Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1997/01/21

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Subject: Re: Off subject (somewhat)
From: Dan Cardish <dcardish@microtec.net>
Date: Tue, 21 Jan 1997 18:50:09 -0500

At 08:28 AM 21-01-97 -0500, you wrote:
>
>>By the way, I have the 75/1.4 and it is first rate.  I recently picked up an
>>85/1.4 Nikkor for my F2. 
[snip]

>Dan..I had always read that it was the 1.8 version of that Nikkor that was
>the one to try to find.  I am very interested in your comparisons  since I
>enjoy both systems also..(really admire the old F2)   Nowell

Basically all of the Nikkor 85s are top notch.  The 85/1.4 has what Nikon
calls "close focusing correction" system, or something like that, which are
essentially floating elements.  The close-up range is super; I have already
convinced myself of this.  The 85/1.8 is much less expensive and smaller
than the 1.4 version.  I recently played with a Nikon F5 that happened to
have an AF 85/1.8 on it.  At first I thought it was just a 50.  The 85/1.8
makes much more sense.   I'm just one of those crazy fools that insists on
getting the 1.4 versions of a lens if it is available.  Also the R&L tables
on the web rated it very high (for what thats worth, they made no mention of
the flare problem).  And apart from the flare, it is REALLY sharp with
excellent contrast at all openings.  The summilux is going to have a tough
fight on its hands.

By the way, I was not overly impressed with my 5 min. intro to the F5.
There is a little joystick like control on the back the lets you choose
which AF sensor you want to use.  I am sure that I can manually focus a lens
faster than messing around with that control.  Also, the camera had been set
in the 8fps mode.  Everytime I pressed the shutter release, the camera fired
of a dozen rounds.  The salesman told me that I was the first customer to
complain about it.  I just wanted to see how the camera felt to use,
normally.  That 8fps along with the "matrix colour metering" system are just
a couple of useless marketing gimmicks, IMHO.  (Good thing Eric W. isn't
part of this list anymore, else there'd be hell to pay!  He is an active
member of the Nikon Digest, in fact I think they should rename it to the
Eric Digest!).

Dan C.