Ken Rockwell again

[kshapero]

Today's post:

[FONT=Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif]Coming Soon: Cosina (aka Voigtländer) 21mm f/4 rangefinder lens review. It works great, better than the fixed Nikkor SLR lenses! (works on film cameras only, unless you want to waste it on the under-sized sensor of an M8 or are waiting for the Nikon SPX FX digital rangefinder.) [/FONT]
[FONT=Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif]Coming Soon: Leica Minilux review.[/FONT]

Boy, he's a trip[.

 

[Solinar]

I'm a bit lost on this one - Is he planning on using it as a macro lens on an SLR or has he purchased another RF camera?

 

[pevelg]

Nikon SPX FX digital rangefinder.

And what does that mean?

 

[__hh]

Nikon Full Frame digital rangefinder??? count me in

 

[erikhaugsby]

And what does that mean?

Pipe dreams from a most practiced storyteller.

 

[usagisakana]

And what does that mean?

I'm thinking he's being sarcastic, but then hey that's not going to stop people falling into the sarchasm.

 

[drewbarb]

He's waxing fantastic...

 

[chris00nj]

Looking at his site, it reminds me of why I like rangefinders. Look how huge that 14-24mm Nikon is and you can't even adjust the aperature. Compare the size to my little 21/4 CV or the 15 CV.

Who needs a zoom on a super wide angle anyway.

 

[luketrash]

When I was wet behind the ears with photography knowledge, sites like his turned up in searches and sounded very authoritative. Now that my BS radar has been fine tuned, sites like his make me more angry than happy.

However, I obviously garnished what I needed from his rants and moved on, so I assume other people will be able to as well.

Now I read his site in the same light I read articles in The Onion, and it helps to not put me in a bad mood if I just think of it all as sarcastic comedy rather than the serious ranting of a crazy person.

 

[ruby.monkey]

So, ad homs aside, d'you think he's wrong about the VC 21/4 being better than the various Nikon 20mm primes?

(I suspect this is what he means, rather than taking on every Nikon prime ever made)

 

[photogdave]

I'm enjoying his angst over why anyone would need a hand held meter in this day and age. Ever heard of studio strobes Ken?

 

[Palaeoboy]

So, ad homs aside, d'you think he's wrong about the VC 21/4 being better than the various Nikon 20mm primes?

Although not a fan of his readings in this respect yes I must agree. Nikon is my SLR camera system of choice and have tried their various 20mm which are all very good, the 20mm f3.5 ais lens I own and simply cannot part which takes 52mm filters, is compact and handy by SLR standards, is a total gem. The Voigtlander 21mm however is just a step ahead of them. Its often forgotten that the Voigtlander is an ASPH lens as its not labelled as such and nor is it constrained in its design for reflex mirrors. Optically its not far behind the Leica ASPH 21 and it even has less distortion than the Leica lens and is way more compact to boot. Only the G and ZM biogons and the Leica ASPH 21's are the only 20/21mm lenses that I would consider slightly superior.

 

[Michiel Fokkema]

I like Ken. He is funny and sometimes he writes something worthwhile like the comparison of the Mamiya rf's. But lately he is getting worse.
If you don't like him just ignore him and stop torturing yourself by visiting his website. If he doesn't get any hits any more he will stop.

Cheers,

Michiel Fokkema