Re: Leica R 100APO vs. 80f1.4

["Charles E. Love, Jr." <cel14@cornell.edu>]

At 05:58 PM 11/11/96 -0500, you wrote:
>Hello Leica users,
>
>Recently I bought an used R4s + 50f2.0 equipment and love them very much.  
>The next lens I want to buy is either 100 APO Macro or 80f1.4.  Can anyone 
>who have these lenses give me your opinion please?  Thanks.
>
>my work is 60% portrait and 40% landscape. 
>
>
Dear Tony,

I own them both--have had the 80 1.4 for about 10 years, and the 100 2.8
macro for about 5  years.  I am puzzled at your question, frankly, since you
don't mention any plans to do macro work or available light photography.
Neither one of these lenses is really ideally suited for landscape
work--while both are OK at infinity, that's not their primary purpose.  I
would bet there would be some performance difference between them and more
"all-purpose" lenses such as the 90's at landscape-type distances and
apertures.  Also, the 80 stops down only to f16--could be a problem.  As a
portrait lens, again that is not the 100 2.8's primary purpose--among other
things, its helical is very slow, because it has to have a finely detailed
response in order to facilitate the small changes needed to correct focus at
the macro range.  It's also big to hold for that use.  The 80 1.4 is an
excellent portrait lens--even if you don't use it at f1.4, things snap in
and out of focus in the finder very crisply due to its high speed, and
that's a big help in making sure that, e.g., you hit the eyes right.  In
addition, it's a very nice focal length for working at a comfortable
distance from your subject.  But you ought to need the speed in order to
justify the price--otherwise, a classic 90 f2 or 2.8 would probably do.
Another issue: the 80 is now a pretty old design, and I don't know whether
it's still top shelf--perhaps Mr. Puts could help us!  Having said all this,
I love them both--but I do use them primarily for their intended purposes.
Charles E. Love, Jr.
CEL14@CORNELL.EDU