Re: [Leica] Leica-Users List Digest V3 #108

[Summicron1@aol.com]

In a message dated 6/7/98 7:13:25 AM, alan hull  wrote:

<<Looking through my notes I see various sizes mentioned from 8x10 and
up.  So it seems to be a subjective thing, which means I have to do my
own test.  I intend to compare successive enlargements to an identical
image size from a 6x9 negative so I won't be fooled by a gradual
deteriation.  As the lens chosen is important I wonder which is the
better of my ancient Leica lenses,  

al -- it's more subjective than you can imagine. You'll hears some people on
this list say none of those lenses are any good -- they're not aspheric so how
could they be?

But they are. All of them. In addition to evaluating the lenses you need to
decide film -- grainier film looks worse the more you enlarge. You need to
consider subject matter -- some subjects look better enlarged than others and
the only way to find them is to blow them up. You need to consider your own
skills -- is your lens absolutely dust free? High resolution film like tech
pan can be thrown off by even a little bit of dust. Is your camrea
held/mounted rock solid? The larger the picture the more any flaw is shown.

What sort of final image do you want? The older lenses you mentioned do have
some technical flaws -- excess comma, etc.,-- but there are those who say this
gives the end picture a pleasing type of "soft/sharp" focus or "roundness"
depending on what f-stop you use.

So there is no easy answer except this: take pictures. Blow them up. If you
like the result, that's a good combination, if you don't, then ponder where
you screwed up or what it is you want that you're not getting. Start over.

charlie trentelman
Ogden, Utah