Kyocera & Leica

[pgs@thillana.lcs.mit.edu (Patrick Sobalvarro)]

I'm not so pleased by the prospect of adding more Japanese lenses in
the Leica R line.  The reason is that, in addition to black and white
photography, I also do color, and I don't much like the warm and
over-saturated color rendition that seems to appeal so much to the
Japanese photo industry.

(Yes, I consider Velvia to be one of the scourges of the Antichrist.
Take a picture of a field of yellow poppies under a blue sky on 6x7
Velvia and wave it around in the air.  See how those screaming yellows
and electric blues frighten small children?  Your cats run under the
table, your dogs start howling at the moon in the middle of the day --
they're trying to tell you something.)

Now, maybe I'm unfairly pre-judging the Japanese lenses in the Leica R
line.  The truth is, I haven't tried any of them.  I haven't found a
place that rents them and so it would be an expensive experiment to
buy one just for the purpose of attempting to test my hypothesis.  But
I do think I see a difference in color rendition between the Nikon,
Pentax, Olympus and Yashica lenses I've tried and my Leitz lenses.
The Leitz lenses do seem to give me more neutral results than the
Japanese lenses, and with Kodachrome I get results I like just fine.
So I wish they'd do more lenses like the ones I've got.

-Patrick Sobalvarro

P.S. That whole Galen Rowell Nikon deep-blue-sky-over-the-mountains-
     while-I'm-athletically-dangling-from-a-brightly-colored-rope-
     dressed-in-neon-colored-clothes thing leaves me cold.