[Leica] 28's- CV Ultron & Summicron

[grduprey at mchsi.com (grduprey@mchsi.com)]

I have not seen any barrel distortion with my 28 Elmarit Asph.  Love the 
lens.

Gene

-------------- Original message ----------------------
From: Michiel Fokkema <michiel.fokkema@wanadoo.nl>
>
> Hi,
> 
> As I understood from Sean Reid, barrel distortion helps to prevent the 
> elongation of the peoples heads. I can imagine the cv 28 has more barrel 
> distortion than the Leica. The elmarit asph. is said to have the least 
> barrel distortion of all the Leica 28's. This would mean that it will 
> not suit you.
> All hearsay from Sean and Erwin.
> 
> Cheers,
> 
> Michiel Fokkema
> 
> H. Ball Arche wrote:
> > I surprised dome people last summer when put my
> > Summicron 28 up for sale (I still haven't gotten
> > around to listing it at the auction site yet). I've
> > had the CV Ultron 28 for a year and a half now; I
> > bought a Summicron 28 in late April '07, used it for
> > about 2 months & 2200 shots, and put it aside in favor
> > of the CV.
> > 
> > For resolution, in equal shooting conditions I
> > couldn't tell that one was sharper than the other,
> > except that the Summicron is definitly more contrasty
> > and can give the appearance of greater sharpness.
> > 
> > For flare, the Summicron (which is not without its own
> > flare characteristics) is much less prone to veiling
> > glare than the Ultron. Part of this may be because the
> > hood on the Ultron is truly lame. (I'm keeping an eye
> > out for a used Summicron hood to hotrod on to the CV).
> > Although a weakness, I've gotten used to it, know when
> > to expect it, and am willing to deal with it.
> > 
> > As for vignetting, I have never noticed it in any of
> > the thousands of shots I've taken with the Ultron. But
> > then almost all of my shooting is done in the 5.6-11
> > range. On the other hand, even in that aperature
> > range, vignetting is clearly visible with the
> > Summicron, and in some situations quite difficult to
> > deal with. 
> > 
> > My real issue is in how each lens renders
> > dimensionality in the corners. Since all of my
> > shooting has to do with people, it is often the case
> > that I have heads in the corners of my images. Since
> > heads are roughly spherical objects, when shooting a
> > wide angle lens it is to be expected that there is
> > going to be some apparent elongation of the head along
> > the axis to the image center, especially the further
> > from the center the head is located. 
> > 
> > Now, while both the Ultron and the Summicron show some
> > degree of such distortion; to my eye it seems much
> > less noticeable with the Ultron, perhaps because with
> > the Summicron this distortion is accompanied by a
> > curious and unpleasant flattening of the roundness of
> > the head, as demonstrated by the head of the man in
> > the upper left corner of this image:
> > http://tinyurl.com/2ehend
> > or the head of the man in the upper right (also notice
> > how vignetting has affected this one):
> > http://tinyurl.com/2gfmpq
> > and the head of the girl on the right:
> > http://tinyurl.com/yp6mwt
> > 
> > I've never noticed the same effect with the Ultron,
> > although I've looked for it and would have expected to
> > see it in the head of the woman on the left here:
> > http://tinyurl.com/2m8kyn
> > or the woman on the right:
> > http://tinyurl.com/2vn4l2
> > and this guy:
> > http://tinyurl.com/2whj58
> > 
> > This 'flattening' I see with the Summicron, as opposed
> > to subtle elongation, may be be entirely subjective
> > and personal, but it ruins the lens for me. That said,
> > I too am curious about the new Elmarit asph and would
> > like to give it a try. Any body out there have one
> > they would want to trade for my Summicron? :-)
> > 
> > Both the Summicron and Ultron 28's are large lenses;
> > the Ultron looks to me like it could be a 75. Oddly,
> > for the way I shoot, I think this is a definite plus.
> > You can stand right up close to somebody and fire away
> > because they think you're shooting past them. Of
> > course, I could be totally wrong about people thinking
> > that, but I seem to believe it. My take on the recent
> > thread about the photographer not being apparent to
> > the people being shot is that if you think you're
> > invisible you are. For all intents and purposes. And
> > that works for me, or it will until I get punched in
> > the nose.
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > 
> >       
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> 
> 
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