[Leica] RE ASPHERICAL LENSES 35 vs 35 asph

[jbcollier at shaw.ca (John Collier)]

!!!!!

Weren't Leica the first to use aspherical elements in a production 
lens? (50/1.2 Noctilux). They developed press moulding to reduce the 
production costs of quality aspherical elements (not cheap 
plastic/glass hybrid stuff). Hardly behind the game in my opinion.

Advertising purposes???!!!

Have you ever used the Leica lenses with aspherical elements? There is 
one heck of a difference between the 21, 35, 50 and 90 aspherical 
lenses and their non-aspherical counter parts. The asphericals are 
amazingly crisp and clear wide open. I think the use of the suffix 
"-ASPH" is pretty restrained. IMO they should have the suffix "- 
F***ING AMAZING DUDE".

Leica deserves a good deal of criticism for its pedestrian pace of M 
body development (ie: M7's one shot AE lock!). However the current M 
lens line is simply the best in the world bar none.

John Collier

On Nov 18, 2004, at 4:18 AM, Alexander Glissan wrote:

> Asphericals have been around for ages (but Leica takes things 
> SLOOOOWWWW). Generally manufacturers only use aspherical elements 
> where no substitute can be excepted. Leica lenses however shame on me 
> for saying use them for marketing (shame on you Alex). I however do 
> have an ASPH 35 f2. If you really want to tell the difference........