[Leica] new lens info for 90 guys

[mark at rabinergroup.com (Mark Rabiner)]

On 7/12/06 6:59 PM, "Henning Wulff" <henningw@archiphoto.com> typed:

> At 4:14 PM -0400 7/12/06, Tina Manley wrote:
>> At 11:53 AM 7/12/2006, you wrote:
>>  The one stop of extra performance didn't make sense for the money and 
>> weight
>>>    *            Henning J. Wulff
>> 
>> It does if you need the extra stop ;-)  The 85/1.2 and 24/1.4 are my
>> two favorite Canon lenses.
>> 
>> Tina
> 
> Certainly, Tina

I get better low light results from cheap slow all purpose variable aperture
do all be all zooms then I ever got from my Noctilux which is the lens Tina
used to back very convincingly here on the lug with example as well as word.
And others of us put our best word, upload or tales of long hard experience.

But those Noctili become formidable short teles with an APS-C or close to it
format. On the soon to be visible M8 if that's what they are going to call
it. I'd call it the MD-1 With the ultra thin edge and superlative Bokeh this
classic modern major investment gives us those of us who've not pawned ours
off for 10 gig compact flash cards.. Short teles being what we are talking
about here.

Ultra fast glass is not about letting a lot of light in so much anymore with
CCD's doing what the do. They might as well be thought of as a NVD. A Night
vision device. 
A need for "speed". The shutter speed that extra light gives us is about
trying to achieve the razor thin or close to it DOF which concentrates ones
attention on the one thing. All figure - no ground. That person at the
podium microphone stand. With the microphone out of focus.

They could be in Bangkok or Peru, New Jersey you could mix and or match it
all looks the same. Bokeh-like underpainting behind the person at the mike.
I'm glad to see more detail in backgrounds now on the covers of newspapers
with the mostly unavoidable DOF we're getting from the APS-C format most of
the images we see anywhere are shot with. I'm glad to have more of a feeling
of "place" we get from the busier backgrounds. I love busy backgrounds.
Busier the better. In focus even. I love slow compact unobtrusive glass.

But I'm surprised that this direct comparison between the not all that fast
from a modern perspective f2 short teles and ultra fast f1.2 or ever 1.4's
short teles. ... Which seem to have twice the outer air to glass surface.
>From a flair standpoint the slower lens is a far crunchier apple to the
slurpy orange orange ultrafasts. Its just not a fair comparison. I just
ignore flair comparisons here but would pay attention to just about any
other imaging characteristic. How great the want adds look. 3d objects in
space. Bokeh smear tests at the same F stop.

If the sun was not behind me I'd not care to stop down an ultra fast a stop
or more if I had a slower lens with a modest outer air to glass surface in
my camera bag.  If flair was an issue at all. A small lens. Compact. With an
as long as possible lens shade with velvet on the inside!!!

Mork in New York