Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1998/02/01

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Subject: Re: [Leica] Summicron-M 50mm or Summilux-M 50mm?
From: Erwin Puts <imxputs@knoware.nl>
Date: Sun, 1 Feb 1998 23:36:24 +0100

>>So in most practical
>>situations you can not use the full optical potential of this lens and
>>therefore not run up to its optical limits.
>>Erwin
>>
>>
>Huh?
>
>Erwin, could you please explain this a bit? I must confess I am not a
>technical expert, so I do not fully understand what you are saying.
>
>BTW: it was mainly your excellent site that got me over from Nikon to the
>Leica world.
>:-)
>
>Pascal

Well Pascal,
Thanks for your kind words. It is however not my intention to have people
change brands. My position is simple: all four brands (Leica, Contax, Nikon
and Canon) procuse excellent and sometimes great products. The discussion
about which one is the best, is bottomline just futile. What I try to do,
is help people understand the characteristics of Leica cameras, in order to
make intelligent and rational choices about the kind of pictures they can
expect and the style of photography best suited to the Leica camera.

Now then your question. I do agree that is a bit technospeak, excuse me for
this. Sometimes I am too enthousiastic. In plain words: the contrast and
resolution of a lens will always be degraded when shooting pictures
handheld. This is even true if you use shutter speeds of 1/125 or even
1/250. At speeds below 1/60 the trembling of the hands and yes! your
heartbeat will 'shake' the camera severely. The resolution and contrast
will drop to quite low levels. At least to levels where it is impossible to
record 30lp/mm with any decent degree of sharpness. Fine details will be
blurred etc. If you would like to see the quality of any lens at ful
aperture you have to use a tripod or shoot at 1/500 or use electronic
flash.
When I did practical tests with the Noctilux knowledgeable passersby
laughed at me when they saw me taking pictures on a tripod with a f1 lens.I
must confess that my pictures shot at 1/15 with the Noctilux do not reveal
the same level of fine detail I can record when on tripod. (excluding
chance factors: when my article in Phototechniques will be published you
might see a 'lucky' shot at a full 1 second.
Erwin