[Leica] leica sharpness

[Guy Bennett <guybnt@idt.net>]

mark and henry,

i'm not talking about portraits and whether or not they should be taken
with super-sharp lenses. in that respect, i'm for whatever makes a more
interesting image (and i love chuck close!). i'm talking about the quality
of super-sharp lenses (like the 35 summicron asph or elmarit 24 asph) in
general shooting, and my opinion is that the sharpness sometimes seems
excessive.

don't get me wrong: i appreciate the fact that, wide open in low light,
those lenses will give fantastic results with excellent definition, hard
edges and strong contrast. that said, there are times when i don't want
that, when i'd like a little more softness, and i'm not talking about
diffusion filters, vaseline or olive oil, but rather the more lyrical
quality that the current summicron 50 has, or that summarit is also capable
of giving.

in spite of the typical scuttlebut, i find that the summarit (or at least
*my* summarit) can and does produce sharp images. they inevitably lack the
contrast of the current summicron 50 - which can be problematic in low
light situations - but they are sharp. my summarit images also have a
smooth, creamy quality that is absolutely beautiful, imo. now, i'm not
saying that this type of result is superior to or more desirable than
aspherical sharpness, it's just different. and there are times when that
difference is exactly what i want.

as i wrote in my original post, i'm not saying i would trade the current
asph lenses for the preceeding models, but i *am* interested in what the
older lenses have to offer, and use them when i want what they give.
finally, i don't think i would buy a summicron asph 50, if they ever made
one: i love too much the quality of images produced with the current model.
when i printed my first images shot with that lens, i understood what made
leica lenses special. call it 'bokeh,' the 'leica glow,' or what-have-you:
it's that lyrical quality - and not sharpness - that distinguishes leica
images, for me at least.

guy