Re: [Leica] Great reading

[Charles Dunlap <cdunlap@es.UCSC.EDU>]

>This month's US PhotoTechniques could be a start... Has some very
>interesting comments, particularly on lenses...
>Regards,
>
>
>Denton Taylor

Yes, very interesting--such as stating that the 50 Summicron-M is better at
f/2, f/2.8, f/4, and f/5.6 with f/8 a tossup (no big surprise there)
compared to the 45mm Planar-G, and then at the end of the write-up
concluding that the Planar G actually produced the more subjectively
attractive photographs (when shot at f/5.6 or f/8). The Summicron dominated
the objective discussion, but the author gave the Planar the upper hand for
unexplained subjective reasons. This is a common trick in Popular
Photography reviews in which the author doesn't want to lie outright but
the editor doesn't want to give a bad review to an advertiser: tell the
truth in the review and then paint a vague rosy picture in the concluding
paragraph which is all that half the people read (or remember or quote) in
any case. (I'm not accusing Photo Techniques of stooping that low, but the
editors should have been more careful to hold this guy to some sort of
standard.)

Also notice that the author (Kennerdell) discounts at the outset the
results for subjects at close focussing distances claiming that this was
more a test of focussing accuracy than lens performance. Now, which camera
do you suspect had more trouble with focussing accuracy. Given the misfires
that he admits befall the G2 with the 90mm lens, I suspect that he's
glossing over another failure of the G AF system.

Oh, and the shooting techniques he recommends with the G2 come right out of
the Cartier-Bresson handbook (with the exception of the one requiring a
tripod and motor drive--what a boring way to take street photographs!), yet
he terms the M an "old-fashioned tool for the craftsman."

The bias running through the article is given away at the outset when the
author claims that one shouldn't try to compare the G and the M systems and
then spends half the text doing it and saying things like "Unless you're
very good with a Leica, you'll miss fewer shots with a G2. Probably, a lot
fewer." And this one "With the wider lenses you can focus on most subjects
faster than anyone but the fastest old hand with a Leica." With the wider
lenses the fastest old hand probably has the lens set to a hyperfocal
distance as is shooting away happily while the G user is autofocussing with
the subject in the center of the frame (to borrow text from the manual of
every point and shoot), recomposing, and shooting.

I don't dislike the G have as much as I do this article which is putatively
a piece on travel photography in Asia and which turns out to be a shoddy
review by a different photographer than the one whose Asian temple scene is
featured on the magazine's cover next to the article title!

- -Charlie