Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1996/12/08

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Subject: Elmar 90/4 M or LTM
From: pgs@thillana.lcs.mit.edu (Patrick Sobalvarro)
Date: Sun, 8 Dec 1996 05:58:24 -0500

Why is the Elmar 90/4 so inexpensive used?  Was this lens an
unimpressive performer?  Can anyone compare it directly to the Jupiter
85/2?  On the Kiev page (http://users.aol.com/kievrpt/35rf.htm), all
these ex-Soviet LTM lenses show up with surprisingly low resolution
numbers in line pairs/mm, yet I hear great things about them.  Were
the old Elmars sharper than the new Jupiters at equivalent apertures?

(Those who know me as an inveterate Leica R user may be surprised by
this question about a rangefinder lens, but today my wife surprised me
by giving me an M2 as an early Christmas gift.  I'd been mooning over
this camera ever since first handling it a few weeks ago.  I had been
shopping for a cheap thread-mount rangefinder, but the film advance
just felt so wonderful... the finder was so clear and bright... well,
I just got it bad.  Happily my wife, sweetheart that she is, took pity
on me.)