on their behalf.
>
> Could be, but I know what the new Nikkor can do, and what the Apo Telyt
> (3.4) can do, and they are not comparable. The Apo Telyt is a freak of
> nature from the 70s. But be that as it may, another showing of their lack
> of knowledge is that 3.4 is not much slower in any case, and if
> they tested
> the T-stop on the Apo Telyt, they'd find the light transmission is so
> efficient that it makes it very close to the equivalent of a 2.8 lens. So
> no significant speed difference. This is a well established fact
> about this
> lens since the 70s.
>
> On the other hand, Leica may have not had a model available when this test
> was done. Did they give a date? This is a very news lens (180 Apo 2.8), so
> that might be a reason.
>
> In the end, I really don't put much credence in magazine lens tests,
> because they aren't lens manufacturers, they don't know the intent of the
> manufacturer (with Erwin P. being a notable exception in this area) and so
> how can they possibly test a lens for the target points of any given lens?
> So maybe I shouldn't get my shorts in a knot about them, eh?
> --
>
> Eric Welch
> St. Joseph, MO
> http://www.ponyexpress.net/~ewelch
>
> Suicidal twin kills sister by mistake!
>