[Leica] 16-16-15 lens comparison

[afirkin at afirkin.com (afirkin@afirkin.com)]

--- len-1@comcast.net wrote:

From: Leonard Taupier <len-1@comcast.net>
To: Leica Users Group <lug@leica-users.org>
Subject: Re: [Leica] 16-16-15 lens comparison
Date: Sun, 4 Nov 2007 11:59:58 -0500

Leo,

I have the WATE and have used my son's CV15 and also looked at some  
of his photos he took with it. I mostly use the WATE with my M8,  
which corrects for any vignetting, but I have also used it on my film  
MP. I have never even seen the Zeiss 16mm so can't comment on it. My  
son's photos with the CV 15 were taken on a film camera as well.

I find the CV15 vignettes more then the WATE on a film camera.

My son's photos were all taken on the Boston Common with a lot of  
trees in the pictures. The branches on the ends and in the corners  
were fuzzy. I attribute that to focus error and shallow DOF. I didn't  
see that when I used the lens.

I see barrel distortion using the CV15 that I don't see with the  
WATE. Mostly I see no distortion with the WATE but I do have one  
photo where the corner of a church very close to the edge of the  
frame shows a little pincushion. I don't know if the church is built  
that way but in any case it's only on one frame out of many I've taken.

All of these lenses can benefit from a finder with a built in bubble  
level like what's built into the new Leica Frankenfinder that comes  
with the WATE kit. An un-level camera will give you pretty distorted  
pictures with all of these lenses.

There is a huge price difference between these lenses, however with  
the WATE you actually get three lenses in one. The CV12 may be better  
then the CV15. For the price I think they are very good lenses. A  
coupled RF would help.

I hope this helps. I can post a couple WATE photos taken with the MP  
if you like.

Len

I have both lenes as well, and would agree with all that Len says. The 15 
was for me a bit disappointing, but I know that for the price it was a very 
handy lens to throw in the bag, but for all its size and cost advantages, I 
put it on knowing the image would not have the snap I'm now getting used to. 
The WATE so far (with the M8) has been very good

Cheers

Alastair