Re: [Leica] optical quality and artistic expression

[Mark Walberg <Walberg@simmons.swmed.edu>]

Erwin, I completely agree with almost everything you've said.

Regarding the following sentence, I don't recall anyone on the list ever
making that assertion.  I'm sure that just about everyone would agree with
you.
 ">The general assumption that older Leica are as useful as newer ones,
because the best optical quality is hardly needed in many photographic
situations, must be refuted."


However, This is the sentence I disagree with:
"Newer Leica lenses are *always* better and more useful than older ones. "

Well, what if your goal is to make an image that actually does look
*better* when made with an older lens than it would with one of the new
super sharp, contrasty lenses?  All we are saying is that there are some
images and some styles (very certainly a minority) that actually do work
better with the older lenses.  Yes, the rest of the time, in fact, most of
the time, the newer lenses are better.
   It is not a big deal.  It is just interesting to me to learn to see the
kind of images where this is true -like some of the Bresson images we've
discussed.  There are many styles and many images.  A few of them *depend*
on the absence of crisp finely rendered detail.
- -Mark Walberg