Hello;

In reading thru the extended PR bulletin of Irwin Puts, was I the only one to note a reference to a new "Solms 21-35 Lens"? ( Dual Elmarit?)

If this is indeed a new offering, it could make me sell all my shares in white bread slicers and actually get a new Leica lens.

Then they could make a 50-90 Dual Elmarit. Beduh Boom, Beduh Boom, Beduh Boom, end of lens search/quandaries. Also the end of some entertaining and boring queries on this forum.

Was I thinking wishfully, dozing, or is it real?

Cheers

-- RICHARD ILOMAKI (richardjx@hotmail.com), February 25, 2002

Answers

Richard, you asked this question in the 'Any new lenses..." thread below. It was answered there. :)

-- Giles Poilu (giles@monpoilu.icom43.net), February 25, 2002.

R Series 21-35

See here.

-- Giles Poilu (giles@monpoilu.icom43.net), February 25, 2002.

The 21-35 is an R system zoom, not an M system dual.

-- Ken Shipman (kennyshipman@aol.com), February 25, 2002.

Thanks guys:

Yeah, Now I see.

I asked in two places, just out of enthusiasm. It remains however, an excellent idea. Perhaps Cosina's chief will read this and offer me royalties!!

Oh darn

-- RICHARD ILOMAKI (richardjx@hotmail.com), February 25, 2002.

Giles,what do you do all day? You spend most of your life in here dishing out glib,sarcastic answers.

Not everyone spends so much of their life in here that they know what has been asked in the past.

-- Phil Andrews (philandrew@hotmail.com), February 25, 2002.

Phil said "You spend most of your life in here dishing out glib,sarcastic answers."

Charming! Richard himself, asked the question a very short time ago in a thread just below. I answered his question and provided the link.

Calm down.

-- Giles Poilu (giles@monpoilu.icom43.net), February 25, 2002.

The R lens looks very impressive. If they really have made this zoom the equal of their fixed focal length lenses as they claim that will be impressive indeed for such a wide angle zoom. By all accounts they have succeeded with the other Leica designed zooms, so I will await the reports on this one. Some weird incomprehensible "Germanisms" in the PDF document though. They need a better copyeditor as usual. I assume the lens is f3.5 at 21mm and f4 at 35mm which is a shame (the other way around would have been nicer) but understandable of course.

-- Robin Smith (smith_robin@hotmail.com), February 25, 2002.

Erwin's writing was a bit unclear. The new dual 21-35 is coming from Konica for the Hexar RF.

-- John Collier (jbcollier@powersurfr.com), February 25, 2002.

Am I the only one that thinks that wide angle lenses NEED depth of field marks? I don't use the R system, choosing Nikon for my SLR, and while they have offered world class lens in this range for years, (20mm - 35mm f/2.8, upgraded to the 17mm - 35 f/2.8), I decided that I would rather have two prime lenses in this range and be able to do effortless zone and hyper-focusing.

Of course, on my Nikon site not too many people ever owned a prime lens, and they couldn't explain hyper-focusing for a million Dollars, but you would think Leica users would miss this important feature. Leica even "corrected" the omission of these markings from the first Tri-Elmarit, by adding them to the more current version.

Minimally, they could have at least put them on the lens for the widest angle. As it stands now, you would have to focus a third of the way in, stop way down and hope your eyes can make out the dark view of the viewfinder when hitting the DOF preview lever. That is not exactly the precision that Leica people like to think they are working with.

-- Al Smith (smith58@msn.com), February 25, 2002.

Al

I assume there are no DOF scales because there is no room for them. I am not sure I would care that much, but I would have thought if they did want to put any DOF scales on then they should put the 35mm DOF lines on not the 21mm as that would be the most useful.

Mind you, I am one of the those people who thinks that hyperfocal focussing is a recipe for overall softness, so I don't do it unless in an emergency.

-- Robin Smith (smith_robin@hotmail.com), February 25, 2002.

Just to clarify - I think Erwin did a global find/change and substituted the word 'Solms' for 'lens' throughout the M7 report. There are two new 21-35s - A Leica R zoom AND a Konica KM-mount dual focal length.

Since he was mostly talking about M cameras my assumption was he meant the Konica lens.

-- Andy Piper (apidens@denver.infi.net), February 25, 2002.