Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1999/10/06
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Eric, With all due respect, no lens performs better wide open than stopped down. While some may perform better than others wide open, none will ever be better wide open than at say F8. Most Leica lenses are adequate wide open but incredibly sharp stopped down. There are some lenses like those from Pentax that are actually better resolving wide open than a Leica lens, but they lose at F8 to Leica. Look at any of the tests on Leica lenses, and I think you will see what I mean. Peter K - -----Original Message----- From: Eric Welch [mailto:ewelch@ponyexpress.net] Sent: Wednesday, October 06, 1999 7:06 AM To: leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us Subject: Re: [Leica] Shooting Leica wide open At 02:33 PM 10/6/99 +0800, you wrote: >My friend argued that all lenses perform best at least 2 stops down. Now, if From a user's point of view: Your friend is victim of a generalization. For many lenses this is true, but not always. Some lenses are optimized to be shot wide open. Some of the Leica Apo Telyts are in this class. If there is any improvement in them, it's one stop down, and often only with slight improvement. In fact, many Leica lenses don't need to be stopped down two stops to get top-notch performance, and wide open most of them are just fine. Even other camera company's lenses in some cases. The Nikkor 35mm 1.4 is a very good lens, but it can't compete with the Leica choices available today, though it does compete very well with the older 35 Summilux M. The question comes down to, if you stop down, your shutter speed is lower, and the chance of camera shake might be greater. And in that case, shooting wide open in many situations of low light, or slow film, is a better choice to get sharper pictures than to stop down and live with a slower shutter speed. Even on a tripod. The subject's movement has to be taken into consideration. Depth of field isn't the only consideration. That's one of the attractions of Leica lenses for me. They perform better wide open than the competition as a system, and I'm not about to mix systems outside of M and R - unless my job requires me to. Eric Welch St. Joseph, MO http://www.ponyexpress.net/~ewelch Nostalgia: The good old days multiplied by a bad memory.