Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1996/10/04

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To: leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us
Subject: Re: Emotive lenses
From: dlevy@worldy.com
Date: Fri, 4 Oct 1996 12:27:41 -0400

At 09:13  04/10/96 -0400, you wrote:
>Prior posts:
>... Somehow the lenses have
>the ability to make the subject pop out from the background in an uncanny
>way.  ...
>... some inferior Japanese lenses are very sharp yet don't have the same
>emotive quality; rather it seems to be an ability to differentiate planes
>somehow or to somehow create the illusion of three dimensions in a
>two-dimensional medium more so than is true of other lenses.  
>
>Rather than *specifications* Leica lenses truly do have *character*. As
>hard as that variable is to scientifically quantify and replicate, to the
>frustration of many, it is no less true despite what some would have us
>believe. 

How true,

This was proved to me when I was in several slide competitions several years
ago. For the fist several, I had produced entries from my etrs with the 35mm
back. The very last slide in the series was from the Leica. When it was
shown, more than several noticed the difference. Some of the 'older' (more
experienced?) among them almost immediately asked if the single slide had
been taken with a Leica. The etrs slides were more than equal to the
competition and some had thought they were from a Nikon so it wasn't
attributable alone to that the etrs. To this day, there appears to be more
'involvement' emotionally when the Leica is used than other cameras exhibit.

As an audiophile, I equate this listening to 2 excellent systems. I would
equate the Leica with the system using tudes and the others to the solid
state system. The solid state system may be more analytical, but sometimes
as a result the sum does not equal the parts. Now, the only problem, where
does the 12AX7 go in the M6?
Brian Levy, J.D.
Toronto, Ont.
dlevy@worldy.com