Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1999/08/02
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Now and then I secure an image that I think perfectly represents the signature of a lens. This afternoon, I was scanning some stuff that I shot last summer with a IIIf and collapsible Summicron, using Kodak T400CN. My brother and I were visiting our father in Indiana, and I caught this over the morning coffee. There's a wonderful clarity to the Summicron image, even though in some ways it appears a bit *soft.* What's remarkable is that the detail is crisp under high magnification, but that the whole composition has this ineffable *old* Summicron look: luminous, astonishing contrast (given the age of the lens), just a wonderful photographic character. It's odd. When folk ask me why I like Leica, this is the sort of thing I'd bring out: fifty-year-old technology. I'd be curious to know whether other members of the LUG have their own 'reference' images--I'm not talking mere sharpness here, but, rather images that perfectly capture the gestalt of M or R photography. Image at: http://www.wm.edu/CAS/ASP/faculty/brown/photography/people/matt.htm yrs. Chandos Chandos Michael Brown Assoc. Prof., History and American Studies College of William and Mary http://www.wm.edu/CAS/ASP/faculty/brown