Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2006/09/11

[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]

Subject: [Leica] Re: Small fast lenses
From: lrzeitlin at optonline.net (Lawrence Zeitlin)
Date: Mon Sep 11 08:08:14 2006
References: <200609110523.k8B5MZPZ008410@server1.waverley.reid.org>

On Sep 11, 2006, at 1:23 AM, lug-request@leica-users.org wrote:

> Scott,
> Mostly lots of R&D as well as the legacy of the speed wars of the  
> fifties
> and the sixties.  It should be easier to design a fast really wide  
> lens for
> a small sensor but I suspect the MBA types ran a spreadsheet to  
> demonstrate
> that they would have to sell X thousand lenses and the marketing types
> couldn't commit to those numbers.
>
> Don
> don.dory@gmail.com
>
>
> On 9/10/06, Scott McLoughlin <scott@adrenaline.com> wrote:
>>
>> I've been wondering - is the 135 film format magic somehow?
>> It gives us 20/2.8, 135/2, diminutive 40/1.4 lenses and so
>> on and so forth.
>>
>> Surfing around MF gear, an f2.8 normal lens seems "fast,"
>> and we can forget LF stuff.
>>
>> And on small sensors, really fast wide lenses doesn't seem
>> a reality.
>>
>> Is this a particular "feature" of the 135 film format, or just
>> that lots of lens R&D was dumped into such a popular format?
>>
>> Scott
>>

I have a drawer full of fast movie lenses in assorted focal lengths,  
both for 8 and 16 mm format. The sensor size of most P&S digital  
cameras is roughly equivalent to the frame size of substandard movie  
films. I'm surprised that some enterprising camera manufacturer  
doesn't supply a digital camera body to tap the enormous supply of  
high quality unused movie lenses. Say one that will accept B or C  
mounts. Perhaps Minox could do it.

Larry Z