Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1996/04/24
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Roger L Beamon <beamon@primenet.com> wrote: >Are there some sort of design considerations, unknown to me, that dictate >what the minimum aperture for a given lens shall be? I was shooting with the >35/2.0 and was desireous of the max. dof. Thought to myself how nice it >would have been if it had f22 available instead of the min. f16 allowed on >that lens. I share your wish for a smaller minimum aperture. My 35mm 1.4 Summilux-M Aspheric has a minimum aperture of f/16 but I sometimes wish for f/22 or even f/ 32 - not just for greater depth of field (though this is true) but also to give a slow shutter-speed option in certain circumstances, without the need for a neutral density filter, most of which (in my experience) introduce some colour shift, however subtle. I asked my Leica dealer why the lens stops down only to f/16 and was told that a smaller aperture might entail an unacceptable drop in quality - possibly some vignetting at the corner of the frame, or a drop in contrast.