Not long ago I asked this question on this forum and I finally got the Leica system ;R8 + 35-70/f4 + 80-200/f4. I found that Leica is a lot better than the Contax expect the shutter is not as silent and smooth as the Contax. The performance of those 2 lens are really exceptional, it's quite hard to believe that zoom lens can have such good contrast and resolutation; and for that price.The opinion from from Jay and Albert are really helpful. But one thing I noticed is that there's always somed dust inside new lens, I asked the dealer to take out 6 80-200/f4 lens for me to pick(all brand new), only one is free of dust; and the other problem is the smoothness of the zoom ring,I saw the topic 'problem with 80-200/f4' in this forum ,and I found that it's true that zoom ring of some lens(80-200/f4) is not really smooth turning(maybe they are new!?).

-- Michael Fan (fanmichael@hotmail.com), April 28, 2002

Answers

Michael: All lenses are hand-made and unfortunately will have some dust. The important point is that small amounts of dust will NOT interfere at all with either contrast or resolution. Your idea of having the dealer show you a large number of lenses was a good one and my advice is to keep doing it. However, if you really look carefully at the "dust-free" lens you aquired, guess what, you will undoubtedly find a small number of particles. As to your second question about the focus ring, if you are not happy with the smoothness of the ring, then bring it back for a very simple adjustment. ENJOY your camera and its lenses and now you can think about the 21-35mm zoomlens as the next aquisition!!!

-- Albert Knapp MD (albertknappmd@mac.com), April 28, 2002.

Michael, zoom lenses that change physical length for either zooming or focusing will eventually suck in some dust even if it's clean as a whistle from the factory. A few dust specks can be ignored. Major dust or large chunks of debris should be rejected, not so much because of their (porbably also negligible) effect on image quality, but because it signifies an overall sloppy assembly and there's no reason not to suspect that other tolerances were violated as well.

-- Jay (infinitydt@aol.com), April 28, 2002.

Don't get me wrong but the whole question here is at least badly titled. This is a Leica Forum, so you can't expect anybody here to tell you objectively that Contax is better. And then you have our age-old question "What do you mean by better?".

-- Michael Kastner (kastner@zedat.fu-berlin.de), April 28, 2002.

Thanks Albert and Jay for the quick responds.Yes! I do agree that dust doesn't affect the lens's performance but if I got a chance to pick, I would try to pick a 'cleaner' one! Yes, Albert, the next one I'll get is the 21-35/f4!

-- Michael Fan (fanmichael@hotmail.com), April 28, 2002.

Who is Michael Kastner (kastner@zedat.fu-berlin.de) ? I am disappointed that some readers of this forum doesn't have any courtesy at all.

-- Michael Fan (fanmichael@hotmail.com), April 28, 2002.

Well...I went through a few 75 lux M's, which were pretty dust-free, but on closer inspection had very faint scratches usually on the rear element (which I didn't touch). So after even trying to clean the element to see if they were just grime swirls, no luck. After about the 3rd or 4th sample (had to mail-order) I came out with a winner. If I had lenses lined up at the dealer I don't think I'd have noticed the faint scratches on some until later. Picky picky I am : ) About the ring, the focusing ring on my 35 lux has smoothed out since new, must've broken in or distributed the lube, who knows. Good you're happy with your system though : ).

-- James (snodoggydogg@hotmail.com), April 28, 2002.

Well people who live in glass houses...

Michael F, I think you should read your post again before getting harsh on Michael K - I too have a problem relating the title to its contents.

-- Andrew (mazurka@rocketmail.com), April 28, 2002.

Michael Fan,

Well it's me again. If the title here had somehow included even just the word "dust" then the whole thing would have been much more enticing to read in the first place. Dust and our dealing with it is important and interesting and many suggestions (like Jay's) are always very useful and even worth saving. I'd say I'm just honest and even fair, often have courtesy myself. As a matter of fact I thought I was doing you a favour by saying what I did, because I and dozens of others here keep on saying that there are no really bad postings here -- or if there are, we don't have to complain about it -- but if we see a title that is too uninteresting or disinteresting, we just skip over it and move on down the line.

I'd never skip over a posting called "Dust" or thereabouts.

-- Michael Kastner (kastner@zedat.fu-berlin.de), April 29, 2002.

I find that Contax SLRs are more ergonomic and robus that the Leica Rs. Take the RTS2 for example, a fine piece of enginering with all relevant controls laid out appropriately.

-- Karl Yik (karl.yik@dk.com), April 29, 2002.