Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1999/08/31
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]OK, here is an unscientific theory for your comments. I agree that there is a special quality about leica lenses, but I'm not sure that we need to be quite so metaphysical in finding its source. Based on my observations, the Leica look is mostly just a combination of high edge-to-edge resolution coupled with slightly lower than average contrast. This gives those wonderfully smooth mid tones that I love so much and which you so rarely see produced by the small 35mm negatives. This smooth tonal gradation in turn gives the "3D look" that we rave about and I'm sure it's a positive contribitor to a nice bokeh also. Interestingly, I have seen bench test results (I don't recall the magazine, sorry) that slammed Leica lenses for having markedly lower contrast than some more inexpensive lenses - Nikon, Canon, Pentax, etc. I think that this is a clue to the different marketing strategies and design philosophies of the mass market brands versus Leica. Cheaper lenses can be made apparently sharper by increasing their contrast, and this in turn can make them seem better in a test report than they in fact are. Judging by the comments I read on the LUG, Leica users care more about the results on film and personally, I couldn't care less what some reviewer with his MTF machine says - cheaper lenses look too contrasty to me. They all look like prints that are printed a grade too high. If you have photoshop or a similar program you can experiment to see what I mean. Take a slightly unsharp image and increase its contrast and voila! it looks sharper. Now play with a portrait image's contrast. As long as the image is sharp a slightly lower contrast is generally more flattering. Go in the other direction and increase contrast a bit and you start to lose midtones and block up areas. Soon you have the look familiar to Nikon users - razor sharp edge definition, but much lost information in between. I suspect that Leica's approach is an expensive one. Without the high resolution lower contrast images would look awful. But done right, and to me Leica does it right, the results bring out the best in 35mm. Still, as I say, these comments are subjective and I'm sure the editors of XYZ Advertising-Supported Camera Magazine would disagree! Simon Stevens Camera Craftsman (703) 548-7548 http://www.camera-craftsman.com