New Leica 28mm 2.8 Asph

[ghost]

pfft. i shoot indoors with a 28/2.8 all the time.

 

[Dougg]

pfft. i shoot indoors with a 28/2.8 all the time.

Well, there's quite a range of "indoor" light, isn't there? And other considerations with shutter speed, and wanting either limited or extensive DoF. I have been doing a lot of indoor shooting with an f/4 wide-angle lens on medium format, EI 500 film; "office interior" light level gives me around 1/30 - 1/60 wide open. In some restaurants and in nightclubs I'd be in trouble. Indeed I was in trouble even with f/2.0 (Contax G system) at an annual banquet last winter and the photos were unusable; I really needed flash. At an evening wedding reception a year ago, though, the 28 'cron was fine and I was glad to have the speed.

A fast lens gives you more flexibility with a tradeoff in size/cost... Nice to have the choices.

 

[ghost]

exposure value 4-6, to be more exact.

 

[Nachkebia]

I have Nikon 28mm f/1.4 (its not ais btw it is AFD) but it is huge! open wide is not that sharp, but it has amazing charecter and it is one of my favorite lenses in my nikon line-up

I think it would be HUGE... As far as optics, in the SLR world Nikon produced a 28 1.4 AIS lens but I don't know if it was sharp wide open. Canon produced a 28mm 1.8 but not great reviews wide open. I had one, sold it. I preferred by 35 1.4 ASPH on my M6. Smaller, and sharper.

 

[telenous]

Well, there's quite a range of "indoor" light, isn't there? And other considerations with shutter speed, and wanting either limited or extensive DoF. I have been doing a lot of indoor shooting with an f/4 wide-angle lens on medium format, EI 500 film; "office interior" light level gives me around 1/30 - 1/60 wide open. In some restaurants and in nightclubs I'd be in trouble. Indeed I was in trouble even with f/2.0 (Contax G system) at an annual banquet last winter and the photos were unusable; I really needed flash. At an evening wedding reception a year ago, though, the 28 'cron was fine and I was glad to have the speed.

A fast lens gives you more flexibility with a tradeoff in size/cost... Nice to have the choices.

The problems is that at f1.4 the plane of focus is so thin that group shots at low light are out too. You 'd probably have to stop down to f2.8 which gets you back to Elmarit territory. But I agree, f1.4 is really about having the option to use it - sometimes it is very handy.

 

[telenous]

I have Nikon 28mm f/1.4 (its not ais btw it is AFD) but it is huge! open wide is not that sharp, but it has amazing charecter and it is one of my favorite lenses in my nikon line-up

The fastest AIS lens in 28mm is the Nikkor 28 f2. It is probably the best Nikkor lens I have tried so far. It's not bad wide open but still not quite a match to fast rangefinder lenses in 28mm. It's not small either.

 

[wparsons]

Where is the asph indication in the picture?

Where is the asph indication in the picture?

I have heard that this 28mm f2.8 lens will be:

1. inexpensive, and
2. an asph lens -- I don't see the asph markings on this lens. Shouldn't they be to the right of the feet/meter marking?

Bill

 

[Gabriel M.A.]

You are optimistic. I would expect Leica to do this as an in-factory firmware upgrade for $200 with possibly the option to do this for free during the warranty period.

Unfortunately, I don't think you're too off the mark here.

Light fall-off in wideangle lenses is more noticeable with focal lengths wider (i.e. "shorter") than 28mm for 35mm format. I'm sure this new lens has been designed with a digital sensor in mind.

The 5D's full frame sensor shows the effect of light fall-off with wide angle lenses, generally wider than 24-28mm, wide open. Voigtlaender wide angle lenses already exhibit falloff on film wide-open. I'm betting the Leica ASPH lenses would fare better, even most of the new Zeiss lenses (longer than 25mm).

The main turn-off of the 28mm Elmarit was the size; this makes it a contender. Now, somebody go buy a few and put them on the used market! (ok, kidding -- KIDDING!)

 

[Mark Norton]

Nikon have recently discontinued the 28mm f1.4 lens, looks like not many people found it attractive at the (for Nikon) high price.

 

[Nemo]

There are three types of M lenses, regarding digital medium:

1. Lenses designed with the digital capture in mind:

50/1,4 ASPH (2004)
75/2 ASPH (2005)
28/2,8 ASPH (2006)

2. Modern ASPH lenses pre-digital:

35/1,4 ASPH (1994)
21/2,8 ASPH (1997)
24/2,8 ASPH (1998)
90/2 ASPH (1998)
28/2 ASPH (2000)
35/2 ASPH (2000)
Tri-Elmar ASPH (2000)

3. Classic (Mandler) lenses:

50/1 (1976)
50/2 (1979)
75/1,4 (1980)

I would recommed to buy lenses from the first group. I am not sure of the performance of wide-angle lenses of the groups 2 and 3. Leica tries to "correct" the images from these lenses using codes and internal processing, but it is likely a revision of the wide-angle pre-digital lenses...

R.

 

[Nachkebia]

Mark Norton : People of nikon admire more 1-3400mm f/5.6 VR 4, hypersilent focus motor lenses, Steve McCurry loves 28mm f/1.4 though....

 

[jaapv]

The problems is that at f1.4 the plane of focus is so thin that group shots at low light are out too. You 'd probably have to stop down to f2.8 which gets you back to Elmarit territory. But I agree, f1.4 is really about having the option to use it - sometimes it is very handy.

Only if you shoot very fat persons. At 3 m and 1.4 the DOF for the M8 is 75 cm.

 

[rxmd]

Voigtlaender wide angle lenses already exhibit falloff on film wide-open.

Actually with extreme wideangles it has nothing to do with digital sensors or with the quality of the lens maker. It's a very simple optical rule, called the cos^4 rule, that governs light fall-off and natural vignetting in rectilinear lenses. It states that the relative intensity of a light ray on the film plane is proportional to the fourth power of the cosine of the angle of incidence between the light ray and the optical axis. This is due only to laws of optics and isn't changed by stopping down. Any further fall-off due to oblique angles on digital sensors applies in addition to this.

The more extreme a wideangle gets, the more extreme this effect becomes. With a lens with 90° FOV it is already not unusual to have almost two stops in light fall-off between the center and the corner of the frame.

There isn't much you can do about it. In retrofocus lenses the effect can be addressed somewhat, because the angle of incidence behind the lens is much less sharp than in front of it, compensating at least one of the four cosines. With some lenses, such as the Zeiss 38/f4.5 Biogon in the Hasselblad SWC, the front element gets enlarged to compensate some of the edge fall-off. In general, however, in order to get homogeneous lighting with an extreme wideangle, the only thing you can do about it is a center filter.

So Cosina isn't to blame here. A Leica Tri-Elmar 16/18/21 will have the same problem. You can expect considerable vignetting simply from it being an extreme wideangle, regardless of sensor, mechanical construction etc. Of course, people will blame the sensor nevertheless, though.

Philipp

 

[Nemo]

Leica and the digital technology...

Photokina 1996: the new R8 is presented. It is ready for use with a digital module.

1998: the S1 studio camera is presented, with a CCD and mount for R and M lenses (and others).

June of 2003: the digital modul R project is presented (with computer-designed mock-ups).

February of 2004: Epson presents at the PMA the R-D1 prototype.

February of 2004: Leica presents a bond-based loan for financing the DMR and M Digital projects. They acknowledge the M Digital development.

November of 2004: the DMR is delayed until June of 2005.

November of 2004: Epson ships the R-D1 camera.

Therefore, Leica thinks on digital medium from the second half of the 90's. I am not sure about the "digital tweaks" introduced in the design of the lenses, and from which date...