Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2003/03/04
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At 5:01 PM -0500 3/4/03, Fred Sears wrote:
>I have used (and loved) the Leica 21mm asph. lens but I don't want to spend
>the $$$ required to go that route. As a lover of Sieff's work, I can't help
>but think that he wasn't using the Leica aspherical lens (it wasn't around
>in his earlier days) and that, obviously, he wasn't using the Skopar either.
>So, a couple of questions have come to mind:
>
> 1)what do we think of the 21mm Skopar?
> 2) do we know which 21mm Sieff used for the majority of his
>work - perhaps
>it is worth spending the $$$ to purchase an older 21mm Leica glass, in other
>words.
>
>I'm probably wrong to say this, but all of the pictures I've seen taken with
>the Skopar seem much more distorted than those I myself have taken with the
>asph. Leica glass (and believe me, I'm no great shakes with the lens but I
>do try to keep it level on both planes and that seems to help a lot) so,
>question number 3 is:
>
> 3) does the Skopar distort a lot more than the Leica glass?
>(This would
>include earlier versions of the Leica glass too).
No, the Skopar doesn't distort more. Early Leica 21 SA's distorted
less; in fact they were almost perfect in that regard, but the
previous 21/2.8 distorted more than the Skopar and the current 21
ASPH has about the same level of distortion.
>Obviously Sieff was the master with this lens and perhaps, many of his
>tricks died with him, but I maintain, that a well controlled photograph
>taken with a 21mm lens can sure be a thing of beauty.
>
>Thank you,
>
>Fred Sears
Distortion is not a problem with any of the Leica 21's, except
possibly the 21/2.8 non-ASPH. The Skopar has very little distortion;
about the same as the ASPH. You would have to have (and inspect
closely) a line that you know to be absolutely straight next to and
parallel to an edge of the frame to be able to detect any distortion.
A 50 Summilux has a fair bit of distortion; a 90 T-E has noticeable
distortion, but the Leica 21's and the Skopar have very little. The
21/3.4 S-A has the least, but it is otherwise not as good a lens as
the Skopar.
The Skopar doesn't have quite the resolution or contrast of the 21
ASPH, nor is it quite as good with respect to flare, but it is second
in these respects only to the 21 ASPH and better than all previous
Leica 21's.
- --
* Henning J. Wulff
/|\ Wulff Photography & Design
/###\ mailto:henningw@archiphoto.com
|[ ]| http://www.archiphoto.com
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