Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2000/06/01

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Subject: Re: [Leica] formats
From: "Richard W. Hemingway" <rheming@attglobal.net>
Date: Thu, 01 Jun 2000 21:06:26 -0500

>enlarged more than E-6 films. Much more. It is highly
>questionable whether even a 120 film with Zeiss or
>other good lenses can actually outperform the L/K
>combo.

This is an interesting question.  Back when Kodak made Kodachrome 64 in
both 35 and 2 1/4 sizes, I owned both a Leica R4 and a Hasselblad with an
array of lenses.  I had a Leica RT-300 projector and a Hasselblad 2 1/4
projector.  I feel that the camera quality, lens quality, projector and
projector lens quality were on a par.

I had been shooting some 2 1/4 before 120 Kodachrome came out and when it
did I shot a series of pictures with each camera with 64 Kodachrome and
projected them side by side.  I was surprised that the 2 1/4 didn't blow
the 35mm away. As a matter of fact in many cases I thought that the 35 was
better and had more detail.  It was than that I decided to sell the 2 1/4
equipment and stick to 35mm.  

My wife has a sight problem and that is the reason we project our slides -
she couldn't tell the difference and I was tired of glass mounting the 2 1/4.

This was not in any way a scientific test, merely of the way I took
pictures.  I wondered at the times whether the 64 Kodachrome film was the
same for both the 35 and the 2 1/4.  

However, I sure liked that prints from negative film with the 2 1/4.  If I
only shot print film I probably would have stayed with the Hassy.  

Your statement above brought back some old memories.

Dick Hemingway
Plano, TX

P.S.  I have been using Kodachrome over 50 years and love it.  Not being a
commercial photographer I am not particularly bothered by processing
delays.  BTW I never have had a processing problem with Kodachrome.  The
only film I have had lost was E-6.