Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1997/11/27
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]At 08:01 PM 11/27/97 -0000, Russell Fox wrote: >Various Russian wide-angle lenses are being advertised for sale in the >U.K. >I've seen a new 20mm f 5.6 for sale, priced at around 240 pounds sterling, >which includes a finder & screw to M mount converter. > >Has anyone experience with these lenses? I use a Russar on my M2 a lot. It appears reasonably sharp, although I haven't done anything like precise tests. It's very rectilinear. The first of these lenses I got had a manufacturing defect; I returned it and got another. If I had to guess, I wouldn't say it's as sharp as my 21/4 Super-Angulon-R, but it's not much worse, and it might be better at f/5.6 (the Super-Angulon-R is weak at its widest apertures). It's a symmetric design, some say derived from the Zeiss Biogon, but not an exact copy. It has a protruding rear element that will keep your M6 from metering through it properly. Some people say the finder is good, and compares well to a Leica finder. (I have the latest Russar finder, with parallax control.) I have never used a Leica 21mm finder, but one has to hope it's better than this thing. Still, it allows one to frame more or less correctly, even if the view through the finder is kind of blurred. The best things about it are that it's small, it's cheap, and it performs surprisingly well. Very convenient to carry around on the camera. I use mine a heck of a lot. The worst things about it are the inconsistent quality of manufacture, the finder, setting the aperture, and (I suppose for M6 owners) that the TTL meter doesn't work well with it. - -Patrick