Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2010/04/02

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Subject: [Leica] widest lens used?
From: hopsternew at gmail.com (Geoff Hopkinson)
Date: Sat, 3 Apr 2010 10:45:40 +1000
References: <613857203.2808141270144633399.JavaMail.root@mail02.pantherlink.uwm.edu> <C2A558A1-2434-40BA-ACED-5DA46BC0423E@gmail.com> <792B6681-36BD-4AF9-9F7C-7B937C5A8665@gmail.com> <06199C3D-1F39-4FDC-84D4-10A6E1FA6915@gmail.com> <09A2F95F-F2F6-4952-9681-849FC849A89D@charter.net> <6B412598-81A1-46D3-A17F-641209DED14C@gmail.com> <AB74315B-2112-4E0B-9D32-CCE457BF8654@usjet.net> <D5B49BC5-ECA8-42DE-B339-755E0C31D9BB@gmail.com> <CB572360-F01C-47E5-A982-5AEC645B83F9@usjet.net> <w2web6799211004021209gf0059218r21d8614270e66ab1@mail.gmail.com>

My apologies if anyone else actually saw this. My message bounced due to
being oversize. That was due to the very long tail where people never seem
to trim all of the previous posts in the thread. I do try to remember to do
this.
.................................

I very recently helped out a new shooter who got an M9. He felt that he has
big focus shift problems with this Sonnar and an older Leica Elmarit 135.
We shot controlled tests using both, plus my camera and lenses, two of which
Solms calibrated last year. We used a good tripod, two metres distance, 1.4x
magnifier and an angled target in the form of a poster with blocks of text
and illustrations (on our Leica dealer's wall).
.
The first thing that we established is that he wasn't focussing as
accurately as he thought in critical applications. The eyepiece magnifier
showed the way.
Next we found that his Elmarit was indeed significantly out or at least the
unforgiving sensor zero depth was tough on it. His M9 focussed identically
to mine which of course is much more important than how individual lenses
may vary on it.
The Sonnar was interesting. This sample appeared very well made like all of
this series that I have handled or owneed. Of course Zeiss themselves say
that it is meant to be a reproduction of a classic design, it does focus
shift and it has its own distinct character.

This one did indeed shift. It looked close at maximum aperture on both M9s
but shifted enough to be a bother for closer work. Stopped further down of
course DoF masked the error.
I borrowed this lens and loaned him my Summicron 28 that he was very keen to
try. At home I shot about fifty more frames with it using a receding fence
and foliage subject and a bunch of casual portraits wide open.
I shot my Summilux ASPH. in parallel. The same result for the shift but the
big thing that really stood out for me is that the Summilux shots just leap
off the computer monitor in Lightroom (and yes I saw zero shift with the
Summilux). As with the Sonnar 85 that I had previously, I saw smooth gentle
renderings from that little ZM 50 and in every shot I just looked for some
bite. Actually in the very subjective Bo-ke department people might get a
shock at how the better corrected Summilux made more pleasing
mid-backgrounds. Your bokeage experience may vary!

Cheers
Geoff
http://www.pbase.com/hoppyman


Replies: Reply from gregj_lorenzo at hotmail.com (Greg Lorenzo) ([Leica] widest lens used?)
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