Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2013/09/27
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Since 99,9% of my use of my M9 (and my M6 years ago) has been with a 35mm Summicron, I confess to being a rank amateur when it comes to the 90mm Chron. After being irritated by too many soft-focus shots with the 90, I did a careful test of a fence from about 12 feet and found that the rangefinder/lens coupling was slightly off. So I sent it in to Leica, got it back about $350 later, checked out out and found it to be spot on. OK, now here's my experience. When I went to the first of two outdoor band concerts in a park, a couple did some very spectacular dancing to the music and I failed to get a picture. So, for the next concert, I brought my 90mm so that I wouldn't have to get under their noses or have to do an extreme crop. Well, the dancing couple didn't appear, but I took a lot of snapshots and every one of them came out very fuzzy. I don't have a record of shutter speeds or f numbers, but I was outdoors at reasonable ISO and lighting, so I assume the I was probably around f/8/of f/5.6 and probably around 1/250. I should have had a depth of field of about twelve feet or more for some of those shots and at least two feet for the close couple I took. None of them appeared to be sharp anywhere. Could it be the increase in the effect of camera shake with the longer lens? I would have thought that the inertia from the extra weight of the lens would have compensated. Yesterday, wondering if the lens had mysteriously lost its calibration, I did a hand-held test at 12, 50, and essentially infinity feet and the pictures were needle sharp. However, to be critical, I did the test at f/2, so I got pretty high shutter speeds. Any advice from users of longer lenses on Leica M series? Herbert Kanner kanner at acm.org 650-326-8204 Question authority and the authorities will question you.