50/3.5 Anastigmat , best ever ?

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Some posters wrote:-

"Leica does make a 50/3.5 multi-coated Anastigmat collapsible lens, for their special edition 0-series camera. This is a superb lens, optically probably their best 50 ever."

Any truth in above ?

-- Yip (koklok@krdl.org.sg), January 13, 2002

Answers

Pop. Photo said so - also Erwin Puts: "In the center and at aperture 3.5 this lens challenges the performance of the Summicron 2/50..."

The amount of addition correction a lens needs goes up roughly geometrically with each additional aperture, so the f/3.5 lens should be about 6 times "easier' to design than an f/2, and 24 (??) times easier to get right than a Noct.

-- Andy Piper (apidens@denver.infi.net), January 13, 2002.


"probably their best ever" and "challenges the performance of a Summicron" seem to be contradictory statements.

-- Andrew Schank (aschank@flash.net), January 13, 2002.

I understand that it underexposes by nearly two stops at f/2, though.

-- Bob Fleischman (RFXMAIL@prodigy.net), January 13, 2002.

Andrew - especially as Erwin recently bumped the Tri-Elmar at 50 ahead of the 'cron (!!). He does have to squirm sometimes to make sure the newest lenses surpass the 'unsurpassed' lenses he reviewed last year or the year before.

Wonder what would happen if he had to compare the ANASTIG. with the 3- Elmar? Implosion?

-- Andy Piper (apidens@denver.infi.net), January 13, 2002.


How do you define "better"? The Tri-Elmar is a very very high contrast lens and indeed it is quite sharp. If this is the look you want then it is better. As far as the 50/3.5 Anastigmat for the "O", in this day and age if Leica can't make a world class standard optically unchallenging f/3.5 lens then they should be ashamed!

-- ray tai (razerx@netvigator.com), January 13, 2002.


Pop photo said the 50/3.5 Anastigmat was the "second best" 50 they ever tested, the best being the Zeiss 50/1.4 Planar for Contax SLR. In their opinion, the 50/2.0 Summicron-M is lower down on the list, beaten out by several Japanese 50s. IMO, Pop Photo doesn't like Leica lenses very much, which they damn with faint praise. But the new 50/3.5 they really seemed to like. I don't know if Erwin thinks this lens is better than the Summicron, but he definitely finds it better than the new version of the 50/2.8 Elmar M lens.

I have said previously I think Leica should offer the 50/3.5 A in M (and perhaps also SM) mount. At least IMO, a very high quality 50 which is absolutely tiny (as is the new 50/3.5) as well as being collapsible would sell to M users. Many posters seem to like compact lenses that collapse. But I could be wrong. Anyway, I wish they would release this lens for general sale.

It doesn;t make much sense that they would design a terrific new lens and only include it on a collector camera that is totally impractical to use. I don't even think the lens on the O series can be removed from the camera.

-- Eliot (erosen@lij.edu), January 13, 2002.


Two years ago Leica released the current versions of the 50mm Summilux, 50mm Summicron and 35mm Summicron ASPH in LTM but were largely ignored by the public. The current 50mm f/2.8 Elmar repeatedly gets bashed in photo forums like this one because it is one stop slower than the Summicron and thus perceived as an inferior 4 element lens design. I don't know why Leica would produce the 50/3.5A in LTM or M mount under the circumstances. I would buy one though if it would mount on my IIIf.

-- ray tai (razerx@netvigator.com), January 14, 2002.

Ray. There are a lot more M users than Leica SM users. And us M users don't care about current Leica lenses available in SM. Furthermore, the lenses you list are not new optical designs, only the mount is new. The 50/3.5 is a completely new lens. As far as the 50/2.8Elmar, I don't have one, but it seems to me if it is bashed, maybe its because many Leica users do not find this lesn to be optically superb. However, Leica may agree with you, and that may be why they haven't released the 50/3.5 A.

-- Eliot (erosen@lij.edu), January 14, 2002.

Eliot, Ray, For the few times I want a really collapsible lens on my M6, I take the Elmar 3.5 from my IIIf + adapter. I am sure there is not enough demand to produce (for an acceptable selling price) a new version of that lens - i.e. the anastigmat with screwmount. I personally would not buy it at the expected Leica price ( 1'000 USD?) My old Elmar is good enough - for me. Let's watch what is going to happen with the Voigtlander Heliar lens: it is also a collector issue, and is also heralded as the best 3.5 ever! Who is going to use it?

-- Sebastien Simon (sebastien.simon@alumni.ethz.ch), January 14, 2002.

Anyone know exactly what "anastigmat" means? It sounds to like some sort of eye disfunction.

-- Andrew Schank (aschank@flash.net), January 14, 2002.


"Anastigmat" means "without astigmatism". It is a very old name, reflecting the pride of the lens designer in being able to correct for this aberration. Astigmatism is an optical error that causes a point of light to become stretched in both the radial and tangential dimensions (ie., a point becomes a cross). If you look at an MTF curve, astigmatism appears as a high degree of separation between the radial and tangential curves at the same aperture and frequency.

I don't know anything about the C/V 50/3.5 lens, except that it exists and is sold with their commemorative camera. My point is that the design costs for the Leica 50/3.5 A have already been incurred. At $ 1000, it would be far too much, but what about $ 500. After all, a 50/3.5 red scale Elmar (the last best 50/3.5 Elmar) would cost this much in nice condition, and any 50/3.5 Elmar in E++ or better with perfect glass would not cost much less.

-- Eliot (erosen@lij.edu), January 14, 2002.


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