Lens Colour ?

[jackal]

how does that work then ?

just been doing some back to back tests with a 21mm Elmarit APSH and my new 18mm Zeiss Distagon and shooting exact same exposure & white balance the Zeiss has a much more redder cast to it than the Leica which looks decidely more green by comparison.


is this to do with lens coatings ? would it be something seen across all modern leica lenses ?

[luigi bertolotti]

I think this is an oldtime perennial question of Zeiss Vs. Leitz... funny it's visible still today after all the changeovers in Zeiss manufacturing... I observed similar differences between my Zeiss Contarex Lenses and the contemporary Leitz for M bodies... I don't think it's related to coating methods, but is intrinsic to glass type usage, but this is my trivial opinion... I do not remember to have red something about this specific question: does anyone have some tech info about ?

[cbretteville]

Putz lens book from 2002 is still available on Leica's website. It has a chapter on colour rendition. Starts on p18.

http://en.leica-camera.com/assets/fi...=file_1748.pdf

Enjoy!
- C

[adan]

In general, this is a real effect - Zeiss being pinker than Leitz/Leica - although both lines have some variation.

One of the main reasons I switched from Zeiss/Contax-G to Leica-M, back in my Velvia days. Velvia tended to go purple in skies and such, and the Zeisses aggravated the problem, whereas the greener Leitz glass tended to counteract the Velvia purple. Browner skin tones with Leica, pinker (or even too red) with Zeiss.

(But Hasselblad/Zeiss lenses seem a bit more neutral than the 35mm Zeisses, on average.)

Not a coating effect, but the glass chosen for each of the elements - and a conscious design decision by the lens designers. Nikkors tend towards the pink, also. Canon's old FD SLR lenses tended to Leica green.

BUT - are you using the IR-blocking filters, and is the Zeiss coded to account for the effect of the filters? That can make a big difference, too.

[lars_bergquist]

The colour balancing of a lens is something we do not talk a lot about, but it is important. Nikon lenses have always been notably cool, so that many people who shot slide film kept a Skylight filter on at all times, especially to save skin tones. Leica lenses are carefully balanced to be neutral, with one notable exception: the Noctilux, which is a bit yellow. Now of course we can twiddle the colour balancing a bit so it is not the big deal it was.

The old man from the Age of Kodachrome I