Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2002/12/07
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Frank, I have the 400 6.8 and it has incredible contrast and central sharpness. The downside is that it is relatively slow and the curvature of field means a pretty rapid fall-off of sharpness as you move away from the center. The other good point is that it is really difficult to make this lens flare. I used the Tamron fairly heavily on one day when I borrowed it. It's sharpness is OK but it's contrast is a little flat, sort of like using an uncoated 50 Summitar. I think the first generation Tamron only used one element of anomalous dispersion glass which wasn't enough. Your better bet would be to budget $1500 to $2000 and look for a heavily used 300 Nikkor or even a 400 3.5. As manual focus is "out" these lenses can be had pretty cheap relatively speaking. 2 cents Don dorysrus@mindspring.com - -- To unsubscribe, see http://mejac.palo-alto.ca.us/leica-users/unsub.html