Cameras and Lenses
Interesting FYI gleaned from BVD
It seems that when the EL 8.5x came out Mr. Ingraham felt it was not optically on par with his top models of the day, the Nikon Venturer and, of all things, the Trinovid Ultra. We have come to consider the Trinovids as yesterdays news, though they are quite competative still, and the Nikon is sometimes shafted because of the bulk or because it is only a Nikon. He ranked them optically, best to least, Venturer, Trinovid Ultra, EL, Victory II.
I do wonder what Mr. Ingraham thinks of the Ultravids and the FLs.
Robert,
Sorry for not responding sooner but this is the first I saw your post.
quote:
It seems that when the EL 8.5x came out Mr. Ingraham felt it was not optically on par with his top models of the day, the Nikon Venturer and, of all things, the Trinovid Ultra.
My memory may be slipping but as I remember it he found the optical quality to be on par with the Venturer and Trinovid but he disliked the extremely slow focus. The focus was the only reason that the ELs did not wrestle the reference standard status from the Venturers.
quote:
I do wonder what Mr. Ingraham thinks of the Ultravids and the FLs.
If we were talking just about roofs then I would guess he would rank them something like this.... FL, Ultravid, LXL, EL . To my knowledge nothing has changed about the EL since the review. The Nikon reportedly has the same image quality in its current incarnation as it did in it original so I would assume he would still place it ahead of the EL. Having no experience with the Ultravid other than what is related on these forums makes it difficult to rate it in comparison to the LXL but I seem to regularly see folks place the Ultravid and FL on a new optical standard somewhat equal to the SE at least in terms of the center of field resolution. Lastly, with the knowledge that Mr. Ingraham had somewhat of a hand in the creation of the FL I would be hardpressed to believe he would settle for anything less than the highest optical quality in a weatherproof package (comparing it to the SE).
Just my thoughts.