Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2000/08/06
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Some practical stuff. As a student in the 1950s a fellow student, who's name is Bruce Davidson, was photographing in the low-lighted bars and shops in Rochester, New York. At that time the film to use was Kodak Super XX, or a faster film from Ilford. Bruce made a discovery. He found that the light in the dimly lite bars was very contrasty. Bright lights and no lights. He found that by using the Contax II with uncoated 50mm f/1.5 the "flare"from the uncoated optic would actually give density and some detail in the deep shadows. Let's get back to the 50mm f/2 Dual Range Summicron on the late 1950s. If it does produce lower contrast and some flare at f/2 and f/2.8 this might raise the threashold in the deep shadows and yield a little extra detail there. A high contrast optic might "cut" through the shadows too much. I dearly love my 50mm f/2 Summicron Dual Range... Ed