[Leica] 560MM leica lens

[afirkin at afirkin.com (afirkin at afirkin.com)]

> I think these lenses were priced up to $20,000 or so, and in the 80's
> when they were trying to unload them they offered a free car (VW Fox;
> Brazilian made) with the lens.
>
> They are also a true long focus lens, not telephoto so are about
> 800mm long. This one has a triplet of very large size (f/6.3) with
> exotic glasses; not easy to make, use (or sell :-)).
>
> As for the quality of the 400 and 560 f/6.8's vs. newer lens, the
> newer lenses will win in general. A new AF300/2.8 Nikkor with 2x
> teleconverter will probably have more even performance, but won't be
> better in the center than the 560. The 300 alone will be a noticeable
> amount better than the older lenses.
>
> If you don't practice a lot with the slide focussing, autofocus will
> definitely give you more useable shots of animals out in the open. In
> the bush, autofocus is a pain and really doesn't work.

Thank Henning, I think autofocus will be as big a learning curve as
learning to manual focus ;-) I am due to try the 300 with the 2x and will
see how it goes. I was trying to focus on a possum in the bush tonight. I
was using a combination of manual and auto focus, but he 'evaded' me ;-)
the bushy stuff confuses the auto system. Not surprising. I think you need
to be able to take over manually if you want AF to work.

I'm still a babe with the AF stuff, but I must say, that in standard
situations, ITS VERY FAST!

Cheers

Alastair