Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2002/06/01

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Subject: Re: [Leica] Leica, medium format, and good enough
From: Christer Almqvist <chris@almqvist.net>
Date: Sat, 1 Jun 2002 13:09:26 +0200
References: <012d01c2090b$4c5f4f00$6501a8c0@oemcomputer>

Thank you Don for leading me back to the right path.
If I need more negative quality I will put my M6 on a tripod.
BTW have you read Barry Thornton's new book 'Edge of Darkness'?
It has a page of photos (48 of them!) taken with and without tripod, 
with and w/o lens lockup etc etc.
There a a lot of other hands on comparison too, lenses incl enlarger 
lenses, films, developers, grain magnifiers, you name it.
Barry has a website, it is his name dot com (I think)
The books publisher (Argentum; is that not Gibson?) is at www.aurumpress.co.uk
Chris

>There has been a recent thread about Leica quality and medium format at
>sizes to 11X14.  Its not that medium format doesn't have the potential for
>finer detail than Leica, it's how much trouble you have to go to make a
>difference and whether it's worth the effort for the project at hand.
>
>Yes, at middle apertures,(exception granted to certain 100mm or so F2 Zeiss
>lenses) using a tripod or studio lights you will get better detail with
>medium format.  Do the same with a 90 APO on E100SW and the differences will
>be small, very small.  Now, take that 6X7 out and do street photography or
>macro in the field and compare the results with what you can do with an M6
>or R8 and comparable lenses.  Let's all think about Tina in some abode in
>Honduras setting up the tripod for the extra detail: hold still for about 10
>seconds while the shutter is open! .  Obviously, if you are doing catalogue
>work in the studio you are using something with swings and tilts with a
>digital back
>
>Put another way, this is almost the same debate that started in the 30's and
>continued to the early 60's as photography moved from 8X10 and 4X5 to 120 in
>Rollie's and 35mm in Leica's, Contax's, and later Nikons.  As lenses and
>films improved most work moved to the next smaller format.  Even landscape
>calendar work is moving into medium format and some 35mm.
>
>Last, all of this is soon moot as digital takes over more and more work.
>With better capture devices and clever software interpolating what should be
>there the images will snap with fine detail.  Think about Adobe's healing
>brush algorithms in a digital camera to create texture from small samples.
>
>In summary, my point is that for most uses, what good technique can wring
>out of top notch 35mm(digital) will satisfy most uses in nature, journalism,
>macro, street, documentation, fashion, advertising, and now wedding.  Uses
>that require tremendous sizes, billboards, outdoor, vain art directors,
>catalogue, and calendar work , and artists will still go to medium and large
>format capture.
>
>Just trying to get back to photography :)
>
>Don
>dorysrus@mindspring.com
>
>
>
>--
>To unsubscribe, see http://mejac.palo-alto.ca.us/leica-users/unsub.html


- -- 
Christer Almqvist
D 20255 Hamburg and / or
F 50590 Regnéville sur Mer
- --
To unsubscribe, see http://mejac.palo-alto.ca.us/leica-users/unsub.html

In reply to: Message from "Don Dory" <dorysrus@mindspring.com> ([Leica] Leica, medium format, and good enough)