Hi,
What is your opinion on this: I would like to have a very flare resistant short tele lens (in the range 70-100mm). I intend to use it with a Panasonic G1 for night city scape panos.

It doesn't need to be very fast, and it doesn't need to be the sharpest either. I have a Leica Elmarit-R 90/2.8 - is there anything out there beating it? And here we can think in al directions. The small G1 doesn't handle very heavy lenses, but it can (soon) take Leica M-mount lenses, for example.

Thank you,

--
Jonas

Hi Jonas,

Have you considered the CZ 85mm f/2.8? Moderate aperture, only 5 elements, Zeiss coatings, I doubt you will find a lens with much better resistance to flare. Your Leica is a great candidate as well, however. I would expect them both to be great for this purpose.

Thank you Steve.

Here is a sample of what the Elmarit-R 90 can do:

The above is image 8 out of 16 making a vertical 2-row pano of this building and is taken at f/5.6.

Do you think the Zeiss would be better? Or am I simply hoping for too much?

Another option in that range is the Pentax FA Limited 77mm f1.8. Compact, a good performer and quite flare resistant due to the fairly simple design and SMC coatings.

Jonas B wrote:
Thank you Steve.

Here is a sample of what the Elmarit-R 90 can do:

The above is image 8 out of 16 making a vertical 2-row pano of this building and is taken at f/5.6.

Do you think the Zeiss would be better? Or am I simply hoping for too much?

Hi Jonas,

I think the Zeiss might do a little better, but it pretty hard to predict these things. Do you have the first or the second version of the 90 Elmarit? The second should be better as presumably they have improved the coatings over time. To get no flare with such a strong light source may be asking a lot, but I would hope for less veiling around the light source. I hope this helps.

mawz wrote:
Another option in that range is the Pentax FA Limited 77mm f1.8. Compact, a good performer and quite flare resistant due to the fairly simple design and SMC coatings.

Thank you for the suggestion mawz, but no thanks... I have owned the FA77 (2 copies). I know the Pentax guys like the lens (one of the best lenses ever and all that) but I found it a bit more flary than the Elmarit. It also make a lot of CA and when going from the 6MP Pentax DS to the 10MP K10D I just sold it off:

The LoCA doesn't disappear until stopped down to f/5.6 or even f/8.

But it is a small and neat lens, pretty charming. regards, /Jonas

Steve Spencer wrote:
I think the Zeiss might do a little better, but it pretty hard to predict these things. Do you have the first or the second version of the 90 Elmarit? The second should be better as presumably they have improved the coatings over time. To get no flare with such a strong light source may be asking a lot, but I would hope for less veiling around the light source. I hope this helps.

Thanks again Steve.
My Elmarit-R 90/2.8 is the second (and last) version. I don't have the schematics available but I think it may be a four element lens only...

It was not a fair question. How the heck could anyone know if another lens would do better - unless it was an überlens of course.

For the moment I guess I'll work with what I have. The spotlight on the top of the building is quite a tough bulb, perhaps something between 1.600 and 2.500 W Xenon (just guessing here). I can clone out the flare.

I'll have to get back anyway for another try: it started to snow while I was taking the series of images for the pano and I'll do a second attempt when the sky is less cloudy.

thanks, and regards, /Jonas