Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2000/08/08
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]>Jan, >Leitz released the Summar and later the Summitar not to be used wide >open, just because it had (for its time a relatively large f-stop), but >to use it only, when the light situation demanded it. Leitz in their early >literature states this. They also warned, that these lenses, when used >fully open, should definitely be used with the correct lens hood. >Often, you can read on the LUG complaints about the flare problems with >this lenses. This however is minimized when the orrect hood is >used. By correct, I mean, the one specified by Leitz. > >I do own all the above lenses. An uncoated and a coated Summar, and >the Summitar. >I really did not have any problems with flare, unless the sun shone >right in to it. Most other lenses have problems under this circumstances. >I believe, that later lenses scatter a lot less light inside the barrel. >This probably helps to increase the contrast, but it does not make the >earlier lenses unusable. Both the Summar and the Summitar especially >perform very well at about f 4 and smaller. I am even not so sure, if >the edge sharpness is always so extremely important or in some cases so >desirable. The most important part of your composition is normally in the >centre of the picture. If you glance at a large print, it actually >takes some effort to look to the edges of the print. I can see the need >for this extreme sharpness over the whole of the print for example in >industrial >use or some advertising. However I don't think the Leica is the camera >for this type of photography anyway. > >Regards, Horst Schmidt Horst, thanks for your comments on the Summitar question. Soon I will post some results from photo safaris through murky bars at nighttime on my photo page. Most of these were taken at f2 with the Summitar with a beermug (preferentially the tall ones for wheat beer) as tripod if necessary. Cheers Jan www.unizh.ch/~schuller/page1.htm ________________________________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com