Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1998/06/15
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Hi Lugnuts: There was a thread a few days ago regarding the ability to see subtle differences in lenses as mentioned in some tests. I just got a used Noctilux and decided to test it against a new style 50mm Elmar. My conclusion was that it is possible to see differences, if the scans are done to enough resolution and just a small portion of the larger scan is displayed at web resolutions. These differences may not show up on some lower resolution video modes. I took two pictures with each lens with the camera mounted on a tripod. I did not shoo a test pattern, but my back yard. It has some big pine trees which can really show the resolving power and contrast of a lens. The day was overcast and fairly even soft light. These pictures were taken with an M6 and the film was Kodak Gold 100. I must admit, this is the first print film I have ever used in the M6, but I was taking some pictures of some friends that visited my parents last week and slides would not do them much good. As for the method. The negatives were scanned at 2700dpi on a Canon 2700F scanner. A section showing some shadow detail differences was cut from these 2700dpi scans and then reduced to 72dpi for monitor viewing. The original files were then resized to 480X320 and 72dpi. The resulting files show that the Noctilux vignettes at F1, but seems fine at 5.6. This can be seen even at monitor resolutions. You can ignore any color differences, as the scanner was set to auto colour correction. Now for the fine details as you would see through a loupe. In the files elmar5.6detail.JPG, and noct5.6detail.jpg, you can see the very slight increase in the detail of the area of tree trunk in the shadow of the table. These files are posted to some web space that my ISP provides. I apologize for not having a HTML page, but if you cut and paste these links into your browser, you should get these images. Some email programs will just let you click on these links below. http://home.istar.ca/~robsteve/noct-f1.JPG http://home.istar.ca/~robsteve/elmar2.8.JPG http://home.istar.ca/~robsteve/noctilux5.6.JPG http://home.istar.ca/~robsteve/elmar5.6.JPG http://home.istar.ca/~robsteve/noct5.6detail.JPG http://home.istar.ca/~robsteve/elmar5.6detail.JPG You may want to open these in pairs in multiple browser windows, so you can have them side by side or quickly click from one to the other. Thanks for your time and excuse the bandwidth if it doesn't interest you. It is raining today and I didn't have anything better to do. Regards, Robert Stevens