[Leica] experience is where its at

[Like A <leica@visualimpressions.com>]

>Others have suggested that errant caps
>are the leading cause of scratched front elements (I say it's overcleaning!)
>and prefer not capping the lens at all while it's safe in it's own padded
>compartment.

Besides my ultra wides (15 & 16) I use a 21 Super-Angulon-R and a 28mm
Elmarit-R as wides. On these and my longer Leitz lenses the glass is
recessed into the lens barrel or far enough below the lens shade that if I
were to bash the lens something else would be damaged before the glass
would get hurt. A few years ago I was in a camera store and a Leitz
technician was there cleaning and checking cameras and lenses. He cleaned
the elements with a microfiber cloth. If there was stubborn gunk or spots
on the glass he scrubbed the glass elements with a chamois, breathing on it
between scrubbings. I asked him about hurting the lens and he said that the
coating on Leitz lenses was real hard and it would take a hell of a (pardon
me, his words, not mine) lot more than scrubbing with a chamois to in any
way damage a lens. Sand paper and steel wool are out but any soft cloth,
microfiber, or chamois works great, he said. He also said that old screw
mount and some early M mount lenses could not take it, but all of the R
lenses and all modern M lenses are as hard as granite (probably an
overstatement, but I think he was trying to make a point). His words were
"clean 'um and use 'um often". I don't own an M type camera yet so I can't
comment on the lenses.

I also just read a post that said that water would dissolve the lens
coating. I must have a special version of these lenses.

>Water can destroy the coating on a lens if the lens is subjected to it for
>an extended period of time. Salt water will accelerate this, but only if
>left on the lens or over a period of time.
>If you were at the ocean and the lens were sprayed each day, I would say
>that in a few months you would see the coating start to change/dissolve.
>But if you clean the lens each day, preferably with an alcohol-type cleaner
>(Many lens manufacturers use an alcohol based cleaner for the lens
>elements.) the alcohol provides the added benefit of absorbing moisture as
>well. Hence, the possibility of coating damage is reduced.

You know, in my occasional lurking on this list, I sure see a lot of
strange stuff printed as if it were fact. There seem to be a few people
that need to know everything and will say anything to prove it but nothin
beats just plain old experience.

Last time I checked a water droplet on my lens, it had dried within a few
minutes. Didn't take any coating with it either. Hardly an extended period.
How do you leave water on your lens for an extended period? I guess if you
left it in a bucket of water for a week or so, sorry, bad joke. Maybe the
post about water dissolving lens coatings is a joke? Now out here in the
real world I shoot in the rain, snow, sleet, hail, everything. Remember
Diana Ross' concert in Central Park? Talk about wet camera gear! I guess I
can say that in the many years of shooting in horrible conditions, my Leitz
equipment has never missed a beat. It takes a licking (drowning) and keeps
on ticking. You point the lens down until ready to shoot then after a few
shots you wipe the lens and point it back down. If coating was going to
come off, I surely would have rubbed every micron off doing this many
thousands of times. I have forgotten to clean a lens or two after being
exposed to wind, rain, and ocean spray, only to find them pretty dirty a
month or so later. A little lens cleaner and a tee shirt and they sparkle
like new. After reading the water will dissolve your lens coating post I
just cleaned and checked all of my lenses and you know what - they are all
perfect. Not a mark or spot of any kind, anywhere on the glass (coating).
Can't say that about the metal parts. These lenses have been through the
mill. Wet dry wet dry wet dry hot cold hot cold hot cold. Everything all
the time. If I remember right a lens coating is an ion deposit (or
something like that) which means it isn't just some slop that is painted
on. Could we call it an ionic bond? If water will dissolve this I think Mr.
Leitz (Mr. Nikon and Mr. Canon too) would be spending all of their time
fixing dissolved lens coatings. You have a chap on here (Erwin) that seems
to know an awful lot of scientific stuff about lenses and maybe he could
shed some light on the water dissolving coating fable. It's a fable to me.
My colleagues who use the other brand cameras don't seem to have a coating
dissolving problem either. I once saw an older electronic Nikon shut down
in a heavy rain storm. He has a new Nikon now but the same old lens
including coating. This is one reason why I use a mechanical camera. The
other reason is that I don't need batteries. The next other reason is that
my Leitz lenses wont flare out with bright stage spots shining directly in
the face of the lens. This is one reason why my stuff sells best. Ever see
a shooter go crazy? Watch them in the middle of shooting a happening when
their batteries die and they don't have spares. Not a pretty sight.

Oops, I just noticed that I kept calling it Leitz. Most of my lenses say
Leitz so I automatically say Leitz instead of Leica. I do know that Leica
is now separate. Sorry.

Oh yeah, I was just being funny with my last post, about the UV filter for
my 15, 16, & 19mm lenses. There are no filter threads on these lenses. ;-)
There are some useless filters built in. I have used the orangeish one a
couple of times for the hallucinatory effect. You know, this is your brain
on D-76 kinda stuff. If there were threads, they would never get used
anyway. Can you imagine putting a flare prone filter over a non flare prone
lens? Might as well use the cheaper stuff from the beginning. I just don't
understand what goes on in some peoples noggin. I do have the 15 and 16 but
not the 19. Joke, remember? My most used lenses are my 21 and my 35. I do
own a 50, 90, 135, and a 250 but they rarely get used. The 250 more than
the other three. That's why they can lay crudded up with water spots and
other miscellaneous debris for months before I find them and clean them.
After use they get put back in the bag and forgotten. Poor things. But you
know what, they clean right up and when clean, you can point any of my
Leica (see I remembered) lenses at the sun, bright spot lights (remember
the old Kegg lights?) and obtain shadow detail and highlight detail and see
the bright light as well, not all blown out and killing overall image
quality. I can't figure out why my colleagues haven't figured this out. I
sure catch the dickens about my old antique equipment. But the proof is in
the pudding. What that means is my stuff is always good. Their stuff is
sometimes good.

I could go on for hours here about shooting alongside guys with AF,
listening to the motors hunt while I just focus and shoot. Makes
composition difficult when you have to point the camera at something else
just to get it to focus. Then forget to push focus hold and have to do it
all over again. Yuck!

I have to go to work now. It's red-eye time again. Catch ya in a week er
so. Probably er so.

So behave yourselves and don't believe all that stuff from those nuts that
just talk and don't shoot. You know, the guys that sit behind a desk and
maybe shoot a couple of shots a month. How about 30 or 40 rolls every
weekend rain or shine, sleet, snow, or tornados. When you make a living
doing this stuff, a lot of those old wives tales seem to fade away. You
sure learn in a hurry what works and what doesn't. Leica stuff works.
Lenses are not fragile. The harder you work them the better they perform.

OK I have to go.

Bis später,

J.L. Adams, VI, ASMP