Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1997/10/10

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Subject: Re: 28mm/20mm
From: "Henning J. Wulff" <henningw@archiphoto.com>
Date: Fri, 10 Oct 1997 23:55:14 -0700

Randolph Carlisle wrote:

>> <snip>
>>   I have just replaced my 20/5.6 Russar with a Leitz 28mm Summaron
>    I happen to have one of the better Russars but the Leitz lens
>has       the edge even though it is over 40 years old.
>
>Marvin:
>If you get the opportunity, try the 28mm f/6 Orion-15. Much sharper than
>both Russar and Summaron.

Of the couple of hundred lenses I have owned over the last 40 years, the 28
Summaron was one of the sharpest. I used to make 6' x 4' enlargements from
High Contrast Copy (forerunner of Tech Pan) negs developed to a continuous
tone
that showed that the Summaron was a lot sharper than the rigid Summicron
50; the resolution was about 50% higher. BTW, the rigid Summicron was my
next sharpest lens out of about 10 I had for Leica at that time. The only
problems with the lens were the falloff (mostly true, uncompensated
cos-fourth falloff) and the 5.6 aperture.

I haven't used any of the Russian lenses, so I can't say how they compare.
I don't have a 28, but have a 21/3.4 SA, a 21 Elmarit and just got the
21/2.8 asph., so I'm selling the older Elmarit. First indications are that
the new 21 asph. is very good in every way except distortion. A little
barrel distortion remains as well as the typical slight 'moustache'
corners, so I'll probably keep the SA for especially critical work. Also
the new Elmarit is still as long as the old, and the only reduction in size
is the filter diameter, which is down from 60 to 55. If you don't meter
with an M5 or 6, the SA still seems to be the best bet, but I'll have to
check it out some more to say for sure.


   *           Henning J. Wulff
  /|\     Wulff Photography & Design
 /###\      henningw@archiphoto.com
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