Re: [Leica] Leica] Why I like the Leica-Users and Other Stories

["Mark Pope" <mark.teampope@ntlworld.com>]

Sounds a bit dodgy to me - what you seem to be saying is that the lens would
be a sort of black hole.  The only thing in the universe that can do this
sort of thing.
This thread is geting scary! :-)  Wonder what Stephen Hawking would make of
it?

Mark
- ----- Original Message -----
From: "SonC (Sonny Carter)" <SonC@sonc.com>
To: <leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us>
Sent: 19 July 2001 19:18
Subject: Re: [Leica] Leica] Why I like the Leica-Users and Other Stories


>
> > > on 7/18/01 4:32 AM, Peter Klein at pklein@2alpha.net
> wrote:
> > > > Because if they did, you'd fall in.
> >
> > >Gilbert Plantinga <gilplant@earthlink.net>> wrote:
> > >Not exactly. You see, when you walk into a small room
> with the Noctilux it
> > > tends to suck all of the available light out of the room
> as soon as you take
> > > off the lens cap. With the wide field of view of a 28
> you could do some
> > > serious environmental damage outdoors! Serious photon
> shortage!
> >
> > Quite right, Gilbert.  But it's a safety issue, too. The
> stream of
> > hyperaccellerated photons running at the edge of the lens'
> angle of view
> > creates a partial electromagnetic vacuum just outside and
> behind the
> > perimeter of the front element.  The wider the lens, the
> farther around
> > and behind the lens this vacuum goes.  At 28mm and wider,
> the
> > photographer is in serious danger with an f/1.0 lens. And
> with wide
> > lenses, you tend to get closer to your subjects,
> endangering them as
> > well.
> >
> > All this was discovered in Wetzlar in the 1950s.  Young
> genius lens
> > designer Heinz Blitzengartner created what he thought to
> be a
> > breakthrough 28mm f/1.0 lens prototype, only to be sucked
> into the lens
> > and implanted onto a roll of Agfachrome the first time he
> tried it.
> > Fortunately, Heinz' colleagues realized what had happened.
> They quickly
> > capped and removed the lens, and Heinz popped out of the
> camera.  He was
> > not seriously injured, but was so embarrased by the
> unexpected turn of
> > events that he quit optical design and became a quantum
> physicist.
> >
> > --Peter
>
> Er,  Peter,  that would be early 1958 when I moved to
> Wetzlar (Beethoven Strasse).  I visited the Leitz factory,
> and like any typically curious American Kid, asked the
> question, "What's this button for?" (push)  I heard a
> whooshing noise, and the place darkened several f stops, and
> well, you know the rest.  They made me stay on the East side
> of the Lahn River from then on.
>
> Regards,
> SonC
>
>
>