[Leica] New 35/1.4 ASPH?

[mark at rabinergroup.com (Mark Rabiner)]

> The current Summilux ASPH does do edges very hard, as Vince says. The
> way to get around that is not to sharpen at all in post-processing.  Or
> sometimes use another lens.
> 
> The focus shift is real.  I used to worry about it more until Henning
> advised me to ignore it. Now I will still compensate slightly at f/2.8-4
> if I can, but if I can't, I just focus on the closest thing I want in
> the focus zone and shoot anyway, and it's usually fine.  For five grand,
> I can continue to do that.
> 
> As to "sharpness as porn," it's kind of like Adam and Eve eating the
> apple. Once you've seen how sharp things can be, feel naked without it.
> You always want it.  Or you think you do. Often, I prefer a more classic
> rendering.  So I tell myself: "Self, shoot with your other lenses
> sometimes. They're sharp enough. Mandler and Kobashi know the old magic."
> 
> Just for fun, here are two galleries, one with the Summilux ASPH, one
> with the Nokton. Same place, same lighting, even some of the same people.
> 
> 35/1.4 Summilux ASPH:
> http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/pklein/friends/Rosa90/
> CV 35/1.2
> http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/pklein/friends/NewYear2010/
> 
> --Peter
> 
> Vince wrote:
>> 
>> The ASPH lenses in combo with the M8 and M9, which many luggers use,
>> sometimes border on the-almost-too-sharp to my eye.  Except in the widest
>> (big landscape/seascape) views they can lack subtlety -- there is a
>> tendency
>> for the more intimate pictures to look as if they were processed by an ad
>> agency for placement in Time. (I keep thinking they would look
>> astounding in
>> black and white however; perhaps Luis will fill that gap now that he's
>> gallavanting around with his M8.... ) The pictures these newer lenses take
>> of clouds and the sky's infinitely various colors are amazing -- but those
>> are soft things. The hard edges of the world seem with these lenses to be
>> harder even than they are: as in cinema and other art forms, there's a
>> possibility we've reached the natural end of the mimetic impulse in art, a
>> 10,000 year progression -- in that we can now do reality better than
>> reality
>> can do itself. Which makes the experience just a little pornographic.
>> 
>> Just some Sunday ruminations, with fleisch all too well sitzed.
>> 


I mainly don't go along with the ASPH's being too sharp and edgy and bad
Bokeh kind of thing. Can a lens be to good really? I think hand holding and
fast films  and bad technique (too slow shutter speeds and missed focus and
not diluted enough solvent developers)*neutralize any overly hard edge the
glass might have it it had it and I don't think it does. I think if it did
it would be bad lens design. And the vibe I get from Leica, Peter and Vince,
and I went there and checked it out and saw it and talked to the people and
touched everything and took pictures. ... And the vibe I get from Leica and
I've read all kind of big fat books about it; is that they know what the
heck they are doing when it comes to designing a lens. That's what they DO
KNOW.  When you're their on the tour they call themselves in so many terms
"a lens making company" I hope the CEO agrees with the tour guides but it
all makes sense to me.
These people have forgotten more about lens design than we're ever going to
totally know.
For people who already had a set of glass when the ASPH's came out than this
"too sharp bad Bokeh" rap meant their glass was still ok. As if it wasn't ok
in the first place. As if there was a law saying they had to trade it all in
for the newest cutting edge stuff or they'd die.
I'm looking for the sharpest and highest contrast lens I can possibly find
as is any commercial photographer or fine art photographer or PJ with half a
clue as what they were doing. The good news is in most cases we're going to
get it anyway. Its getting hard to find a poorly designed lens. The good
news is also that its not that complicated if you have the bucks the best
lens your going to get is this latest offering from Leica of the latest
generation of their glass design technology. They have not gone too far.
Their glass is not "too sharp"  or "harsh" now. They are not stupid.

[Rabs]
Mark William Rabiner

* and bad enlarger glass or old or dirty
Out of alignment enlargers;
Bad scanning, Photoshopping and printing.