Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2000/05/24
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]As a longtime but always hurried lurker and first-time poster I hope you will all bear with a lengthy post. Please also forgive me if I do not enter into any ensuing discussion - I offer this for what it is worth, penned during a brief moment. I took advantage of the indulgence of the fellows in the local branch of London Camera Exchange last week to do a "real world" test on the Cosina 35mm F1.7 lens against the Leica 35mm F2 Asph. Using the film that happened to be in my camera at the time - dead ordinary HP5 - I shot a quick snap of John the salesman - interior, grunge fluorescent lighting at between F2.8 and F4 @1/125. Then two exteriors - - a "busy and messy" shot of people, traffic lights, etc., and a "resolution" shot of a building across the road with a pronounced stonework pattern, etched windows, carved lintels, decorative carving etc. (Victorian). Both of the above were grabbed at 1/500 at apertures of F8. I processed the film as usual in Xtol 1:1 and printed at 16X12 on Agfa multicontrast premium - glass carrier, Nikkor 2.8 enlarger lens, "grade 2" (we know that is a merely notional point in dichroic and other systems). So, allowing for camera shake, possible fractional enlarger misalignment invisible through my Peak finder(?), the fact that the Nikkor lens intervenes in the chain, etc. etc. (very much a "real world" test, as I say) what could one see? The first interesting point is that all the Ultron shots seemed to print about 1/8 of a stop "lighter" than the Summicron (despite the fact that the arrows in the M6 indicated the same exposure). This might suggest a less "massive" or "contrasty" look on the part of the Cosina (consistent with Leica's reputation). When adjusted down minutely so the overall tones looked similar, it was VERY difficult to tell the shots apart - when I took the prints back to the shop, both John and the manager Jason on snap viewings correctly identified the Leica unerringly on the interior and the "messy" exterior. In the former the "3d" effect of the modeling of the bone-structure of John's forehead was clearly visible, as was the clean line of his shoulder separated from a smoothly blurred background. On the messy exterior, too, the smoothness, 3-dimensionality and "weight" of the Leica image were evident - the fine serrated edge of a tiled roof at around 500 metres also showing up where the Cosina rendered a grainy sky and "smoothed off" tiles. Both John and Jason were unable to guess on the "resolution" test. However on closer examination the differences are clearly there, too - for example the faint texture of a frosted window, shown "3d" by the Leica and as sludge by the Cosina... But you really have to look and know what you are looking for! This is a very rough test with fast film, home processing, etc. etc. And (because of Leica's reputation and "character") we knew what we were looking for. So I make no claims for scientific value! At F1.7 there would be no contest, of course, so perhaps a fairer test should have been Cosina vs. Summilux (but this was after all a "real world" test by a relatively impecunious would-be purchaser). Finally, a very good rangefinder with lovely ergonomics would have blown any or all of these images to smithereens (I refer of course to the Mamiya 7). Which makes the game of obsessing about minutiae in what was and remains a "miniature" format a little silly. And yet..... what is "rightness" in 35mm? A huge and complex question (Why do I like Tri-x? Why do I take better pictures with the ergonomically challenged M6 than with the boy-racer F5? Why do I prefer Shwarzkopf to Te Kanawa...?) As for this little test, my own feeling is simple - I am going the financial distance and buying the Leica lens. Not only because is does not require a screw-to-bayonet adapter and has that nice focusing tab and a better hood and is just a little bit more solidly made.... As our transatlantic brethren say - "go figure...." - ---------------------- Peter Metelerkamp Programme Director MA in Film and Television Production University of Bristol peter.metelerkamp@bris.ac.uk