[Leica] technique again

[Erwin Puts <imxputs@knoware.nl>]

There are some remarkably stubborn misconceptions aired on this list recently.
First: an MTF graph is not a single merit figure or a meaningless 
reduction of the optical quality of a lens to one single parameter. 
The MTF graph is the best condensed information you can have about 
the total aberration content of a lens. It is the measure of image 
degradation to be expected from any lens. And you can,like it or not, 
extrapolate from an MTF graph to the empirical results attainable 
with a lens in the field. Some posters seem to be unwilling to to do 
and that is their right. But if some person does not want to do 
something does that imply it is a worthless or meaningless approach?
Second: there seems to be an approach to dichotomize any topic: you 
can either be a tester of lenses or you can be a real world 
photographer, but not both, you are either a scientist or an 
empiricist, but not both, you test with supposedly meaningless test 
charts or you test with real life objects, but not both.
There is also a tendency on this list that quantity of experience is 
worth more than quality of investigation. Some persons note that they 
have shot thousands rolls of film or have been spending ten thousands 
of hours in the darkroom. Well that is fine, but as Seven of Nine 
would say; that information is irrelevant.
To give an example: I have been driving motorcycles for 25 years and 
clocked up half a million kilometers in all kinds of weather and road 
conditions. Does that make me an experienced driver? Does that give 
me any advantage when discussing motorcylce driving technique with 
some else. Nonsense of course. People have believed for thousands of 
years that the earth is flat and thousands of seamen have told the 
world that they with years and years of experience of sailing the 
high sees have seen no evidence that the earth should be curved. 
Experience is nice, but it is no substitute for scientific 
investigation. If one  wishes to put experience above any other type 
of fact finding, so be it. To deny the validity of the scientific 
approach in matters photographic, or to deny that theory and practice 
can successfully enhance each other illustrates an obsolete attitude. 
And to imply that 10.000 hours of darkroom work should be counted as 
more valuable or information-rich than 100 hours of controlled 
testing is just a pipe dream.

I now have a hundred rolls of Kodachrome on my desk, and I will 
vanish from this list for a longer period and continue with my 
personal photography of stray cats in small villages in France. A 
personal assignment I am conducting for the last 25 years.

Erwin