Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1999/03/10
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Hi Bob! ...and the rest of you,of course! Get the old one, unless you prefer to pay for the same thing twice. (The new 90 costs double,APO will cost triple the original 900 DM I have paid for mine.) The real difference is in the diameter of the focusing ring,and the ergonomy of the damn thing.(Older is bigger and heavier,of course.) The old 1959 - 1979 M-Summicron 90/2 was and still is a great lens for portraits,lanscapes and life.It was also meant for use with Visoflex,hence the extra metal. In use,it is very conformtable,just because of it's weight,and I didn't lose a picture with it yet,on account of it's "slowness". (And I do press work,too.) The 1980 version was scaled down,and made with one lens short,the demand being that,the redesign is NOT to be worse than the old lens. Of course,it is marginally better at f=2,and as I have already mentioned,twice more expensive. The new 90 APO will be a real beast,probably capable of competing with the medium format optics as a portrait lens.Thus,do not expect mercy on a pricetag. For press and life photographers,90/2.8 Elmarit-M is a better user lens on account of a smaller focusing ring diameter. Of course I have done MY homework,checking out Erwin's page like a good boy should,before buying a lens... BTW,can anyone recommend me a good pro supplier in Denver? Cordially, Nikola Radic Lucati Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com