New Leica 28mm Lens

I bought a Sovjet Orion 15 f.6.3 some days ago. The Zeiss pre-war Topogon design was very intriguing to me. It's symmetrical with two large meniscus lenses in front and back, and two tiny ones in the middle. Sounds familiar? The new Leica 28mm is obviously a Topogon design too. Or maybe they looked what the russians did back in the 50s and copied it then? Have to check som dates and years....

The Russian lens is as sharp in the senter portion of the image as my Summitar 35mm at f.5.6, but a tiny bit less contrasty if you look very hard and practice pixel peeping. The Russian lens is a bit weaker at the long sides, but better in the extreme corners. The Russian lens weighs 90 grams, and sticks out 2 cm. I have actually used it a lot. Very fun lens! Very, very sharp and contrasty. I payed $300 for an old-new-stock lens never used from 1970.

Just an alternative while saving up some money to by the real stuff

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Free your mind, and your camera will follow...

NoRules said:

I bought a Sovjet Orion 15 f.6.3 some days ago. The Zeiss pre-war Topogon design was very intriguing to me. It's symmetrical with two large meniscus lenses in front and back, and two tiny ones in the middle. Sounds familiar? The new Leica 28mm is obviously a Topogon design too. Or maybe they looked what the russians did back in the 50s and copied it then? Have to check som dates and years....

The Russian lens is as sharp in the senter portion of the image as my Summitar 35mm at f.5.6, but a tiny bit less contrasty if you look very hard and practice pixel peeping. The Russian lens is a bit weaker at the long sides, but better in the extreme corners. The Russian lens weighs 90 grams, and sticks out 2 cm. I have actually used it a lot. Very fun lens! Very, very sharp and contrasty. I payed $300 for an old-new-stock lens never used from 1970.

Just an alternative while saving up some money to by the real stuff

--
Free your mind, and your camera will follow...

Click to expand...

And some further elaborations on the subject

The Russians had a cooperation agreement going on with the Germans during the 30s. They got the Topogon 1933 design from the Germans in 1937 legally, and worked to improve upon it during the war. It was for stealing documents (spy copy box) and air reconnaissance. In 1943 the order came in for a rangefinder coupled lens 28mm f.6, and the first Orion 15 saw the light of day in March of 1944. Production for the masses started in 1951, and ended in the late 70s.

The production of the Leica Summaron 28mm started in 1955, and went on to 1963. Either the inspiration came from old Zeiss lenses, or, for once, the post-war Germans copied it from the Russians, and improved upon it to gain one third stop. Very Leica like!

Sorry for ranting on, but I have a great interest in optical design and designers. My favorite designer is Hans Schlumpf, who designed for Kern Paillard in Switzerland during the 50s and 60s. What a genius. One of his lenses went on the Apollo 11 mission to the moon

Well. Here is the design of the two lenses I'm talking about. Interesting ideed. And it explain the need for small aperture. What you gain is no distortion and great sharpness and contrast over the whole image field, and in the extreme corners, in a very small form factor for rangefinders. The new Leica 28mm will be the perfect landscape lens just like the Orion 15. It's all in the design.







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Free your mind, and your camera will follow...