Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1999/09/01

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Subject: Re: [Leica] Leica R vs. Contax SLR lenses
From: Mikiro <arbos@silva.net>
Date: Wed, 1 Sep 1999 13:14:14 +0200

Pascal, I would like to add my two centimes....

If you shoot a roll of film with a 50/2 Summicron R and another with a
50/1.7 Planar side by side in identical conditions, then you readily can
tell which lens was used in many of the shots even in 20cm x 30cm prints.  I
shoot exclusively B&W and assume that B&W is a better platform to see the
differences on.  When I first shifted from Zeiss to Leica, I was very much
surprised with the difference and regretted the change.  It had taken some
time until my eyes got used to Leica characters and loved them.

Allow me to repeat my previous description.
Zeiss: vivid, clear
Leica: massive, sculpturesque

One of my friends says that Zeiss is better in reproducing tones while Leica
is better in depicting outlines.  To this I partly agree.

On the other hand, it seems to me that the current ASPH Leica lenses have
characters closer to those of Zeiss.  I am not sure if I could tell
differences if I compared the 35/2 asph I have and the 35/1.4 Distagon I had
(A 35/2 for G is a bit different).  They are both sharp and contrasty like
ultrapure water.

Gems in Contax SLR (in my experinece):
35/1.4, 60/2.8 Makro, 135/2 (discontinued)

Cheers,

Mikiro

At 10:52 pm +0200 31/8/99, Pascal wrote:
>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?
>Do they have a different "fingerprint" or is this largely in the eyes of
>the beholder?
>While the price difference for most lenses can be rather large, what-if
>anything- does this reveal about the quality?
>What are the Contax SLR gems among them?
>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.). Somewhere I heard the rumor that
>Contax SLR series would be dropped by Kyocera altogether (concentration
>on the G series and the new 645 format camera). True?
>TIA
>
>Pascal
>NO ARCHIVE
>
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