blinkfrog wrote:
Can anyone comment on how this lens performs to the LLL 8 element?
I am in the market for a 35mm for black and white and am curious how this lens renders compare to the 8 element.
They are fairly different.
At f/2, the 8-Element is a somewhat glowy, somewhat low contrast lens with good to very good sharpness over the whole frame with crazy field curvature and structured bokeh (it's gets snappy from f/2.8 onward...and the bokeh calms down.) It is a small dual character lens.
At f/1.4, the Aspherical/11873 is not particularly glowy with much better sharpness in the middle of the frame (and worse in the corners) with much smoother bokeh and much higher contrast. It is slightly bigger with better ergonomics.
At full aperture the 8-element drawn like a pencil sketch (which can be very beautiful) and the aspherical is more like black ink.
So, I guess it depends on the look you want. I think a lot of people would say the V1 Summicron (the basis for the 8-Element) would be their ultimate black and white lens.
