Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2001/06/03
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]** Tom Henson wrote: > On top of that this lens turned out to be WORSE > than the one that I sent in. It had dust mites > crawling around inside. That's my fear. This lens is optically perfect, as far as I can tell. What if I get it back, and the ring is fixed, but the optics have suffered? Just disassembling a lens is risky. Maybe I am being too anal by worrying about play in the aperture ring of a lens that is _optically_ superb. Unfortunately, it's hard for me to reason objectively and it still bothers me. > Moral, get it replaced. Don't send it in for repair. If they'd replace it. I suppose I could sell it back to the dealer, then turn around and buy another one. That would probably cost me a few hundred dollars, but it might be safer. But first I need to figure out if this is really worth doing, given that I have an optically satisfactory lens. I'd rather have the optics than a tight aperture ring (but I'd prefer both, of course). I looked again last night, and the ring moves by about 0.35 mm--about the width of the tiny white lines with which the figures on the ring are engraved). That works out to just 1/26 of a stop (there is a bit over 9 mm between stops). The blades _seem_ to move, but I'm not sure (it's hard to recognize 1/26 of a stop!). Obviously, this cannot possibly have an effect on my photos, so my only real concern is that it might get worse, I guess. ** Frank Filippone wrote: > Make em take it back! All well and good, but what if they refuse? Also, I really need to determine whether or not this is within specifications for the lens. If I demand a lens that has no play and that is not normal for the lens, I might be waiting a long time. Also, I'm afraid that I'd get an optically inferior lens with a tight aperture ring. Needless to say, I have been fretting over this for two days now. I wish I had not noticed that movement in the aperture ring. ** Dan Honemann wrote: > Wow--you could actually see the legs on dust mites > in the 100 apo? For what it is worth, this lens shows me detail that I didn't think I could get in scans. My scanner can do 53 lp/mm at best, and this lens appears to easily beat that. Now, that in itself is no surprise, especially for a Leica lens; but what surprises me is that I am getting this on shots that I took _handheld_, and it _is_ a 90-mm lens. So I'm really surprised (and happy) that I'm getting such amazing sharpness even with handheld shots (maybe my hands are steadier than I thought, or something).