Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2000/10/23

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Subject: RE: [Leica] Lens signatures, old and new
From: "Dan Honemann" <danh@selectsa.com>
Date: Mon, 23 Oct 2000 13:26:13 -0400

I suspect this is it, Buzz.  The prints are simply unique to that era.  I
have b&w snaps my father took with his Retina IIa when I was a kid that have
a good bit of this glow and this depth--and they are just snapshots!  But
they put my snaps made with a Stylus Epic (good as that fixed 35/2.8 is) to
shame.

It's like the difference between an old cabinet you discover in an antique
shop and a new one that's made with the same wood and with the same design.
The older stuff has a quality to it that is hard to describe but readily
discernible, while the newer stuff seems somehow flimsy or two-dimensional
by comparison.

I'm not really a Luddite, honest--nor do I mean to start the old debates
over zeiss vs. leica, ad infinitum.  I guess I really just want to express
my appreciation for the quality of these prints, and my strong desire to be
participate in something of such great beauty, even if it is a desire that
can perhaps no longer be fulfilled.

Dan


> I am sure that someone will correct me if I am wrong, but I believe that
> H.C.-B.'s pictures from that era were printed by the genius Henri Gassman
> who, sadly, is no longer with us on papers which, sadly, are no
> longer with
> us.  These prints may or may not have exhibited a "Leica Glow" or the glow
> of some other maker's lens...about which we will now argue ad nauseum.
>
> 	Buzz Hausner

Replies: Reply from "Bob Stack" <ticino@earthlink.net> (Re: [Leica] Lens signatures, old and new)