Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1998/04/19
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]<< It occured to me that today's analogue of the original Leica is the 8 x 11 mm format Minox camera. >> An interesting idea .... One of the things that has made such a difference over the past few decades is the great improvement in film technology. I am amazed and delighted with how good recent film is. Here, I am principally talking about print film since there has been so much more effort by the film producers with print film than slide film. For example, modern 400 speed print films like Kodak (new) Gold 400 and Fugi Superia 400 are as good or better than 25 speed film of old. This makes a huge difference. Using 100 speed print film, one can make very good quality 11 x 14 prints. This is not something to be taken for granted. It is very enabling for us 35 mm photographers. The improvement in film would make the current minox print quality equivalent to 35 mm in days of old. I know some will not agree, but the improvement of 35 mm film has rendered medium format largely unnecessary. The quality improvement for images up to 11 x 14 with medium format are very small, if they exist at all. The reason is that the lenses for medium format are now the limiting factor for that format. They are not nearly as good as the best current lenses for 35 mm. This means that the increased resolution of the new films is to some extent wasted in the medium format. The lenses are not good enough to take full advantage of the film. Tom Shea