Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2003/03/19
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Martin Howard wrote: > > Oil on aperture blades, nicks on barrels, small scratches on elements > pretty much all fall into the same category. There are basically three > options for dealing with it: > > a) Get your knickers in a twist, work up an ulcer, loose sleep, time, > and possibly > money by worrying weather it will affect your images -- conveniently > forgetting > that unless you shoot at the optimum aperture, on a tripod, critically > focussed, > in perfect lighting, on slow film, developed at the optimal contrast > index, and > perfectly printed, chances are it isn't going to make any visible > difference; > > b) Send the thing back unless you're 100% happy with it for the price > you paid > and get a refund; > > c) Take pictures. > > Maybe I'm just dumb, but (b) or (c) seems a hell of a lot simpler to me. > > M. Martin if we were as casual as you say we should be about our lenses we wouldn't be shelling out thousands for them forsaking autofocus instead of the hundreds everyone else does. Should we ever for some God forsake reason (like it's dark) decide to put our camera on a tripod and blow up the picture we want do be able to say "gee glad i saved up a year for that glass you can see the split ends on the tip of that persons eyelashes. My Pentax would have made all the eyelashes one big clump!" What's so unreasonable about sending in a beat up looking lens to get CLA'd? Would one have to sooner or later anyway assuming they're actually taking pictures with the lens which will make it show all kinds of wear and lower it's resale value. Myself and a few others on this list have actually taken a shot with a tripod and blown it up super big and peered into it. When you look at that mural sized print; a 20x24 to 30x40 and with a cheap lens you wonder just how much more you'd be seeing as you study different areas of the print for detail than if you were using say a moderately priced lens. Like a Pentax lens instend of a Tamron. If you were using a moderately priced lens you'd wonder how much more information you'd be party to had you used premium glass. You think "naaa that high end glass is not going to give me much more detail here I'll stick with my Pentax" or you think "boy i bet if i get a real expensive good lens like a Leica or somthing I'll see all kinds of stuff when i blow up a picture this size I"m not seeing now" But you're right it takes a process like this, blowing a shot up huge to get someone more tuned into their glass and what it needs to do for them. It did for me at least. The thing is when we're 80 we could decide that a neg we shot when we were 20 needs to fill half the wall of the cabin in our new Spaceship. THAT'S when you're glad you were on that paper route and got that little Leica instead of a Turbocharger for your Chevy. Mark Rabiner Portland, Oregon USA http://www.rabinergroup.com - -- To unsubscribe, see http://mejac.palo-alto.ca.us/leica-users/unsub.html