Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2000/08/06

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Subject: Re: [Leica] Summicron quality
From: Edward Meyers <aghalide@panix.com>
Date: Sun, 6 Aug 2000 16:22:44 -0400 (EDT)

Some practical stuff.
As a student in the 1950s a fellow student, who's name
is Bruce Davidson, was photographing in the low-lighted
bars and shops in Rochester, New York. At that time the
film to use was Kodak Super XX, or a faster film from Ilford.
Bruce made a discovery. He found that the light in the dimly
lite bars was very contrasty. Bright lights and no lights.
He found that by using the Contax II with uncoated 50mm
f/1.5 the "flare"from the uncoated optic would actually
give density and some detail in the deep shadows. Let's 
get back to the 50mm f/2 Dual Range Summicron on the late
1950s. If it does produce lower contrast and some flare at f/2
and f/2.8 this might raise the threashold in the deep shadows
and yield a little extra detail there. A high contrast optic 
might "cut" through the shadows too much. 
I dearly love my
50mm f/2 Summicron Dual Range... Ed