[Leica] The Zeiss Choice

[bdcolen at earthlink.net (B. D. Colen)]

All true enough, Henning. But given a choice between those problems, and
not being able to get close, I'd take the problems. (Not to say that
they aren't serious issues. And of course that's where we may have
problems weighing the advantages and disadvantages of rangefinder v SLR
for wide angles. The RF is defininitely superior for focusing wide
angles; on the other hand, the SLR allows really close focusing. And in
that regard there is nothing to match the discontinued 21 f2 for the
discontinued Olympus OM series. I believe it focuses down to about 9
inches from the front element.

-----Original Message-----
From: lug-bounces+bdcolen=earthlink.net@leica-users.org
[mailto:lug-bounces+bdcolen=earthlink.net@leica-users.org] On Behalf Of
Henning Wulff
Sent: Thursday, January 13, 2005 1:46 PM
To: Leica Users Group
Subject: RE: [Leica] The Zeiss Choice


At 10:57 AM -0500 1/13/05, B. D. Colen wrote:
>Oh, NO!!!! Part of the image is obscured by the lens when using wide 
>angles on the new Zeiss!!! Damn, that piece of crap has the same 
>problem the M6 does when using the 35 Summilux ASPH, the 28 Summicron, 
>the 24, and the 21 ASPH. Those Zeiss bastards!!! But, wait, it's 
>obviously not a problem with the Leicas - so why would it be a major 
>issue with the Zeiss, especially given the fact that the Zeiss will 
>allow photographers to move in tight and still focus with wide angles, 
>as they can with many SLRs? Oh, right, never mind. No red dot. ;-)
>
>(NOTE - I have NO idea whether the new Zeiss lenses and bodies are, in 
>terms of quality and function, vaguely competitive with Leica products.

>But then neither does anyone else. ;-) )

It's just that closer focussing makes all the problems with finder 
obscuration and parallax error a lot worse.

Zeiss can make the lenses focus closer, but it can't get rid of the 
geometric difficulties brought on by closer focussing. There has been 
a good reason why rangefinder cameras don't focus closer. Som P&S 
cameras focus closer, but with their slow, small, lenses and lower 
user expectations smaller viewfinders can be placed closer to the 
lens axes and sort of handle the problems.

The finder obcuration that Leicas have is miserable enough; the 
closer focussing of the Zeiss cameras/lenses just makes this 
significantly worse.

-- 
    *            Henning J. Wulff
   /|\      Wulff Photography & Design
  /###\   mailto:henningw@archiphoto.com
  |[ ]|     http://www.archiphoto.com
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