You’d think that after four plus decades of photography, I’d have learned enough to be crisply decisive about gear choices. You’d be wrong.

Couldn’t be all my fault, though, could it? Nope. It’s the industry. After a hundred years of scientific advances to improve optics in camera lenses, they’re going backwards—purposely making optically inferior lenses and using software corrections, presumably to cater to the growing clientele of videographers.

I’m not one.

After going through specifications, reviews, and sample photos of many of Sony’s lenses for their E/FE mount, the maze leads me in a different direction. For the fun of it, I headed out the door the other morning with the FE 85mm f1.8 and the Summilux-R 80mm. Knowing that the FE lens is among the highest-resolving lenses tested by DXOmark, I figured I’d probably conclude that it’s time to offload the venerable R lens.

Wrong. I won’t say that comparing them in Lightroom Mobile was like day and night, but it was damn near like comparing monochrome to color! Of course the ‘lux was nowhere near as sharp wide open, but it was plenty sharp enough. It reminded me of an attribute in which Leica long stood head and shoulders above its competition: tonal gradation. Pictures don’t just look like pictures; they look like what I see with my eyes.

So now, after many times declaring that R glass is outdated, overpriced, and often in abused condition, I’m back to scrounging around for a piece or two. In the meantime, I’d best not pick up my SL2, which has been idle for almost two months, else I’ll be on yet another slippery slope . . .

a7cII/80mm Summilux-R . . .