Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1998/11/14
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]On 14-11-1998 05:45 Gary Todoroff wrote: >How I wish! No, the "fish eye" is a cheap auxiliary lens that screws onto >the front of a regular lens, such as the 50mm. It came along with an SL kit >I bought about two years ago and is called a "Spriratone Curvatar Ultra >Widangle Aux". Gary: I had the occasion to use the Fisheye-Elmarit-R for two days during a Leica Akademie Seminar at the end of September. This lens gives a new meaning to "spectacular views"... It was the first time I ever worked with such a lens, and I really liked it. It takes IMO a lot of practice to get the best results out of it, as far as composition is concerned. But the results can be very nice and are surely "different"! As for its qualities: mechanically I felt no difference with the Elmarit-R 19/2.8 or any other lens I have for that matter (I also tested the Vario-Elmarit 28-70/3.5-4.5 and that was -both mechanically and optically- a disappointment -- not why you would buy Leica cameras for, you'd better buy Nikon or Canon if that is the kind of zoom lens you would want to use -- but I'm digressing). Optically, I would say the lens gives a somewhat less sharp impression that the Elmarit-R 19/2.8, but from what I have read, that should only be normal in view of the construction of such lens. Perhaps someone with an optical background, like Erwin, could explain that. Especially at infinity, sharpness could be better. On the other hand, when subjects are nearby (between 1 and 10m) I got excellent results. See for a couple of shots on my webpages under the section "travel" and then "Germany". Pascal - -------------------------------------------------------- See my photo pages at http://members.xoom.com/cyberplace/ - -------------------------------------------------------- Macintosh PowerBook G3 - it eats Pentium notebooks for lunch - -------------------------------------------------------- <<< PGP public key available on request >>>