Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2004/07/08

[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]

Subject: [Leica] More Epson RD-1 pics
From: pklein at 2alpha.net (Peter Klein)
Date: Thu Jul 8 00:18:43 2004

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


Replies: Reply from bdcolen at earthlink.net (B. D. Colen) ([Leica] More Epson RD-1 pics)
Reply from daniel.ridings at muspro.uio.no (Daniel Ridings) ([Leica] More Epson RD-1 pics)