Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2013/06/27

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Subject: [Leica] Leica superiority or not
From: pklein at threshinc.com (Peter Klein)
Date: Thu, 27 Jun 2013 00:40:18 -0700

You are both right.  And Tina is right about resolution. But here's the 
thing.  There is a certain level of sufficiency beyond which things 
start to get very subjective and aesthetic rather than technical, even 
though we couch it in technical terms. Brands L, C, N and Z will all 
take a picture that Tina's stock agency would accept. But they all will 
look different.

We sometimes forget that just because we can blow something up to 100% 
on the screen and count eyelashes that this really matters. The thing 
is, it's not what it looks like at 100%, it's what it looks like when 
you view it as a whole, or print it.  Looking at a file at 100% is like 
smelling an Impressionist painting. Yeah, you can see the brush strokes, 
but you're missing the point. It's not the details themselves that 
matter, it's how they look when blended together at the size you're 
going to view the image.

One thing about Leica lenses, though,  You can shoot wide open, and you 
know you're going to be OK. Not always true with the other brands.  
Since I like to play in the dark, that matters to me.

--Peter


 > What is more important - the technical quality of a photograph or the
 > artistic merits? Most of this obsessing about lenses, sensor types, 
camera
 > bodies, etc are all about the former, because you can measure it. The
 > latter, though far more important, cannot be measured at all, so is
 > ignored!!!
 >
 > In no other art form that I am aware of are the tools discussed ad 
nauseum,
 > and nobody discusses, or cares about, the end product at all. Even in
 > music, where tools are important, they are relegated to a distant second
 > place with respect to the actual performance/recording.
 >
 > Cheers
 > Jayanand
 >
 >
 > On Thu, Jun 27, 2013 at 12:21 PM, Frank Dernie
 > <Frank.Dernie at btinternet.com>wrote:
 >
 > > Resolution is only one part of what we enjoy in a lens. It is the 
easiest
 > > to measure, though is usually measured under one set of not necessarily
 > > relevant conditions. Other aspects of lens performance such as 
colour and
 > > boke are less easily measured but easily seen, IMHO.
 > > On top of that there are issues such as robustness, size, weight, 
ease of
 > > handling, convenience of focusing and so forth to consider.
 > > I use and enjoy other cameras and lenses but I -do- consider Leica 
to be
 > > superior, though perhaps not by a huge amount in the case of a few
 > > excellent competitors.
 > > YMMV
 > > FD
 > >


Replies: Reply from imagist3 at mac.com (George Lottermoser) ([Leica] Leica superiority or not)
Reply from jayanand at gmail.com (Jayanand Govindaraj) ([Leica] Leica superiority or not)