Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1999/08/02
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]I have the same setup- IIIf and collapsable Summicron, and the results are always pleasing! There are times when I am torn between using the SL, the M3 or the IIIf since they all give beautiful results! The older glass, though, does have a certain 'je ne sais quoi'- you can't really say it's the softness, because they are sharp, or that there is a glow- that sounds too much like flare! They have contrast, sharpness.... I guess that is what bokeh really is, in it's totality Nice shot-wqs it scanned directly from a negative or from a print? Dan - ----- Original Message ----- From: Chandos Michael Brown <cmbrow@mail.wm.edu> To: <leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us> Sent: Monday, August 02, 1999 10:13 PM Subject: [Leica] optical essentialism > 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 >