Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1999/04/19
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]At 06:47 AM 4/19/99 +0200, you wrote: >As for your statement about Leica deliberately dropping the quality of its >lenses >in the 60s, do you have any documentation for this? Nathan, He couldn't possibly have documentation for that. First of all, it's not true. Second, it's based on the notion that Leica designed lenses that didn't have as high as resolution as possible so they could pump up the contrast. Leica did state in the Leica Photography that introduced the Noctilux f/1 back in the 70s that they designed the lens with 400 ISO speed film in mind, so they didn't design the resolution quite as high as other lenses that were designed with slower films in mind so that they could increase the contrast. That's a whole lot different than "designing lenses down" as this person implies. Now from what I've heard, this article was probably an oversimplification of what they did. Because for one thing, the Noctilux isn't know for being very high contrast as it is. But there used to be arguments about lens design back in the 50s and 60s as I remember reading that claimed that balancing resolution and contrast was how designers met different design targets for particular lenses. But such a nonsense statement as what you are reacting to is pure bunk. Didn't happen. Leica would never do such a thing. Leica's customers wanted the best possible quality they could get. Some pretty outstanding lenses came out in the 60s, another evidence for that argument being incorrect. Eric Welch St. Joseph, MO http://www.ponyexpress.net/~ewelch D)inner not ready: (A)bort (R)etry (P)izza.