Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2006/06/17
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Actually, Leica hasn't used a true symmetrical design on its wideangle M lenses since the super-angulons. Ever since they needed more distance from the film plane to the rear element to acomodate the swinging meter cell of the M5, and later not to block the M6's meter cell's view of the film plane, Leica has been using a retrofocus design on M wide angle lenses. True, they are not designed to give as great a back-focus distance as for the R mount, which has to clear the swinging mirror, but they are retrofocus designs. Also, an advantage of retrofocus designs over the symmetrical designs is that there is more even illumination (less vignetting). Someone recently posted a link to the Luminous Landscape comparison of Cosina and Leica wideangles being used on the RD1, and you can see from the "before processing" images how much more even the Leicas' illumination is. Tom Schofield On Jun 17, 2006, at 4:43 AM, pwerner@bluewin.ch wrote: > > What remains to be seen is how the extreme wide angles perform on > the M8, > as on the M series these are not retrofocus constructions. > > Peter