Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2000/10/10
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Thought I'd weigh in with a review of my new lens. Funny lens for a
Leica: in many ways, it's much more like the Distagon (the older one, for
the SLR). The construction -- which is unbelievable, btw; as solid as my
old DR Summicron -- recalls the Zeiss lenses -- even looks similar. The
damping of the helical might be a bit much for some; it turns slowly, but
the feel is impeccable.
And the image quality is more reminiscent of Zeiss than Leica. Very, very
sharp -- Photodo's MTF test gives it the edge over the Leica 28mm -- with
Zeiss-like color rendition. The bokeh is not as nice as the Leica lenses
I'm familiar with; mind you, I've never spent much time with the Leica
28mm. Certainly my 50mm Summicron does much better things with radically
out-of-focus images. Of course, this is less of a concern with a
wide-angle, what with its considerable depth of field. The mid-range bokeh
is in fact quite good, although the sharp image doesn't quite pop the way
most Leica lenses do -- I find that the Summicrons (and the 75mm
Voiglander/Cosina!) produce a suble halo around the sharp image, setting it
off from the background.
I like this lens a lot, however. It eats up much less of the rangefinder
than the 28mm Leica -- a major consideration -- and the construction is at
least as good, if not better. The lens mount, in particular, is as solid
as they come.
And it's half the price of the equivalent Leica.
I now have a peculiar bouquest of lenses, all of which make me very
happy: the DR Summicron (which I adore, adore, adore); the Canon LTM
50/1.4 (which I love almost as much); the 75mm Voigt/Cosina (which is,
frankly, the only lens in that line that thrills me -- although the Heliar,
if you keep it on f5.6, is a fine performer); and this new Konica 28mm. I
have yet to find the perfect 35mm (although I suspect it will be a
pre-Aspherical Summicron); I tested both flavors of the Voigtlander/Cosina
35, and found them completely uninspiring.
I know it's odd to have only one Leica lens out of the four, but it seems
to work for me.
cheers,
Douglas Cooper
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