[Leica] New Zeiss lenses compared against Leica

[richard-lists at imagecraft.com (Richard)]

First of all, I believe Zeiss only announced "slow" lens, 50@2, 28@2.8 etc. 
I am sure the Zeiss would perform as well as the Leica of similar apertured 
(ooo, verbing noun) lens. The question to me is more like the sizes and the 
contrast vs. resolution issue.

Sizes: if you look at the current ASPH Leica design, they are truly 
amazingly small. The 50/1.4ASPH performs well across all aperture, and it's 
not a honking piece of monster like the F1 lens. Ditto with the 35/1.4ASPH 
and 28/2. The only largish lens is the 90/2AA. By all accounts, the new ZI 
lens are not particularly compact. May not be a big problem but it could be 
a factor.

Now I am not enough of a lens head to know for sure, but weren't one of the 
old arguments is that the old Leica lens have smoother transition to OOF, 
e.g. so things look more 3D, whereas the old Zeiss are sharp and have a 
quick cutoff sort of the cardboard cutout look? I don't own Zeiss, but I 
can see that 3D look from my Leicas. The question is does this analysis 
still applies, IF it ever applies before.

At 12:45 PM 12/22/2004, ernie nitka wrote:

>B.D.  - recently acquired the G1 with 35/2 - MAINLY to get the 35/2 as I 
>found it to be a very very capable 35.  I still love it but I've also 
>fallen in love with the first version of the 35/2 Leica M - the bokeh is 
>truly amazing.

// richard (This email is for mailing lists. To reach me directly, please 
use richard at imagecraft.com)