Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1999/11/03
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]>>>for the present I'm enjoying the 35/2 and 90/2.8 enormously. They are exactly what I was looking for<<< Superb kit, that. You can do 97% of anything with these two lenses IMHO. I think the speed choices are fine, too. Photographers in general overestimate the necessity for speed (film, lens, shutter, etc.), based on isolated but acute memories of specific instances in which they don't have enough of it <g>. Really, an f/2.8 lens with a USABLE open-aperture (certainly true of the Elmarit-M) will frustrate only once in a blue moon. We published a lovely photograph taken by Nicholas Hartmann with his 50mm Summicron, shot wide open, in which the only illumination was by candlelight. It's a very nice shot, sharp and richly detailed. He was bracing his elbows on a table, but the camera was handheld. Nick has other examples of equally extreme lighting, too. You have to search pretty hard for situations that truly require an aperture of f/1.4, never mind f/1. I'm not saying you can't find them, but, for general shooting with films of respectable speed, f/2 is quite fast. - --Mike