Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2003/07/17
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Don Dory wrote: > > Mark, > I'm glad that you still feel the need for Leica glass. You were > starting to worry us all. And no, I won't be e-mailing you about my 75. > That and the 24 would be the last Leica glass I would let go. That's > not exactly true, for sentimental reasons the DR would be last to go. > > You can do things with the 75 that you just can't get anywhere else. > I've tried with the 80 R and in other manufacturers similar product and > I just don't get the same look. > > YMMV > > Don Put a 50 on a D100 and what do you get? A 75mm that's what! That may increase the popularity of this focal length if I'm not the only one on the Planet using a 50 instead of a zoom. But I feel like I am. I just shot too pictures of someone sitting across the table from me a few minutes ago and they were like head shots. A real comfortable working space and for that angle. I'm also checking out working with the 60mm focal length as of late i think of so much of Salgado's work which i suspect was done with that focal length. Hell! on the M the 75 framelines are there screwing up the view for my 50's. I actually took a hard look at the Cosina 75 a day or two ago and all the stuff they have. I bought me first Cosina lens last week. The 45mm 2.8 for the Leica N system. How many other people does Nikon have making lenses for them I'd like to know? What if Nikon made lenses for Minolta and Minolta made lense for Nikon? Because there bored? Anyway i have a huge respect for Nikon glass but i don't feel the Cosina would be a half step down but a step up. I'm that impressed by what i see and hear from the company. A few may recall I've said a fwe negitive things about same. That was the voightlander issue. I'm keyed for either the 15 or the 12 or both. Maybe on one of thier wiser simpler and very much cheaper bodies. Coincidently my first lens (which I still have) was and is the GN Auto Nikkor 1:2.8 f=45mm Nippon Kogaku Japan No. 7312## It stops down to F 32 a feature i used extensively with a manual flash set at half power shooting events at 3 feet. Two people holding drinks. A horizontal. I'll try it crop out the drinks if possible in camera. X 100 Don't focus any closer then that except by DOF. Stuff way off in the background is dark but sharp at that F stop. Infinity is on the right instead of the left so the F stops and focussing can be hooked up together hence the GN which means Guide number which you see at the underneath of the lens. For some strange reason working at 45mm is a whole lot different than working with a 50. It almost feels like you've got the breathing space of a 35mm lens. But they don't get so far away. A 40 Summicron I'd love to use for the same reasons. The way I envision it the head of Cosina who I've heard Tom A talk about extensively and with great admiration decided to bring that lens "back." and sells the idea to Nikon .If I was setting at the board room table that would have been one of my first ideas too. Cant have to many pancakes. This lens is not a GN guide number or "blitz" lens which is German but sounds like Yiddish to me I'd like some sour cream on it. The lens is silver instead of black a useful feature for when you are shooting toaster-oven catalogs at high noon in the Mojave desert where if you were wearing off-white instead of white you'd get heat stroke. "hand me the light meter" "I cant it was black and it melted" The silver lens is OK but the lens shade makes for too much silver staring at your subject. I took it off but went for my old lens shade for my GN. The design is remarkably different. I cant decide which is more original the Cosina might just edge it out. Now the lens is out in black costing more than the silver because it is the newest thing. On a D100 it becomes a 60mm lensm, my newest favorite focal length. And auto focas. It is a "P." lens, has a chip and is the only lens of that type. A non autofocus lens in which the computers in the newest camera can fully deal with. I found its use a delight but with the battery and multi function packs at the bottom of the comers doubling the camreas size and weight it's slim and light design does not add up to much. Or much less. 43.3 is the true focal length of the 35mm format anyway so shooting a 45 and an "analog" camera puts you closer to that magical center spot. A copy of the Tessar configuration just like the collapsible Elmar 50 on the Leica M - this lack of sophistication puts many people off "why shoot with a Leica if you are going to get mediocre results?" and those who are not at all put off by a lack of an element or two and have a high respect for the classic Tessar design… very small class to air area. Hard to flare up. A great lens to have a flashlight convention. Or at Discos. And i do believe it has value as something less threatening pointed at somebody. I have found a Noctilux slightly intimidating for some people. A big telephoto zoom pointed at someone only 5 or 10 feet away will put them often on edge in more ways than one. Commonly they will be looking as if they are smoking their last cigarette. bubblegum or otherwise And refusing a blindfold. Mark Rabiner Portland, Oregon USA http://www.rabinergroup.com - -- To unsubscribe, see http://mejac.palo-alto.ca.us/leica-users/unsub.html