Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2000/02/24
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Mikiro
>>Leica glass does its best with Kodachrome to give profound and
reserved (muted in your expression) rendition of colour rather than vivid
and outgoing (or showy) one, which in my opinion best achieved with a
Velvia/Zeiss combination.<<
The trend today certainly seems to be toward oversaturation. I've wondered
why that is. Was it spurred on by the cross processing rage? Or visa versa?
For a while it seemed most popular magazines felt it mandatory to
completely abuse color. And now with digital you don't even need to cross
process in order to achieve an unnatural pallette.
I shoot Velvia occasionally. I must admit that it has it's place. But I
think it's overkill. Last weekend I took some photographs at a local
nursery. I used E100S and my new 90/2.8 Elmarit. The colors were very
natural, yet the photographs still looked extremely crisp. I attribute the
look to the quality of the lens, which is a stunning performer, IMHO. I
posted an image at.
http://beta.content.communities.msn.com/isapi/fetch.dll?action=update_photo&ID_Community=Leicausers&ID_Message
=397&ID_Topic=51&Subject=90%2F2.8+Elmarit+%28latest%29%2C+E100S&Message_Body=Natural+light.+f2.8
The colors look a little muted in the posted jpg file. I used the Adobe
color profile when I scanned. (I scanned for printing, rather than for
screen viewing). You can't see it on the jpg file, but in the original
slide the two plant labels in the plane of focus (right and below/left of
center) are completely legible. When viewed under my 8x loupe I can read
the nursery phone number (smallest type 6pt) on the original slide.
Absolutely incredible contrast and resolution. I took the photo at 1/125
f2.8.
Sometimes I think supersaturated colors give an illusion of contrast that
doesn't really exist. Less saturated films and Leica glass are a great
combination.
David