Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2000/11/02
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]A couple of weeks ago I picked up a repaired Leica lens. The guy who run the shop also did some Photographic work for a couple of advertising agencies. We got talking and he showed me some of his work. He used only the best available equipment and the resulting images showed it. One of the color prints. about 1.5m x 60cm (in landscape form) showed a City skyline with a great big airplane superimposed on to it. The print was that sharp, you could see at the right upper edge looking out of a sky scraper window, a bloke picking his nose. It was about the sharpest macro contrasity most impressive print I had seen. I was just overwhelmed. After doing all the right aaahs and oohs, I left and promptly forgot all about it. I see this guys work sometimes at the airport terminals, when I arrive after a flight. I look at it, and worry if my luggage arrived. Last week my wife and I went to a small french cafe shop in the centre of Melbourne. Inside on the walls where about 40 or so prints by Henri Cartier Bresson. Looking at this prints, and you could not help it, made me feel like I was somewhere in France. At times in the country and at times in the city. Now, this guy used photographic equipment which, by the modern technocrats would be knocked and despised as old and unusable. When looking at this prints, at no time was I overcome by the urge to go with my magnifying glass to check if the edge sharpness was up to scratch. Nor did I see anybody else rushing over to do this. The images made you look at the relevant area. They where full of feeling and haven't left my mind since I saw them. I really believe, that if this pictures where taken with the latest 500000 lines/mm super contrast apo-dapo lens, the result would have been less impressive. What I trying to say is: There is a place for all the different photographic equipment. It depends what your needs are. I suppose for today's professional, it is a must to have the latest and best equipment. The professional can not afford to take chances. it is his lively hood. The professional in his spare time or the amateur (who of course also likes to have the latest equipment if he can our could afford it) can use existing, sometimes fairly old equipment and get results. Often the results don't match up technically to the ones taken with the latest equipment. but if the motive is good and the picture has the power to impress, who cares if it is not technically perfect. By the way, who decides what is technically perfect. The above was in no way intended to knock or belittle the latest lens or camera performance. Not at all. The intention was to defend the notion, held by some, that only the latest in technology is usable and all the rest is crapp and that only the lines/mm count. I maintain, that I get a better and more pleasing print when taken with my (luckily coated) Summar, than with the latest Summicron when shooting an extremely contrasty scene. Example: A bright sunny day in a forest when the sun comes from the side, or of an Australian dusty dry country town. Try it and you may agree. On the other hand the Summar can often not compare with an evening scene, taken wide open with the Summicron.