Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2000/06/01

[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]

Subject: RE: [Leica] Film flatness and sharpness...
From: "Henning J. Wulff" <henningw@archiphoto.com>
Date: Thu, 1 Jun 2000 21:46:06 -0700

At 7:57 PM -0400 6/1/00, Austin Franklin wrote:
>> In medium format, film flatness becomes a
>> problem. What you gain is mostly smoother tones, not
>> sharpness. It's a trade-off.
>
>That is complete crap.  How about you show me a print done with a MF camera
>that shows a problem that was caused by film flatness.  Of course this can
>POSSIBLY happen on the first neg of a roll that was partially used, and was
>sitting for a while, but other than that, it isn't a REAL problem that
>anyone normally needs to worry about.
>
>Also, have you ever REALLY compared a MF enlargement to a 35mm enlargement,
>of the same film for 'sharpness'?  If you haven't, then how can you say MF
>is not equally as sharp, if not even shaper than 35?  I shoot both MF and
>35, and love my Leica, but beyond 11x14, it can't compete with my MF
>negatives.

Austin, we've been over this. Film flatness is an issue; I've proven it
sufficiently to myself (and I believe myself in this objective test :-)). I
shoot a lot of MF, in various ways. 35mm film is flatter, not doubt about
it. On the other hand, the bottom line is that MF with decent technique
will produce better (smoother, 'sharper') photos than 35, so we still agree
where it counts.

   *            Henning J. Wulff
  /|\      Wulff Photography & Design
 /###\   mailto:henningw@archiphoto.com
 |[ ]|     http://www.archiphoto.com

Replies: Reply from "Henning J. Wulff" <henningw@archiphoto.com> (Re: [Leica] Film flatness and sharpness...)
Reply from Mark Rabiner <mark@rabiner.cncoffice.com> (Re: [Leica] Film flatness and sharpness...)
Reply from Rich Lahrson <tripspud@wenet.net> (Re: [Leica] Film flatness and sharpness...)