[Leica] 3 Lenses

["A.H.SCHMIDT" <horst.schmidt@actek.com.au>]

Hi,

Last Sunday the missus and I went to our shack for the weekend about 150km
north of Melbourne. An area not far from the snow fields. (we are having good
falls at the moment. About 50cm or so)
Besides my wife, I also took my M3 DS , a 50mm Summarit, a 90mm Elmarit and a
Cannon 28mm f2.8. The film used was standard Fujicolour Superia 100 ASA. - I
never hear any of the other Lugers using it. But I like it. I never found any
problems with it yet.

On Sunday morning we went out for a walk . I took all three lenses. The
weather was a
quite overcast and a bit drizzly. About 1/125 f4 weather. It somehow did
nothing to make me want to use the Camera.
However, about an hour later, the sun came trough, and the sky had blue
patches. The weather improved to f8 1/250. Every thing was still wet and
gleaming. Great photographing weather.
The sun was hitting a small watery patch with medium height wide leaved
grasses still wet.
Everything was glittering and shining. I had to photograph in to the sun. The
first lens I used was the 50mm Summarit. I had the proper lens shade mounted.
I took a few  shots from varying positions and the switched to the 90mm
Elmarit. I used no UV filter, but the correct lens hood. - The 90-135mm hood -
. I tried to do the same shots with this lens.
I did not bother to use the 28mm lens at this stage, because the way the
grasses shone and reflected the sunlight would have been lost. (I think).
Further on, we came across a superb view, with the snow capped mountains (
hills for you people in other countries, except Holland maybe)  in the back
ground and some rolling green pastures with cows in the foreground. There
where also a few homesteads and shacks strewn in between. I used all three
lenses. The sun was about 30 Degrees to my left.  Finally we found some great
looking mushrooms (Toadstools) nested between some bracken underneath some
Pine trees. The Mushrooms where Bright read with some white dots over them. I
believe in the old days, people made a paste out of them and used them to kill
flies. At first i used the Summarit to try and get some close ups. Then the
Elmarit.
With the Elmarit things where a lot easier. because even so the minimal
focusing distance is about 1m, the image is a lot bigger. I used a 1/60 sec
with a f8 opening. Thanks to my soft release button, I felt that a 60es was ok
handheld. (not from Tom Abrahomson, but an inexpensive Japanese made one -
which I think is better then Toms-).

Yesterday a received my prints back (I get them done at a professional studio)

50mm Summarit. I was really disappointed with a.)  The amount of glare. The
shot of the grasses, with the sun at an 60 degree angle in front above me was
quite useless. three was glare everywhere, even on the left and right side of
the picture. And the contrast of course seemed quite low. The other pictures
from slightly different positions had also slightly to much glare  to be
useful.
The Landscape pictures with the the mountains in the background, where ok, but
should have had a bit more brilliance. The contrast was similar to the Summar,
without being as rounded and with somewhat less bokeh.

The same goes for the close up picture of the mushroom. Besides being not very
close up,
It also lacked sharpness and brilliance.  (By the way, the glass is clean. no
fungus or fogging)

Overall, I think I am not using the Summitar anymore. It goes to the
collection.

The 90mm f2.8 Elmarit.   What a difference. This is a super duper lens. The
shots in to the sun (The wet  grass pictures) came out just perfect. There was
a slight amount of glare, but it seem to enhance the quality of the picture.
It let you know, the sun was shining towards you. But it was not obtrusive.
The prints where sharp and radiated. Boy what a lens.

The landscape Pictures where also very good in quality, but lost a lot in
perspective.
Not the fault of the lens of course.

The close-up of the mushroom was the best. It was like it was illuminated. the
perspective was perfect, it looked just about 3 dimensional. I had this shot
enlarged to 20" X 30" inches, and it looks even better. No camera shake
either. Good old Leica.

The Cannon 28mm F2.8 is a very good lens. I am not normally a wide angle
person, but I really think for people who like this focal length, this is a
worth wile lens to have. The edges where sharp and clean, and the contrast
very good. I think it is better than my 35mm Elmar and 35mm Summaron f 3.5.
But not as good as the Summaron f2.8.

With this test, I am getting slowly an overview of the quality of my older
lenses.  I have also a couple of later lenses, a 35mm Summicron - the last
model before the aspheric-
and a 50mm Summicron -the latest model-, But I know anyway, they are superb.

So far of all my  earlier 50mm lenses, Summicrons, Summars Elmars and Cannons,
my Voigtlander 50mm f1.5 Nocton has to be my favorite.

This test are of course not at all scientific test, but they tell me in a real
life situation, what to expect from the various lenses.

I would love to have  a web side, to show some of my prints and demonstrate
what I am talking about, but I really don't know how to go about it.

Regards, Horst Schmidt