Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2000/07/11

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Subject: Re: [Leica] Your dream M-lens?
From: ralph fuerbringer <rof@mac.com>
Date: Tue, 11 Jul 2000 12:58:59 -0400

my dream lens is the 85mm sonnar from stuttgart post war 11 based on the
50f1.5 sonnar not the prewar 6 based on  the f2. comparing lenses in the old
days i would take bw on same roll & evaluate the negs. this time on the same
roll i shot at f2 5 different current lenses c.100mm focal length and had a
l-hour lab print them all at same setting.  i asked 5 different
photographers to pick the best for snap, color overall excellence
disregarding composition and slight difference in image sizes. the sonnar
was picked by all five first, ahead even of just released 85f1.8 and 100f2
eos lenses.no other brands will be mentioned for possible hurt feelings.
a bit of history on the sonnar seems in order.  when the designer bertelli
was not yet twenty he designed the worlds first highly useable & used speed
lens for the ernemann reflexs 645 and 69 i believe with glass plates.
saloman the worlds first papparazzi had willing subject all over europe
after wwl including winston churchhill. ernemman was absorbed by zeiss along
with goerz in the late twentys and bertelli was asigned the contax lenses.
it took two years for him and several assistants to complete the
calculations. his sensational ernemann l.8 was not the starting point. that
gauss type lens was not compact,had a lot of airspaces with subsequent light
loss due to lack of coating. he started with the compact cooke triplet, the
7 element sonnar ended up as a stack of papers reported variously as 4 and 6
feet high.  this sensational
deisgn had no more airspaces than the triplet, was compact with short back
focus.  of course everyone knows nikon became famous after copying this lens
for their f1.4 and  in the early thirtiesleitz scurried madly to england
thinking erroneously that
the originators of triplet taylor,hobson&cook could get them  a 50f1.4 to
surposs it. bertelli didnt stop with sonnar but went on to create the
biogon, probablly the most
famous wa of all time. first it was a 35f2.8, then a 21 for contax, 38 for
superwide hasselblad, 53-45-75 for linhof. when they were going to the moon
nasa wanted the best so bertelli came up with 60 & a reasau plase (cant
spell it) plate that allows precise measurements . thus the first and truest
point a shoot camera: a hasselblad with no mirror you just aim at your
subject. he designed or consulted on most of hasselbads
lenses, the lastest floating element 40mm distagon was his alone at age 80.
in switzerland between zeiss asignments were the distortionless pleogon and
other lenses for nasa. one last and stupefying note: the legendary biogons
and  sonnars seemly unsurpassable were created w/o hal.
 hail bertelli! ralph




 

> From: Gaifana@aol.com
> Reply-To: leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us
> Date: Tue Jul 11 07:09:20 2000
> To: <leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us>
> Subject: [Leica] Your dream M-lens?
> 
> 
> I understand from a rep that the new kid on the block in M-lens manufacturing
> is taking ideas for its new rangefinder lenses.
> 
> Apropos of this, if you could bring back any Leica, Zeiss, or other
> rangefinder lens in M-mount, what would it be?  Or if you could see one that's
> never been done, what would be your dream M lens?
> 
> My vote is having a 50/1.5 Sonnar built into a small barrel - with a 39-40.5
> filter thread....
> 
> Dante

Replies: Reply from "A.H.SCHMIDT" <horsts@primus.com.au> (Re: [Leica] Your dream M-lens?)