Re: [Leica] optics for digital

[chmilar@mminternet.com]

This is a great paper! Very interesting reading.

One phrase is especially interesting:

  Otherwise, it can happen that good optics with high
  modulation are judged to be worse than inferior
  optics with a lower modulation.

The quote is about the relationship of a lens with
a given resolution and high modulation to the
resolution of the final capture medium. If the
frequency of the image being resolved onto the
medium roughly matches the medium's frequency,
and the modulation is high, the lens' performance
appears to decrease. (This is due to aliasing
behavior.)

Film is a little nicer than a digital sensor, in
that its structure provides some nice anti-aliasing,
but it may have the same artifact if your lens and
film combo hit the right sweet spot.

Given that the modern Leica optics seem to be
designed to increase high-frequency modulation,
this may be one reason why users are complaining
about the "bokeh" and apparent lower depth of field
of what should be Leica's technically best lenses.

Increasing the resolution of the film would be
one solution. Or smear some vaseline on the lens.


George Lottermoser <imagist@concentric.net> said:

> For all techies who have found interest in the
> optical requirements of digital - Schneider has
> a white paper on their thoughts:
> 
>
<http://www.schneideroptics.com/info/white_papers/optics_for_digital_photography.pdf>

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