Hello again

Does anyone have experience in comparing the two lenses above? I would like to know if there is much difference in wheight and size/feel and if there is noticable difference in everyday use picturewise (here I mean hand held outdoor use). There are some quite cheap 90/2 out there for the moment...

Thomas

-- Thomas Krantz (tkrantz@kpmg.dk), April 23, 2002

Answers

The difference in size/weight is microscopic (like 5g out of 495g or thereabouts. Both both 55mm filters.

There is a noticeable difference (contrast/sharpness) in the images at f/2 - very little at f/8. The pre-APO has some chromatic aberration (purple/green fringes on the edges of dark/light objects near the edges of the frame) - the APO lens corrects this almost completely (hence the "APO"chromatic name).

The preAPO is pretty darn good - the APO is excellent.

I own the preAPO..

If you're buying ANY fast telephoto - be sure to test each and every sample you're considering - the focusing is so critical that you need to find a lens whose cam is perfectly matched to your camera.

-- Andy Piper (apidens@denver.infi.net), April 23, 2002.

90/s Summicron lenses:

APO-90/2-ASPH: 500 gm, E55 filter (5-element, 1 aspherical) 90/2 Pre-ASPH: 470 gm, E55 (5-element) 90/2 Pre-Pre ASPH: 685 gm, E48 (6-element)

The ASPH and Pre-ASPH are virtually the same size and differ in weight by 30 gm. The handling properties of these lenses are quite similar. The Pre-Pre-ASPH is considerably bigger and heavier, and has two features not present in the later lenses: 1) detachable lenshead for use on Visoflex; and 2) tripod socket. It's optical performance is on a par with than of the Pre-ASPH and, of course, not as good as the ASPH version.

-- Eliot (erosen@lij.edu), April 24, 2002.