Re: [Leica] Mr Put's comments

[FIGLIO4CAP@aol.com]

In a message dated 01/16/2000 5:41:49 PM Eastern Standard Time, 
leicanikon@earthlink.net writes:

<< If Mike says he can't tell the difference, an experienced editor of a major
 photo magazine, I certainly don't expect I will be able to tell the
 difference either.   

Of course you can, if the the test is set up correctly.

I do not normally get involved with this kind of thing. However, I can tell 
you that the audio world has been arguing the objective/subjective thing for 
years with no conclusion generally accepted by anybody except that 
disagreement still persists.

However, I have run subjective tests of my own using a single role of 
Kodachrome 25.  There was no problem seeing the differences among Olympus, 
Nikon, Pentax and Leica slides when put side-by-side on a light table. The 
differences were especially noticeable in the color casts and details of 
shadow areas and the overall look of "hardness." BTW, with the exception of 
the Olympus lenses, I owned all of the equipment.  The slides were so 
interesting that George Knechtsberger, then the owner of the Photo-Cine shop 
in Philadelphia and a major leica dealer, used the slides for many years to 
show his customers the differences that different manufacturers designs 
produce. I compared the same focal length lenses at the same time (within 
minutes) with the same subject.

Subjective tests need to have as many variables held constant as possible to 
permit any kind of assumption of validity.  I doubt that what is being 
proposed as a "test" would have any control over extraneaous variables to the 
extent that valid results would be possible regarding the relative "looks" of 
the lenses being compared.

I also ran and still do run resolution tests both at the standard distance 
and at infinity settings on all of my lenses. I do this whenever I buy a 
lens, new or used.  I have had to send back several over the years, including 
Leica samples. 

Bob Figlio