Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1998/05/01
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]< I must admit, I have NEVER stopped a Leica lens down below f/8. >> One thing to consider is that as a lens is stopped down, diffraction becomes an issue. Diffraction can degrade an image substantially. For this reason, usually try not to stop down to the smallest stop or two, depending on the situation. In general, Leica lenses seem to differ somewhat from other lines of lenses regarding the ideal aperture range. Your sense is correct. Present generation Leica lenses seem to generally perform best at about two stops to four or five stops down (until diffrations starts to be an issue). However, the range of excellence is quite wide. The very newest Leica lenses seem to reach peak performance ( or very very close) at even one stop down. I cannot speak to previous generation Leica lenses. In contrast, most of my Canon prime lenses are best at about three or four stops down from max. Zeiss Contax lenses seem to be closer in this regard to Leica. Tom Shea