Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2004/12/22
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]-----Original Message----- From: "B. D. Colen" <bdcolen@earthlink.net> >I don't find it hard to believe that it matches it, Feli. I'm sure this >is NOT your father's Planar. It has more to do with physics B.D. Every optical design has it's limitations which at a certain point hits a performance ceilling set by the laws of nature. Then you have to switch to different technologies like ASPH surfaces or floating element, APO correction etc to reach the next level. If is also more difficult to extract greater performance out of these designs when you have to keep the lens compact. The Planar design hasn't changed radically in the past hundred years. It's basically a math formula and unless the laws of physics have changed in the past 100 years it should be just as valid today as it will be in another 100 years from now. It's a very good design but has it's limits. It's like the Summicron 2/50, which is a double Gaussian design. The current formulation has pretty much been pushed the design as far as it can go. To take it's performance to the next level, you would have to break with tradition. It's not a Leica vs Zeiss issue. >I owned and used the lenses for the G1 for a while - I got rid of the >outfit because the autofocus was so >attrocious on the G1 - and my feeling is that in real world use, those >lenses were every bit as good as their Leica >equivalents. In fact, some of >the results I got were really stunning. No doubt that Zeiss makes great lenses. I love the Planar on my Hasselblad and Rolleiflex. Wouldn't mind coming across a 1.5/50 Sonnar for my IIIc... >Sure, there's a huge technological difference between a 1955 planar and a >the new asph 50 summilux, but I >wouldn't bet on this being a re-issue of a >50s lens. ;-) Well, that's the $64,000 dollar question. Is it a classic Planar design or have they added some more exotic features? If it's a straight classic Planar design it's almost certainly not better than the new Lux. Feli --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Feli di Giorgio * feli2@earthlink.net