I have a 250mm f4 Telyt and was wondering if it compares favourably with the original 6.8 400mm Telyt lens.

-- David Tribbeck (datri@telus.net), March 07, 2001

Answers

This fine fellow has reviews of both lenses:

http://www.wildlightphoto.com/leica/

Cheers,

-- John Collier (jbcollier@home.com), March 07, 2001.

It would be kind of hard to compare lenses of vastly different focal lengths. The 400/6.8 is a very contrasty lens, not surprising since it only has 2 elements which are cemented and so only 2 glass-air surfaces. It is also a very sharp lens, even wide open, but has a noticeable degree of field curvature. Shot wide open the shallow DOF pretty much covers this flaw up. I have not owned the 250/4, I know it can't accept the 1.4x converter, but even if it could it would probably not perform up to the 400/6.8. The 280/4 APO, OTOH, with the 1.4x APO converter, undoubtedly bests the 400/6.8, but at a whopping cost difference.

-- Jay (infinitydt@aol.com), March 08, 2001.