[Leica] Old lens, new lens

[philippe.orlent at pandora.be (Philippe Orlent)]

It's a lot easier to soften an image because of too much detail than  
to get more detail out of a soft lens, though.
Optically, the Summilux looks a lot better, no?
Thanks for showing,
Philippe


Op 8-aug-07, om 08:46 heeft Peter Klein het volgende geschreven:

> Last weekend I took a few M8 shots of some friends as we hiked in a  
> Seattle park along the water in the late afternoon.  Among those  
> pictures were two, similarly lit, of the same three people, but  
> taken with two different lenses.  The size of the faces on the  
> images are almost the same, inviting comparison.
>
> One lens was an old Canon Serenar 50/1.8 from the 1950s, recently  
> CLAed by DAG.  The other was a current 35 Summilux ASPH.
>
> Take a look at these 100% crops of a face.  Put them side by side  
> if you can.  This is not a resolution contest.  It's simply a  
> comparison of how the lenses draw, under similar (not absolutely  
> identical) conditions.
>
> Here is the old Canon 50/1.8, 1/90 at f/11
> http://users.2alpha.com/~pklein/temp/L1001098-1to1-50-1_8Canon-w.jpg
>
> And here is the 35 Summilux ASPH, 1/180 at f/8.
> http://users.2alpha.com/~pklein/temp/L1001109-1to1-35LuxAsph-w.jpg
>
> Both were processed in Capture One with the same white balance  
> (5000K), and with sharpening at the first "notch."  Both are one  
> stop down from their best aperture.  Both shots used an IR filter  
> (I have a 40mm lens hood/Series VI filter holder for the Canon, and  
> the 39mm B+W IR filter fits in nicely).The warmer picture (the  
> Canon) was actually taken about an hour earlier, so the warmth is  
> in the lens, not the time of day.  Canon 1/90 at f/11, Lux Asph  
> 1/180 at f/8, both one stop narrower than their probable best  
> apertures.
>
> On the M8 sensor, the Lux is resolving a little bit more detail in  
> the hair.  But that's not what's really important.  The Canon has  
> less microcontrast, and there's a definite "glow" to the image.   
> It's also a much kinder lens.  The Lux ASPH is mercilessly sharp  
> and contrasty.
>
> My suspicion is at least one aspect of the elusive "Leica Glow" has  
> to do with the way that bright areas diffuse slightly into adjacent  
> dark areas. An optical "flaw," but one that has a very pleasant  
> effect under the right circumstances.
>
> On film, my favorite 50mm lens, the DR Summicron, draws very much  
> like the Canon. Which makes me all the more eager to try the latter  
> on the M8.  Anyway, Sean Reid is right, those old designs make  
> great sunny-day lenses. And they are a lot kinder to people over 25!
>
> --Peter
>
>
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