RE: [Leica] 24mm viewfinder

[Jim Laurel <jplaurel@microsoft.com>]

This new Elmarit 28 is the first 28 I've owned in many years.  The last one
was an old Vivitar 2.8/28 purchased for something like $45 while I was still
in 8th or 9th grade, back in the mid 70's.  Believe it or not, I bought this
lens in screw mount, and used it with the Contax D my Dad had given me.  Not
a great lens, I'm sure, but it produced some of my favorite images to this
day!

But lately, as I have been learning more about optics (a good bit from
reading Erwin's pages, BTW!), the idea of an extremely low-distortion
wide-angle lens became appealing.  Shooting with the popular Canon 17-35,
which has pretty radical pincushion distortion at one end of it's zoom
range, and obvious barrel distortion at the other is part of the reason.

My understanding is that the 28mm focal length is inherently easier to
correct, and that the current Elmarit is practically distortion-free.  I
wanted something wider than my 35, but often felt that the 21 was too much
of a stretch, and also the aux finder is a hassle to use.

I am very pleased with the results from the new 28, though, and will enjoy
making photos with this lens on a 3 week trip in Andalucia next month.

- --Jim Laurel

- -----Original Message-----
From: Erwin Puts [mailto:imxputs@knoware.nl]
Sent: Tuesday, May 11, 1999 2:59 PM
To: leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us
Subject: [Leica] 24mm viewfinder


I use the 24mm a lot. As an aside: I was very opposed to any angle of view
below 28mm, as it seemed to wide for me with too much empty space. Then of
...snip...