Product Description

Since publication this title has proved to be very popular for both the serious lens user wishing to understand more about his lenses, as well as the Leica enthusiast considering which lens would be suitable to add to his outfit.

Do you know your "Coma from your Aberrations?" If "Yes," then part 2 of Erwin Puts' new book will be of considerable interest to you. Either way you may find this section easier to understand than you expect; the illustrations and diagrams do help.

If you do not wish to know about either your "Coma or Aberrations," Part 1 and Part 3 will still be of interest to you.

Part 1 goes into the optical history of E. Leitz, Wetzlar and the Leica Camera of Solms in detail with all the personalities involved. This section is well illustrated with some new pictures. The commercial demands are always battling with the perfectionists at Leica who created some of the world's most famous lenses.

Part 2 is an optical digression explaining the lens and glass design features, problems and terms and the continual battle to ensure that Leica users end up with the highest possible standard of lens.

Part 3 is the largest part of the book. Puts has tested Leica lenses from 1925 to date; each lens, in most cases with diagram, is detailed with its performances at the critical apertures.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #922417 in Books
• Published on: 2003-11-24
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 240 pages

Customer Reviews

Very informative
Frankly, you do not even need to own a Leica to appreciate this book. All the fundamentals of optics and lens design are explained in detail. Any serious photographer should read this book. They will understand the limitations of their non-Leica systems and be in an informative position to decide if they need the ultimate picture recording potential of Leica lenses. Until now, I was using a Nikon F4 with the 17-35 2.8 ED. The author has informed me that he tried the lens, along with the Zeiss (Contax) 17-35 2.8 and neither approach the capabilities of similar leica zooms. Is he crazy? Read this volume and you will understand why no system can match the build, optics and design of Leica. Most important, you will see that the way most lens tests are done in today's photo magazines are not worth much at all.
Keep in mind, this is not a stunning picture book. Color photos are kept to an extreme minimum and are only used to make some point about optical capabilities of certain lenses. This book will no doubt serve as the ultimate leica lens buyer's guide. But remember, it is much more than that and Puts is one of the few people who can articulate lens performance into a fun and informative read.
A soft cover version would be nice for those who can't afford the hard cover volume.

Truly Great.
This fascinating book gives far more technical detail than most Leica books. This guy apparently has tested almost all of the old and new Leica lenses and he gives a verbal description of the visual characteristics of almost all of the lenses rating the lens as low, medium, or high contrast for each area of the lens starting at the center and working out to the edge of the lens. The quality progression of Leica lenses throughout history and their manufacturing environment is explained. Optical lens design and optical aberrations are discussed from an artistic standpoint and with reasonable detail for the non-engineer. Covers both M and R lens types. He respects both Rangefinder (M lens) and SLR (R lens) types of photography. There is so much information that some sections will undoubtedly need rereading.

His website goes even further: ...http://www.imx.nl/index.html
This site is the tour de force Leica website that all others are compared to for its intellectual brilliance. New lenses that the book doesn't cover are reviewed on the site. He has the best technical explanations available within photography.

The author also has written an excellent "how to choose & use" type publication called Leica M-Lenses (Their soul and secrets) for Leica that is the best I've ever read at telling what lenses are best to use for given situations. This publication can normally be found on the Leica website (at least in the USA).

His enthusiasm for photography and intelligent written discourse are about the best available within the photographic industry. It is a welcome change from the stupid pabulum of most photo magazines that are written for some supposed general idiot audience. I've reread the book many times... it has earned its keep and his website has affected my view of photography more than any magazine. His viewpoint has a technical emphasis and he notes how the technical can be used to creative effect. He is a European writer who handles the English language very well including the production of many very insightful statements. No, I don't work for him or his publishing company I just find his writing to be one of the defining forces of modern day Leica photography.

More Than You'll Ever Want to Know About Lenses
I bought this book shortly after buying my first Leica camera (an M6) and lens (a 50mm Summicron). Frankly, I'm not sure what ever possessed my to buy it.

Be that as it may, I actually enjoyed reading it. I'll never design a lens and understanding what's written here isn't going to help me improve as a photographer.

However, I found it interesting to learn how lenses are designed and manufactured. From the early days of ray tracing using a pencil and paper to today's computer-aided optimization, Puts' explanations of optical theory are very understandable. I found this surprising, as English is obviously not his first language.

I've visited Puts' website and found him to be less than inspiring as a photographer. Frankly, he'd probably starve based on his photographic talent.

On the other hand, he's an accomplished and knowledgable technical writer. His reviews of what seems to be every model and variation of Leica lens ever made are informative. Whether it makes any difference that one lens resolves 90 lpmm and another 95 lpmm is something else again.

I can't recommend this book to anyone who isn't a real Leica fanatic. However, if you live Leica and are interested in reading every bit of information about its products, this book should be in your library.