[Leica] Insatiable demand for facts and figures

[Erwin Puts <imxputs@knoware.nl>]

One of the charming advantages of a medium like the Lug is the unearthing
of an almost unstoppable flow of opinions, facts and impressions on any
topic that belongs to the core of Leica photography or tangents that core
however remote.
Many of these opinions and impressions are instructive and forces one to
contemplate established views and personal opinions.
Still there is one potentially unsettling strand in all this. All
information presented on the Lug is of equal democratic value. And so it
should be. No room for gurus or authorities here. As Orwell noted in his
Animal Farm: all animals are equal, but some animals are more equal  than
others", so not everything we refer to (magazine articles, books, 'some
authoritive but anonymous source', personal observations) has equal stuture
or stands the test of time and/or careful analysis.
Our collective knowledge and wisdom will only progress as long and in so
far as we are willing to neglect or disregard 90% or more of what we know,
like to know, cherish as fact or have known or be informed about in the
past. Assume that an optical designer in front of Leica's computers would
use optical formulae from the thirties, however valuable they might have
been or would disregard modern optical theory because somebody  values the
quality of old lenses.
To be specific: maybe we Luggers shoud read less about Leica, would dump
all of our folders, magazine articles and books and start to disbelieve and
question everything ever written or stated about Leica and related topics.
On image evaluation the bottom line is user acceptability: when an image
appears to be pleasing or acceptable to a viewer and has sufficient detail
to convey the intended message, the result is OK.
We might like to have different parameters or more precise and quantitative
measurements. Still the only judge is our own eye.
I am always surprised by the large amount of questions about the relative
and absolute performance of a lens and  the many differing or even
conflicting answers.
The recent small thread about the D3200 development figures is a case in
point. Why believe whatever is said and then following the advive of
whomever sems most convincing. A simple test (one film and a sequence of
exposures) in a standard developer is all that is needed for one's own
judgment: no need to study magazines or  go for numerous advices. (Note
that the D3200 figures go from 6 to 15 minutes). Do it yourself would be my
sincere recommendation. Some benchmark figures may help to get a base line
(may I humbly point to my reports): the rest  is private experiment and
judge ones own judgement.
My Xmas thoughts, based on extensive discussions with my brother.

Erwin