Samuli Vahonen
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phuang3 wrote:
well, this zoom is no match for MP 100 in terms of sharpness, unless you prefer Leica rendition.
I would disagree, both lenses exceed what 5DmkII sensor can render. Also I don't see how these compared; with Zeiss 100MP I'm mostly shooting aperture f/2.8 and f/4, while the zoom starts from f/4. Due to diffraction if optimal performance is wanted f/8 starts already eat the contrast of smallest details, so if you want pixel peep 100MP is much better choice. However in practical applications using the zoom in short end and both in f/5.6 and f/8 there aren't that much differences in sharpness, naturally other drawing style differences can be perceived. And drawing style of the lens between 80-120mm is very much to my liking (I prefer Zeiss type of drawing style instead of typical Leica drawing style).
Leica's performance varies based on focal length, it's very strong at 80mm, even stronger at 135mm, but isn't as brilliant at 200mm. Also vignetting gets rather annoying in 200mm (otherwise image is very usable wide open @ 200mm what comes to sharpness etc.). This is the reason why I don't use much this lens; I have lower end covered with Zeiss 100MP and 85P.
There is one very weird optical defect (at least in my copy of the lens); in cold conditions (cannot be repeated summer, spring or fall, only in winter) there is magenta hotspot. This won't affect at all if you don't shoot at winter, so don't worry about this if you don't plan to shoot at winter... In 2009 I made page about the issue: http://www.vahonen.com/photo/articles/LeicaVarioElmar80200f4/scene2/
(I repeated this at 2010 on normal 5000K white balance conditions, so it has nothing to do with testing day's lightning, it's about the coldness)
What comes to usability, there are few things to consider: rather short throw of focus ring in large distances (and very small resistance turning the focus ring) - it takes me sometimes half a minute to get the exact focus I want, I really hate this feature of the lens (might be better on portrait shooting distace, focus throw is longer there, I don't shoot much portrait distance shots with 80-200 zoom) - also makes it 100% tripod lens. Due to how sensitive the focusing is the lens, when carried on camera, tends to get to minimum focus distance after walking 100m, so not zoom creep but focus creep  Good think on usability is that there is space for lens tripod mount, I think mine is modified Canon tripod mount ring - however when used the space between tripod ring and camera is VERY narrow and adjusting aperture is fairly difficult. Also the inbuilt hood is nice (but like most telezooms it's not effective in tele-end as it should be). Build quality is very good like in all Leica's. Also now shooting few years mainly with native EF mount Zeiss lenses, I find it annoying to use adapted lens; no EXIF and adapted lenses never seem to be in camera as sturdy as the native mount lenses.
I tried to find examples, but it seems that haven't shoot much, what I already haven't shown in this thread (or most probably on Alternative image thread since this thread was created on 2010 and I took most shots I have with the lens in 2009). Also check the archived tele lens threads in 2009 and 2010 archives. (maybe google with parameters like "site:fredmiranda.com vahonen 80-200 leica", will get you there is few minutes... this I think is the original discussion topic, it's rather easy to find this stuff)
Here is again one re-post, with new processing - Leica Vario-Elmar-R 1:4 80-200mm @ 80mm, f/4, 0.5s (larger):
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