At 04:05 1/3/02, Acer wrote:
it's rather funny when my "cheap" zuiko 1.8 50 prime (all brassed but
clean glass) completely and utterly BLOWS away their consumer 28-80
3.5-5.6 zoom out of the water. I mean on a 1hr 4*6 print from cheapie
film, not pro enlargements.
/A/S
You, Alan and Albert have all discovered approximately the same/similar
thing. The lens is the most important part of the system. It's not just
the OM Zuiko lenses that run circles around them. There are many old
camera systems with excellent to superb lenses. The secret is finding one
in excellent condition. One individual made fun of the comparatively very
small size of the 50 year old single coated Carl Zeiss Sonnar on my
RF. All I said at the time was a short line about not letting its physical
size deceive him. A few weeks later he later saw one of the prints I made
using it. About the print: "Looks like a postcard." About the lens: Nothing.
[begin rant]
I've handled the lenses bundled with consumer "big name" cameras found in
discount department stores. A "Diana" fees sturdier. My father's lowly
Argus C-3 Bakelite "brick" runs circles around them.
IMO it's all about cost. The advertising is not intended to convince
unwitting consumers the camera makes the photograph; it's intended to
convince them the camera *body* makes the photograph. The zooms bundled
with an "Ungeheuerwunderziegel" are the lowest possible cost lens. They
allow "Plug 'n Play" out of the box. The result?
- The *big* bucks are spent on the camera body
- The pittance left over buys the cheapest 3rd party mondo zoom lens
(a 10X, snail-slow flare generator)
(don't like pincushion distortion? zoom out!)
(tired of barrel distortion? zoom in!)
- "Lens hood, lens hood, we don't need no steeenking lens hood!"
(heaven forbid the lens goes naked without an uncoated Tiff*n "lens
protector")
- Forget the flash; ("Tell them we already gots one.")
(that creates marvelously brilliant red-eye using a single-digit GN)
- To h*ll with a tripod; only the "AR" need a tripod
- Kodak Max Zoom 800 to match the mondo zoom lens: it can do anything,
any time, anywhere!
Don't *ever* make fun of an Argus C-3! Argus had their priorities in the
proper order: dirt cheap Bakelite body, reliably simple leaf shutter,
accurate RF, and a deceptively excellent lens. Everything that was needed;
nothing more, but nothing less.
[end rant]
-- John
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