Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2000/07/27
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]I returned to the color darkroom today for the first time in several years!! At the rental lab. I used to be a rent by the year member and was in there 2 3 times a week. Now there's more elbow room with everyone at home playing with thier Epsons! I had specialized in Black and white and got out of commercial work over the last 3 or 4 years. Now I'm back doing commercial work and a client I had done a black and white location job for now wanted color in front of the clean white backdrop. After shooting some Polaroids with the Hasselblad ELM I shot a roll of 220 160 VS Portra with the 80mm 2.8 Zeiss Planar on the camera as I had it out anyway. Afterwards I realized the lens needed to be cleaned but the test negs from the day before looked sharp enough. I had eyelashes with full length shots. Then I shot a second roll of film this time 35mm 160 VS Portra with my M6 and Leica winder M and the 7 year old 50 Summicron with the detachable hood. I used Studio strobes against a white backdrop. I decided to show the clients not only contact sheets but 11x14's before they even placed their print order. And I wanted to see how the 80mm 2.8 Zeiss Planar on the Hasselblad stacked up against our 50 Summicron on 35mm film in terms of 11x14 working results. And I thought C prints were a much better way of doing this than inkjets which is putting it mildly. I don't think inkjets would have told me that much. I scan my medium format with a 1200x2400 dpi Umax PowerLook III and 35mm stuff in the 2,700 dpi Nikon LS-2000. How those numbers translate is over my head but the major consideration to me is the output. Inkjet spray against a C Print. Anyway the Leica 11x14's looks "sharper" and in other ways better then the Hasselblad 11x14's, The magnifications were different from the two formats favoring of curse medium format. About 4.4 X for the medium format and 9X for the 35mm. But the 35mm looked definitely better anyway! Now to do it again with a clean Zeiss lens. (Or a dirty Summicron) Then test the 150 Sonnar against the 90 Elmarit. I used a tripod for both by the way despite the fast speeds of studio strobes. Mark Rabiner I had so many flakes inside that Planar lens that I swear I though I saw a sled in there with "Rosebud" on it!