The Wardian Case

[gosfield@dolphin.upenn.edu]

since folks are still reacting to Fred's post may i briefly offer the 
following suggestions:

1) personal criticism does not belong on the list.  period. Criticism of 
arguments, points, accuracy of "facts" etc, is of course part of the 
essence of the list.

2) if we use the same tone of 'voice' we would use in face to face 
contact i think we can't go far wrong

3) No one here has any 'reputation' or 'face' they need to defend.  It's
just a buncha electrons in space, put there by folks you have never met.
No one on the list is able to control or injure any one else even if
they want to.  I am amazed at how defensive we (I certainly include
myself) can get about messages from strangers, expressed off the top of
the head, in a medium of exchange devoid of body language, tone of voice,
inflection, facial expression, and all the other forms of linguistic
information and physical interaction which humans find necessary to
successful conversation. When i am tempted to reply in anger, i just save
the letter off line and look at it the next day, to see if i still want to
send it.  So far i haven't sent any of 'em...but i sure wrote a bunch ;^)

4) I wouldn't even bother posting these suggestions, since we are all 
aware of this stuff, but the tone of a list is the sum of the comments on 
it, so here is a vote for peace and (good) light. This will all wind down 
in a couple of days and we will get back to more important matters.

5) I hope everyone will post everything they want about every Leica
subject that interests them.  Personally, i am most interested in how
people use their Leicas to take pictures, and how they have learned to
make their pictures 'better', and what 'better' means to them, and how, if
at all, the Leica has specifically contributed to this. 

-------------

And to get back to more important stuff--has anyone been successful at
shooting directly into the sun with a NF 50mm Summicron?  I had problems
in Joshua Tree shooting a sunset with clear sky (Kodachrome and Technical
Pan) and backlit foliage, using a lens hood and no filter.  Lots of flare
(large areas of decreased density in color, increased neg. density in B&W)
but no ghost images.  My Summicron is a 1964 model, as someone on the list
kindly informed me. It has no haze, separations, fungus, or other 
internal problems i am aware of, except for most of the blacking having 
been worn off the (front side) of the iris leaves.  It seems to work very 
well indeed when i don't point it at the sun, and is very contrasty and 
sharp on high contrast subjects. 

I have used a 28mm Nikkor into the sun with less of this problem (a single
'ray' of flare, probably from a filter, but no overall flare).  My Zeiss
80mm Planar (Rollei SL66) has a similar flare problem, and is of the same 
vintage as the Summicron. 

What are the particular features of the Summicron which produce this
effect, and how 'close to the sun' have others been able to shoot? 


best wishes to all,

ted
gosfield@dolphin.upenn.edu