Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1998/04/09

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Subject: RE: [Leica] Cool Leica Pictures-uncool exchanges
From: Five Senses Productions <fls@5senses.com>
Date: Thu, 09 Apr 1998 09:02:43 -0700

I looked at the photo you refer to and it looks, at first glance, as good
as something off a PhotoCD.  Very high quality!

At 07:06 AM 4/9/98 +0200, Alan Ball wrote:
>When I started this, I certainly did not expect it to turn into such an 
>agressive thread. The doubts I expressed were related to the rendition of a 
>few images published on a Web  page. The link to that Web page was 
>communicated to the LUG by a LUG member under the subject field "Cool Leica 
>Pictures".
>
>After visiting that page and looking carefully at the images, I had a 
>reaction that I have often had looking at images on the Web: they render 
>poorly under my (quite standard) digital and Web visualizing tools. The Web 
>technology strips the 'technology' added value out of them IMHO. I maintain 
>that they would not have rendered very differently ON THE WEB if they had 
>been shot through a low price P/S. You are well aware that there are good 
>quality low price P/S options out there. They do not require flash on every 
>image, they have good lenses, opening at f2.8, with good contrast and 
>definition, with low flare, they have good metering systems, and quite 
>frankly you can get good 'decisive moment' images out of them, even if it 
>is much easier to do so with a M6.
>
>So, this thread was about the dangers of using the Web as a showcase 
>vehicle in the framework of exchanges related to the illustration of the 
>high potential of Leica (or Nicapentolta).
>
>Some answers to the questions I raised have given useful information on 
>compression technology and new file formats, others have insisted on the 
>fact that each Web user owning a Leica should at the very least own a high 
>end graphical workstation before surfing the Web.
>
>As I have suggested in an earlier post here, please visit the Nikon Coolpix 
>900 page. It could have published under a page called 'Cool leica 
>Pictures', and I believe most of us/you LUGgers would have waxed extatic on 
>how beautiful they are. They really are. ON THE WEB. Check: 
>http://www.nikonusa.com/products/imaging/images/moosebird.jpg and the other 
>images in that folder.
>
>Alan
>Brussels-Belgium
>
>
>On Thursday, April 09, 1998 1:24 AM, Robert Rose [SMTP:RJR@usip.com] wrote:
>> I have been watching this thread with some disbelief.
>>
>> How could anyone claim that these pictures could have been taken with a 
>P&S camera?
>>
>> The focus motor, shutter, flash pop, and wind level on most P&S is so 
>loud that the subject would be distracted.  The zoom motor sound would have 
>made the boy look at the camera, and the woman turn her head, turning the 
>image into a diary record, something !
>> other than what it is now.
>>
>> The flare of most P&S cameras would have made shooting with the light 
>bulbs in the field impossible.
>>
>> I could go on, but these are exactly what they are billed:  really cool 
>Leica images.
>>
>> Case in point.  My daughter was the Wicked Witch in the school production 
>of Wizard of Oz.  I had a 90mm Elmarit-M on an M6, shooting with NHGII 800, 
>no flash, mostly at f/2.8.  Good friend next to me had her P&S ready.  When 
>her daughter (munchkin) came ou!
>> t, up she jumps, wooor, click, snap, flash pop, buzz, then HORRORS END OF 
>ROLL buzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz to rewind, while everyone looks at her in 

>disbelief.  I lift M6, silently click off shot of munchkin.
>>
>> When I saw her next she sighed, "my picture didn't turn out so good."  I 
>handed her the picture of her daughter.  Her reply?
>>
>> You guessed it:  "Oh, my God, look at this picture!"  And then, "when did 
>you take this?"
>>
>> I rest my case.
>>
>> Bob
>>  
> 


Francesco Sanfilippo,
Five Senses Productions
webmaster@5senses.com


http://www.5senses.com/