Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1999/08/31
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]In a message dated 8/31/99 5:15:01 PM Eastern Daylight Time, cyberdog@ibm.net writes: << Does anyone who uses (or has used) both the Leica R and Contax SLR lenses care to comment on the qualities of the respective lens lines?>> I'd be interested to hear this, too. I know they're metal/brass construction and all designed by Zeiss. According to the MTF ratings at Photodo the Contax SLR lenses equal or exceed the Leica R's. That they're priced so low in comparison is no shocker nor is it necessarily a sign of inferiority, vis the 3 Leica R lenses which are also produced by Kyocera and are also much cheaper than the rest of the Leica R stable. << Is developing in the Contax SLR lens line still going on? I have the impression it has more or less come to a standstill (e.g. no fast zooms, no recomputations like Leica etc.).>> From my observations of the Leica R line, they seem to be *discontinuing* a lot of the shorter primes and the ones that are left (save for the 50 Summilux) have been around for quite a while. The 35 and 50 Summicrons are contemporary with the M lenses of about *2* generations past, and the 24 dates back to Minolta days. Even the 80 1.4 is getting a bit long in the tooth.