[Leica] 15mm Heliar

["Henning J. Wulff" <henningw@archiphoto.com>]

I just got a 15mm Heliar. It looks great! Very nice viewfinder, tiny and
bright (and cheap). The lens weighs 2/3 of a 50/Elmarit. Metering is
accurate with the M6, you just got to remember that you are measuring a
_large_ area. I took some Velvia with it (and my 15 Hologon, and my 15/3.5
Nikkor), and the Heliar acquitted itself exceedingly well. Light falloff
was worse than the Nikkor, but in all other respects it was better. The
light falloff was about halfway between using the center filter on the
Hologon and not using the filter. The Heliar is about as sharp as the
Hologon, but the Hologon cannot be set to infinity, but only at best to a
hyperfocal distance (and shorter distances), so distant things look sharper
with the Heliar. The over all flare performance is excellent for a lens of
this angle of view; better than the other two by a wide margin. Just a
touch of distortion; more obviously than the Hologon but less than the
Nikkor, which isn't bad in that department. Contrast is very good. Color
seems just a tiny bit cooler than Leica lenses, but not disturbingly so.

This is all from two rolls. More to come. I might finally be willing to
sell my Hologon.

   *            Henning J. Wulff
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