Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2004/07/08
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Something peculiar about the RD-1 review pics posted this morning. It is very hard to tell the exact point of focus in many of the pictures. One thing is for sure, it is not the model's eyes most of the time. Is this due to the photographer's unfamiliarity with RF, or because of the short RF baselength? I would assume the former, as I've seen plenty of well-focused close-up Bessa R and R2 pictures with wide-open fast 50mm lenses, and even with 90mm lenses. Apart from the obvious operator error, I feel the same disorientation in these pictures that I feel when I see pictures taken by a mediocre high-speed lens, wide open. A graph of the relative focus vs. distance is a broad hump rather than a sharp peak, and nothing looks exactly in focus If the RD-1 samples are RAW images, converted to JPG but not sharpened, that would explain things. The problem could also be an overly aggressive anti-aliasing filter, or unfinished in-camera software. What bothers me is that most of the RD-1 pictures we've seen so far have this soft look. Something about the review cameras is either unfinished or not right. All this tells me that we can't really judge the final camera by these pictures. There are just too many unknowns. And the Altavista Babelfish translation is more amusing than helpful. When squeezing lens, software impression becomes sharpness. Uh-huh. . . And please not be disturbed by delicate indistinction eyelashes of most attractive model. Meanwhile, I would suggest downloading a few photos and applying the same small amount of unsharp mask to each. I did, and things started to look better. This may give a better idea of what finished photos might look like. But eyelashes still in bokeh-land. --Peter "Lost in Translation" Klein Seattle, WA