Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1998/11/29
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Joe, The Thambar is indeed a unique lens. I own two of them and you don't see them very often. This is the only Leitz lens deliberately designed with aberrations. It came with a special center spot filter, which would cut out the sharp image forming light rays entering the center of the lens. The special soft image quality of the lens is most pronounced with wider apertures. The photos exhibit a "glowing" quality to them. It is somewhat like the soft focus portraits of the Hollywood starlets of the early thirties. Yet, it is a different quality than that from a Softar type filter, or a gauze or Vaseline on a UV filter. The big problem with this lens is the unpredictability of the soft focus effect. I have taken photos of the same subject, same aperature, one right after the other and one photo will have the effect and the other will not. The only difference was a slight change in the camera angle in relation to the light source. You cannot see the effect in advance with a rangefinder camera, unlike an SLR. I think it takes a lot of experience with the lens to use it well. Bill Rosauer