Re: Re[2]: [Leica] S'cron performance

[Erwin Puts <imxputs@knoware.nl>]

>In any case, given that lots of people on this list report
>experiences different than yours with the 50/2 Summicron, does it
>seem possible to you that your particular example of this lens may
>not be typical?  Perhaps it needs an internal cleaning and should be
>collimated to your camera.  I ask purely as a matter of curiosity --
>it doesn't really matter much to me if a 50/2 Summicron is less sharp
>than a 50/1.8 Nikkor; this just seems to run counter to most of what
>I had heard in the past.
>
>-Patrick

Hello Patrick,

I may be a loner in this one, but I have reported at length about the
relative weak performance of the Summicron ('54-'69) at large apertures. It
is indeed a fact that this lens, while in its days unsurpassed, has been
superceded qualitatively not only by its newer successors, but also by a
number of high class Japanese lenses from the late sixties, early
seventies, the famous Nikkor-H 2/50 being one example.
The Summicron (first gen) still has its loyal followers, and the
performance is even today goog, at smaller apertures even very good. It is
however wrong to assume that every lens Leitx made at any time is the best
now and stays so in the future, irrespective of progress and competition.
A very famous Leica reviewer once analysed the Summilux 1,4/50 and
concluded that he had found no better performance for its specification
than with the Summilux. This is a very subtle and polite way to tell that
some of the competition is at least as good.
I am a great admirer of Leica glass and its design philosophy and the image
quality this gives. I cannot and need not say that Leica was and is
unsurpassable in all optical disciplines.
The Leica lenses are in my opinion at this moment unsurpassed and therefore
outstanding for their balance of optical characteristics which produce
extremely  fine detailed images that sparkle like clear water in the
morning sun.
Leica at the moment produces more than 50, 60 lenses in all focal lengths
and apertures. And in its long history the firm has produced more than a
hundred designs. Is it conveivable that every single one can beat all
competition on all accounts?
Hardly I would say.
Erwin