Hi Rob, Actually, I didn't know that. I'm glad you explained.
Since you have experience with the Pentax, were there any problems caused by its only having a 5 blade aperture? (I'm wondering specifically about little pentagonal highlights) And if both score on image quality, then a choice between the two would swing on the failings or virtues of rangfinders compared to SLRs. Definitely food for thought--probably good that both are out of reach at the moment. <g> Much obliged, Dan Scott [EMAIL PROTECTED] >Hi Dan, > >I think the advantage comes down more to practicality. As you know these tow >lenses are entirely different beasts. The Pentax lens is of retrofocus design >so as to provide clearance for the SLR mirror between the last element and >the >film plane. The Heliar is a near symmetrical design meaning that its rear >elements nearly touch the film plane. Without ever actually having handled >Heliar I can site the advantages and disadvantages quite easily. > >The Pentax has the advantage over the Heliar WRT light fall off, in this >regard >it is in fact far superior, the Heliar falls off more than three stops at the >very corners I believe. The Pentax has integrated filters however the Heliar >has a filter adaptor. Granted the Pentax is bulky but so is the Heliar finder >and extra body needed to use it :-) > >The biggest advantage of the SLR lens in my mind is that you are looking >through the actual glass so unlike the Heliar there are no surprises when you >get your slides/prints back with hideous framing errors due to parallax or >big >flares that you couldn't see in the frame. Let alone the fact that you >have to >meter/focus in one window and frame in another :-( > >I can't comment in absolute terms on the comparative sharpness of the two >lenses but knowing the Pentax and having seen quite a few shots form a >Heliar >I would say that both provide very good results at quite high magnifications. > >Cheers, > >Rob Studdert >HURSTVILLE AUSTRALIA >Tel +61-2-9554-4110 >UTC(GMT) +10 Hours >[EMAIL PROTECTED] >http://members.ozemail.com.au/~distudio/publications.html - This message is from the Pentax-Discuss Mail List. To unsubscribe, go to http://www.pdml.net and follow the directions. Don't forget to visit the Pentax Users' Gallery at http://pug.komkon.org .
