Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2000/11/12
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]It was asked: I once heard from a couple of dealers that the German version of the 35-70/3.5 Vario-Elmar is better than the current 35-70/4 in optical performance. Is it true? As far as I know and have heard, the German version has the same optical design as the Japanese version of f3.5, which means that they are the same in optical performance and that the current f4 is hands down winner in image quality. These dealers might know better. The 4/35-70 is a new Solms design with an aspherical lens and a fully different optical layout than the Japanese-based 3.5/35-70. The 3.5/35-70 is a very good lens, no doubt here, but is clearly surpassed by the 4/35-70, especially in contrast and definition in the filed and overall at the wider settings (35 and 70). Erwin