[Leica] Good lenses are good lenses

[red735i at earthlink.net (Frank Filippone)]

Thanks Kit for letting us see the Leica approach to the question of Leica
glass vs. brand X glass being a better digital  capture methodology.

There is more to this article than lens evaluation ( OK, I agree Leica
lenses are great, and should continue to operate better than a consumer
quality Nikon lens on the same camera, if this were physically possible.)

The other messages....

Leica has developed a glass plate with a perimeter of lenses to redirect the
peripheral light rays to become more perpendicular to the sensor plane
especially important for WA lenses.  This is the most important message....
It is how the M digital will be done.  Hasselblad had a VF screen several
years ago that had aligned fiber optic rods all cemented together to
increase the brightness of the image.  While the application reason was
different, Leica has taken the same approach, in  a broad sense.  The
Digital M will have this feature, to more of a degree because of the shorter
film plane to lens mount distance.  The question is the degradation of the
image because of the micro lens.  Will the peripheral of the image be at a
less accurate rendition because of the micro lens compared to no lens?  Yes.
To what extent?  Unknown by us folk at this point.

Personally I really enjoyed the story of the R9 film guide rails being
machined as the last step in the manufacturing process.  Amazing to what
extent the Trolls from Solms can do to get the image quality at its peak!
( Remember the original M3 with the glass pressure plate?)

Leica is positioning their combo Analog lens and Digital sensor against the
Nikon (et al)  or other digital and digital combos. Interesting that they
feel this is an issue.

Leica has taken this particular discussion along the optical lens pathway.
But the entire image capture path includes the sensor to compare to other
digital offerings and film to compare to the "other" paths.  Why not attack
the entire capture chain?  Interesting......

Frank Filippone
red735i@earthlink.net