Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2007/02/08

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Subject: [Leica] IMG : #022 (OT gear)
From: freakscene at weirdness.com (Marty Deveney)
Date: Thu Feb 8 02:38:24 2007

OT, maybe, but magnificent, both the photo and the lens.  The photo is
simple, elegant and incredibly well balanced.

Leica make magnificent lenses, but they've never made anything like the
Zuiko 100/2.  It's arguably as good as the Leica M and R 90/2 asphs, but
it focuses closer.  A lot closer.  And it is just as good right up close
as it is further away.  It focuses to "it should probably be called
'macro' " close, but Oly didn't call it that because the 90/2 focused
even closer.

It's one of the few fast, short teles that excels wide open, up close,
enlarged big.  This lens and the 90/2 were both unflatteringly sharp
portrait lenses.  There are others as good, but none of them focus as
close.  Anything that focuses as close isn't as fast.  The f2 Zuiko
macros were stunning designs, let down only by really mediocre
multicoating, which Olympus didn't seem to master until sometime in the
1990s.  It's really a shame that Oly gave up making lenses like this.

Replies: Reply from richard-lists at imagecraft.com (Richard) ([Leica] IMG : #022 (OT gear))