Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2010/11/07
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]I've used my Leica 90mm f/2 APO-Summicron-M ASPH extensively its the best lens I've ever owned in any camera system I've ever shot. Never got a shot out of focus with it. Nothing but blazing sharpness and clarity like I've never seen before. Close, Far, wide open, stopped down. Hundreds of rolls. When I get my Hasselblad 100mm f/3.5 CFi Zeiss Planar lens going when I get a back we'll see if that optic can give my Apo 90 AA a run for its money. Until then the 90mm f/2 APO-Summicron-M ASPH is the last lens I would ever sell. So I guess the new statements on the gear chat lists is that a lens has to have movable elements to be viable. So we people have have been getting blazing results with our 99As or whatever lens have an excuse to put the lot of them on the eBay block. O boy! All new stuff! Erwin in his book the "Leica Lens Compendium" which sits at my left right now calls it one of best corrected lenses in the M line. It was written in 2001. So the 75 Summicron was not out yet and one or two others. Besides its ASPH and APO features it employs "a new kind of mechanism to engage the roller cam of the rangefinder". For a wider throat diameter. Less Vignetting. I got a funny feeling it works better than perfectly on an M9. He states the lens represents the latest insights in: 1. mechanical sophistication. As well as 2. asperical technology, and 3. glass selection for APO correction. At wide open f2 It out performs the previous Summicron at f3.5 out performs current Elmarit at f4 (its a 2.8 lens) out performs the previous Tele-Elmarit at f5.6 (a 2.8 lens again.) the older f4 versions at f8 and f11. The older collapsible f4 elmar would need to be stopped down to f 11 to reach the levels of performance the AA gets wide open at f2. That's a span of 50 years of lens design from Leica or Leitz. Basically its a difference of black to white or white to black. Most of this is on Page 178 in the "Leica Lens Compendium". I'm not cutting and pasting as this is not a PDF but a real book in 3D made of paper right here in front of me. This is paraphrased and out of context you'd need to read it yourself. Trade a lens for the book. I think a whole lot of people on gear news lists can barely see straight to focus their camera or look at their results as they are staring at their monitors all day and night. Both the monitor they are typing into as well as the one off to the side with their continual their eBay biddings blipping along day and night. I think these people need very little reason cast aside one piece of choice gear to give them fodder to bid for another. For reasons often ranging in the bizarre.. I'm not loosing any sleep on what whoever is saying this week about the supremely excellent gear coming out of the modern Leica factory that I've used successfully as have thousands of others and have amazing specs. -------------------- Mark William Rabiner Photography http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/lugalrabs/ mark at rabinergroup.com Cars: http://tinyurl.com/2f7ptxb