On 7/7/2010 1:32 AM, Wayne Harridge wrote:
> I guess you'll have to show us a side-by-side comparison of this lens with a
> few others, same subject, lighting, etc. just different lenses. I'd be
> interested to see a demonstration of the Leica difference.
I seldom say anything about it, but I'm bemused by all the comments about lens,
film, sensor, etc. based on 800-ish
pixel web images.
It seems to me that the data has been through a lot, then is down sampled,
losing most of the data, then perhaps
sharpened for size, adding derivative data. How can anything tiny or subtle
survive. Although I suppose if it does, it
must be really special?
I have a few images that just knock my socks off full screen on a 22" monitor.
Sample 'em down to 800x600, even
1024x768, and some look pretty good. Some don't really cut it, as they have too
much small detail that either disappears
or becomes to prominent or edgy.
Some stuff looks really good at small size, but that's to do with
subject/treatment, as with painted miniatures, etc.
Certainly doesn't have much to do with the lens used. I've taken images that
are distinctly soft full size, whether lens
or motion blur, and made very sharp web sized images from them.
It's not that I think there aren't differences, just that I don't think most of
them can be distinguished in full frame
images downsized to the web. One obvious exception is bad bokeh.
Here's an eight year old Mike Johnston take on a bunch of 50mm lenses. I have
no particular doubt about what he says
about all but one of them*. I just don't think those differences an be seen in
the illustrations. In fact, I'll bet if
someone mixed them all around, nobody could tell the difference.
Well, yeah, certain folks would project their opinions and proclaim that the
putative Leica images had a special glow.
Scramble 'em up and play match lens with image, and I'll bet the results with a
big group would be random. You know,
maybe that 50/3.5 portrait does have a little magic glow ...
A. Skeptical Moose
* He clearly hasn't used the Zuiko 50/3.5 Macro for actual macro.
--
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