Fw: [Leica] The Zeiss Choice

[sethrosner at nycap.rr.com (Seth Rosner)]

Resending this; the orig got blocked.

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Seth Rosner" <sethrosner@nycap.rr.com>
To: "Leica Users Group" <lug@leica-users.org>
Sent: Wednesday, January 12, 2005 1:01 PM
Subject: Re: [Leica] The Zeiss Choice


> Bill Marshall wrote:
>
>> Overlooked IMO has been what's different about this product line. What's 
>> overlooked is the fact that all of the lenses wider than 35mm close focus 
>> to 0.5m (18") & the 15/2.8 close focuses to 0.3m (12"). No other RF 
>> lenses on the market to the best of my knowledge do this other than the 
>> Leica Macro-Elmar 90/4 - & this lens needs a special Leica 
>> Macro-Adapter-M to enable the body to focus down to 0.5m.
>
> Will someone tell me how often he/she has used a rangefinder camera to 
> focus to 0.5 m.? Many of you know that the DR Summicron is my favorite 
> lens. It focuses to 19" approx 0.5 m. I carry it - and the close-focus 
> "eyes" - with me all the time. I probably have not used the close-focus 
> capability three times in the last ten years. And unless I am again 
> missing something very big, why on earth would one want to focus a 
> wide-angle to 0.5m.?
>
>> Zeiss is correct when it says that it needed to design its own body to 
>> take advantage of the capabilities of these lenses. the Zeiss literature 
>> stresses the advantages of this camera for use with wide angle lenses. I 
>> believe that it is the close focusing capability that they are talking 
>> about.
>
> I am guessing that Zeiss has explained it all backwards: the whole "focus 
> shift" issue only becomes a real issue with wide-angle lenses. I think 
> they have made a big (marketing/promotion) deal out of focus shift to be 
> able to claim an advantage resulting from the wider rangefinder base. As 
> though Zeiss has just discovered how to correct
> spherical aberrations. What nonsense.
>
> We need an enormous teapot to contain this tempest.
>
> Seth          LaK 9