Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2000/06/14
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]I've been looking at some of my old Noctilux shots, and mulling over the toy camera thread. Here's my two cents. There is a delicious irony in comparing an M camera with a Noctilux and plastic toy cameras. If you shoot a Noctilux wide open, you will get slightly surreal, watery images, where very little is in focus (the depth of field is very thin) and there is marked light fall-off towards the edge. These images bring to mind many of the old soft focus pictures of the pictorial school of photography, and they are remarkably similar (at least in overall effect) to the images you get from toy cameras in broad daylight. Now there are differences with the Noctilux: there is remarkable resistance to flare, subtle color gradations can be discerned, and the small amount of the image that is in focus is quite clear, (although I'm sure Erwin Puts would tell us the micro-contrast suffers compared to the Summicron 50 at f2.) Both toy cameras and the Nocti wide open can be used to convey a dream-like nostalgia in an image. The Nocti is peculiarly capable of mimicing the property of human vision in dim light, where your detailed vision (from the color rods and cones) is still operating, but starting to fade. For both systems it is easy to stray into creating images which are maudlin or kitsch, so beware. For family momentos, kitsch is sometimes good. Just what grandma ordered. And no, it is not easy to reproduce the artistic effects described here with high-quality point and shoots with fixed focal length lenses. (I've got a Nikon 35Ti with a 35/2.8 so I speak with experience, if not magisterial authority.) When there is enough light for the point and shoot, the image is too darn clear, and doesn't fall off towards the edges at all. Where there is not enough light, the image is just smeared out from camera shake. Not the same thing at all. Whether or not you can justify (to yourself) the cost/weight/size of the Nocti in your bag depends on whether you like the effect and whether you do a lot of low light photography. There is certainly no reason to be snobbish about all this, and pretend the Noctilux is necessary for available light photography. I sometimes talk to ordinary folks who are dissatisfied with the flash pictures of their kids that they are getting out of their point and shoots. If they are looking for something better, I recommend just about any SLR whose flash can be turned off (or doesn't have one), a 50/1.4 prime, and some 800 speed color print film. My advice is usually ignored, but there it is. My sister's husband got some beautiful newborn photographs with such an SLR rig. The Noctilux is a special lens, with a special look, for the dedicated professional or deluded enthusiast such as myself. Come to think of it, maybe I'll go get some slow film, a 2 stop neutral density filter, and try taking wideopen Noctilux photos in broad daylight. Maybe the shots will look like they came out of a toy camera! Mark Davison