Re: [Leica] The Noctilux and toy cameras: cousins of the surreal

["Dan Post" <dpost@triad.rr.com>]

Mark-
Get a prewar, uncoated Summar! Same 'dreamy' look without the great expense,
and it's a WHOLE lot cheaper!
Use it with soem slow film, wide open!
True, I lusted for a Noctilux, but find that in all but a very few
situation, I can get by with the Summarit. The Nocti is one of those
's[ecial' lenses that with just a small increase in aperture, provide images
that are hard to believe. It is as if that small change in aperture was
somehow magnified by a factor of two or three!! I have gotten images on
color film with the Nocti that looked like there was added light- the venue
was so dark I had trouble focusing, even with an M3 and no bright LEDs in
the VF! The results showed details that I never saw when I was there taking
the shot!
My only problem is that it IS expensive, and it would be used rarely, so
Ireally can't justify getting one- though my wife was so impressed with some
of the shots that she actually said, " Maybe we ought to get you one of
these!!"  I nearly dropped my Knockando!

As an aside,  I always wondered why people remarked on the lack of flare in
the Nocti, but decided that there were two resons- one, the lens works below
the threshhold of flare- it works best when there is not enough light to
make flare! Two, I think that anything approaching flare is sucked into the
lens by some arcane Teutonic Elven magic, and channelled into the image.
Leica will not admit it, but deep in some mountain, some relative of Loki is
grinding cullet from old Leica lenses, mixing it with sands from the shore
from the river Styx, adding a little moonlight, and forging the elements of
the Noctilux, and then leaving them on the doorsteps of Leica, to be found
in the morning and turned into Noctiluxs!

Dan ( Work with me! Talk to the camera, Baby!) Post
>
> Come to think of it, maybe I'll go get some slow film, a 2 stop neutral
> density filter, and try taking wideopen Noctilux photos in broad daylight.
> Maybe the shots will look like they came out of a toy camera!
>
> Mark Davison
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