Mailing Lists RSS Feeds Twitter Contact

Guide to Infrared
Photography Making Sharp
Images Guide to
Leica Guide to
Zeiss Lenses diglloyd Advanced
Photography Free
Articles Blog

Articles Table of Contents   Page 1: Brand-new Blur Overview Page 2: Blurry Canon EF 70-200mm f/4L IS Page 3: Blurry Canon EF85mm f/1.8 Page 4: Blurry Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 IS Page 5: Blurry Nikon AF-S 70-200mm f/2.8G VR II Page 6: Blurry Nikon AF-S 300mm f/2.8G VR II Page 7: Asymmetry with Leica 180mm f/3.5 APO-Elmar-S Page 8: How to Test a Lens for Issues

Asymmetry with Leica 180mm f/3.5 APO-Elmar-S

The full discussion of this asymmetry is found in my review of the Leica S2 in DAP.

Brand-new, the Leica 180mm f/3.5 APO-Elmar-S showed a soft right edge, with a very crisp results elsewhere. Multiple field shots confirmed the issues.

For a US$6500 lens, this is very disappointing, to say the least.

Though camera alignment cannot be ruled out, I observed no issues with the Leica 70mm f/2.5 Summarit-S ASPH on the same camera body.

Shown below are actual pixels crops from the left and right edges respectively. Not shown, a foreground area and other confirmation shots confirmed the issue without a doubt.

Stopping down to f/5.6 can (mostly) overcome the problem but it should never be considered an appropriate “solution”.