Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2006/12/07

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

Subject: [Leica] High ISOs Comparison
From: red735i at earthlink.net (Frank Filippone)
Date: Thu Dec 7 20:04:55 2006

Doug, with all respect... BS......

The average user uses D76 1:1 if he is sophisticated, and straight if he is 
not.  The esoteric user tries Pyrocat HD in ( I forget,
some other chemical....)  But it is not the esoteric user that buys a M8.... 
 It is your average every day Doctor, Lawyer or Indian
Chief.... someone with financial assets to spend $5K on a digital camera to 
take pictures of Little Dora Sue.....  ( Pink party
dress and all.... )

You can always find someone who tries out some weird combination of 
chemistry ( I read about a guy that developed his film in
coffee.....) and got a result.  So what?  ...   Would you like to try out 
Vitamin C ( basis of Xtol) or Pyro ( around for roughly
100 years)......?  I have heard of both used ... 

But SW changes faster than known chemistry changes...   If you try to keep 
up with the technology advances, you will get mired down
in trying stuff instead of making images.... and isn't that what the camera 
is all about   Making Images?

What Tina is doing is fine for Tina.... But I personally have no intention 
of going through 7 different SW programs and their ( 2 to
the 7th or 128) combinations  to find a mix that makes my M-whatever work 
like it is advertised.  And I bet that even in the LUG,
there are fewer than a handful that want to go through as much trouble as 
she already has.....  Never mind that EACH of these
programs costs money, and takes time to try out.....and will be around and 
supported  for some indeterminate  time.  Mind you, Tina
has not yet found the magic bullet to equal what another camera has shown is 
possible.... 

Let me say all of this some other way.... In RAW files, the data form each 
pixel is measured and recorded.  If you view those
pixels, you get an accurate rendition of what the sensor saw.  Why is ANY SW 
tweaking necessary?  Where do the original pixels go?
Where do the new pixels come from?  Why does program X not give the same 
results as program Y?  I don't need this grief to take
images....and most users don't want it either.

The point is to make it easy for the user, the AVERAGE user. To get results 
like the factory claims are possible.

Factory SW and no tweaks.  If that does not work to the factory optimum, 
then the factory is missing the boat, and the users will
gravitate away.....  Canon or Nikon win....

AA used the film and developers that were supplied to him by his sponsors.  
These included Dupont, Kodak, Polaroid, and Ansco.  He
was a practical man that put his family first.... food on the table.

Rant off.....


Frank Filippone
red735i@earthlink.net 



I think what we're seeing here is that with film lots of the poorer
combinations of emulsions and development have already been tried and
rejected; the process has been tested and results analyzed enough over the
decades that there's already a vast body of knowledge to draw on.  Digital
image processing is still relatively new and with each new camera we're
back at the bottom of its learning curve, just like with a new film or
developer.

> ... given all the different possibilities, how do you find the "best"
workflow for 
> each?  Try all the combinations out?

This is exactly what Adams and many others did for
film/exposure/development, and what Tina is now doing with the 5D and M8.




Replies: Reply from abridge at gmail.com (Adam Bridge) ([Leica] High ISOs Comparison)
Reply from telyt at earthlink.net (Douglas Herr) ([Leica] High ISOs Comparison)
In reply to: Message from telyt at earthlink.net (telyt@earthlink.net) ([Leica] High ISOs Comparison)