Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1996/06/19
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Robert Sproul wrote: > > I'm intriqued by Mr. Small's comments on the relative quality of > older rigid and DR Summicrons versus new ones. I have owned a DR model > since purchasing it new in 1967 and have always been very pleased with the > results. Are the newer ones not as good optically, and if so, what has > caused the degredation of the design? > Dear Robert, No one says that the first summicrons wouldn't satisfy. I have a NF and I'm very pleased with it. But the fact is that every new design is better than the former, this is a simple Leica philosophy. Leica goes only for the best quality and not for lowering production costs. Otherwise there wouldn't be any reason to produce the 35 1.4 asph. When a design goes from eight to six elements this will improve contrasticy (is this an english word?) and an extra result is that it can be less expensive and weighs less. The old designs performs best at aperture 5.6 or 8. The new designs perform best at 2.8 or 4 , but perform the same at 5.6 as the old ones. So when you shoot all your pictures at 5.6 or 8 you will never have any advantage of the new designs. When you want to use wider apertures you better have the new designs. I have tests to back this all up. One little thing about tests. Just a few figures about lines per mm ,resolving power and contrasticy don't say anything about the quality of the picture. Greetings, Michiel.