Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2000/07/11
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]my dream lens is the 85mm sonnar from stuttgart post war 11 based on the 50f1.5 sonnar not the prewar 6 based on the f2. comparing lenses in the old days i would take bw on same roll & evaluate the negs. this time on the same roll i shot at f2 5 different current lenses c.100mm focal length and had a l-hour lab print them all at same setting. i asked 5 different photographers to pick the best for snap, color overall excellence disregarding composition and slight difference in image sizes. the sonnar was picked by all five first, ahead even of just released 85f1.8 and 100f2 eos lenses.no other brands will be mentioned for possible hurt feelings. a bit of history on the sonnar seems in order. when the designer bertelli was not yet twenty he designed the worlds first highly useable & used speed lens for the ernemann reflexs 645 and 69 i believe with glass plates. saloman the worlds first papparazzi had willing subject all over europe after wwl including winston churchhill. ernemman was absorbed by zeiss along with goerz in the late twentys and bertelli was asigned the contax lenses. it took two years for him and several assistants to complete the calculations. his sensational ernemann l.8 was not the starting point. that gauss type lens was not compact,had a lot of airspaces with subsequent light loss due to lack of coating. he started with the compact cooke triplet, the 7 element sonnar ended up as a stack of papers reported variously as 4 and 6 feet high. this sensational deisgn had no more airspaces than the triplet, was compact with short back focus. of course everyone knows nikon became famous after copying this lens for their f1.4 and in the early thirtiesleitz scurried madly to england thinking erroneously that the originators of triplet taylor,hobson&cook could get them a 50f1.4 to surposs it. bertelli didnt stop with sonnar but went on to create the biogon, probablly the most famous wa of all time. first it was a 35f2.8, then a 21 for contax, 38 for superwide hasselblad, 53-45-75 for linhof. when they were going to the moon nasa wanted the best so bertelli came up with 60 & a reasau plase (cant spell it) plate that allows precise measurements . thus the first and truest point a shoot camera: a hasselblad with no mirror you just aim at your subject. he designed or consulted on most of hasselbads lenses, the lastest floating element 40mm distagon was his alone at age 80. in switzerland between zeiss asignments were the distortionless pleogon and other lenses for nasa. one last and stupefying note: the legendary biogons and sonnars seemly unsurpassable were created w/o hal. hail bertelli! ralph > From: Gaifana@aol.com > Reply-To: leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us > Date: Tue Jul 11 07:09:20 2000 > To: <leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us> > Subject: [Leica] Your dream M-lens? > > > I understand from a rep that the new kid on the block in M-lens manufacturing > is taking ideas for its new rangefinder lenses. > > Apropos of this, if you could bring back any Leica, Zeiss, or other > rangefinder lens in M-mount, what would it be? Or if you could see one that's > never been done, what would be your dream M lens? > > My vote is having a 50/1.5 Sonnar built into a small barrel - with a 39-40.5 > filter thread.... > > Dante