[Leica] 28's- CV Ultron & Summicron

[h_arche at yahoo.com (H. Ball Arche)]

I surprised dome people last summer when put my
Summicron 28 up for sale (I still haven't gotten
around to listing it at the auction site yet). I've
had the CV Ultron 28 for a year and a half now; I
bought a Summicron 28 in late April '07, used it for
about 2 months & 2200 shots, and put it aside in favor
of the CV.

For resolution, in equal shooting conditions I
couldn't tell that one was sharper than the other,
except that the Summicron is definitly more contrasty
and can give the appearance of greater sharpness.

For flare, the Summicron (which is not without its own
flare characteristics) is much less prone to veiling
glare than the Ultron. Part of this may be because the
hood on the Ultron is truly lame. (I'm keeping an eye
out for a used Summicron hood to hotrod on to the CV).
Although a weakness, I've gotten used to it, know when
to expect it, and am willing to deal with it.

As for vignetting, I have never noticed it in any of
the thousands of shots I've taken with the Ultron. But
then almost all of my shooting is done in the 5.6-11
range. On the other hand, even in that aperature
range, vignetting is clearly visible with the
Summicron, and in some situations quite difficult to
deal with. 

My real issue is in how each lens renders
dimensionality in the corners. Since all of my
shooting has to do with people, it is often the case
that I have heads in the corners of my images. Since
heads are roughly spherical objects, when shooting a
wide angle lens it is to be expected that there is
going to be some apparent elongation of the head along
the axis to the image center, especially the further
from the center the head is located. 

Now, while both the Ultron and the Summicron show some
degree of such distortion; to my eye it seems much
less noticeable with the Ultron, perhaps because with
the Summicron this distortion is accompanied by a
curious and unpleasant flattening of the roundness of
the head, as demonstrated by the head of the man in
the upper left corner of this image:
http://tinyurl.com/2ehend
or the head of the man in the upper right (also notice
how vignetting has affected this one):
http://tinyurl.com/2gfmpq
and the head of the girl on the right:
http://tinyurl.com/yp6mwt

I've never noticed the same effect with the Ultron,
although I've looked for it and would have expected to
see it in the head of the woman on the left here:
http://tinyurl.com/2m8kyn
or the woman on the right:
http://tinyurl.com/2vn4l2
and this guy:
http://tinyurl.com/2whj58

This 'flattening' I see with the Summicron, as opposed
to subtle elongation, may be be entirely subjective
and personal, but it ruins the lens for me. That said,
I too am curious about the new Elmarit asph and would
like to give it a try. Any body out there have one
they would want to trade for my Summicron? :-)

Both the Summicron and Ultron 28's are large lenses;
the Ultron looks to me like it could be a 75. Oddly,
for the way I shoot, I think this is a definite plus.
You can stand right up close to somebody and fire away
because they think you're shooting past them. Of
course, I could be totally wrong about people thinking
that, but I seem to believe it. My take on the recent
thread about the photographer not being apparent to
the people being shot is that if you think you're
invisible you are. For all intents and purposes. And
that works for me, or it will until I get punched in
the nose.






      
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