[Leica] Crude Film/Digital test, Leica/Canon

["Aram Langhans" <langhans@compwrx.com>]

A friend bought a 10D and brought it over for a test drive.  I downloaded a
test chart and we had at it.  We posted two test charts about 2 meters
apart.  I put a 50 Summicron lens on my R8 and he used a zoom with a top
range of 35 on his 10D (I am not sure what zoom it was).  That gave
approximately the same coverage.  We backed up so one chart was dead center
and the other one at the edge of the frame.  Took a shot at f-8.  I was
using Velvia and he saved his in the highest quality jpeg, one step below
Raw.  He used manual focus as did I.  We both used tripods and mirror
lock-up.  We really wanted to do this outside, but it was raining and windy.
Couldn't wait as he was leaving the next day for two weeks vacation.  Here
are the results of the target at the center of the frame.  We shot at f-4,
5.6 and 8.  I used the f-8 version because I thought it would compensate for
any focus problem a bit more than the rest. The light in the hallway was
quite dim and the exposures at f-8 are about 2 seconds for me and about 1
second for him (ISO 50 vs 100)

http://www.compwrx.com/langhans/test/f8.jpg  Canon on left and Leica on
right.

When he returns, I want to do this again.  I hope he had a focus problem ,
but I did too.   My edge target turned out to be sharper than the center
target because I used the vertical molding at the edge of a door by the edge
to focus on.   He took some at f-4, 5.6 and 8 and they were all a bit soft
and didn't seem to improve with stopping down, so I am thinking the softness
is due more to the camera lens/digital than with a focusing error.  He
obviously had the color balance set to auto or something because the colors
are fairly true as opposed to mine.  I scanned mine on my Minolta Dual Scan
II at the maximum resolution of 2820 and did no processing, no sharpening or
color balance.  This is a straight scan.  I am not sure if his camera was
set for any post processing.  He told me all he did was dump the image from
the card and mail it to me.

I can't wait for him to come back from his trip so we can play with this
more in a more controlled fashion.  I thought his image would be very close
to mine and I am surprised at the difference in this crude test.

Aram

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