Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2001/08/01

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Subject: [Leica] Brutal sharpness
From: Mark Rabiner <mark@rabiner.cncoffice.com>
Date: Wed, 01 Aug 2001 14:48:06 -0700
References: <e0.1845dfdc.2899c79d@aol.com>

I disagree with Mr. Day on this one. I've got two or three decades of shooting
people for cold hard cash under my big belt and I for one do not go along with
this idea of a lens being too sharp to shoot people with. I use the sharpest and
best glass i can get my hands on period. Old glass for some effect is not
something I've had time to get into yet.
That old adage of have the lens be as old as the women you are shooting I find
particularly dated.

What i do instead of using diffusion over my glass or picking out softer older
glass is to use a larger light source and pull back the camera. Don't do tight
heads and head and shoulders but waist up shots or wider.
The fuzzy wuzzies have gone by the way side as far from what i can see. That's
shopping center mall photo studio schlock stuff from what i can tell. Zeiss
gives nice smooth results and some say the Schneider on a Rollei is too hard,
use the Zeiss instead!. Or the 180 Zeiss is too good use the older 150 on you
Hasselblad. Phooey i say to all that i didn't care if I'm agreeing with the A
boys. If i was using Rollei and had the cash I'd go with the Schneider.
I shoot people with the 90 apo Asph m and delta 100 film in Xtol 1:3.
This is probably the sharpest glass in the history of the known 35mm universe.
Or the 120 macro on the Hasselblad. Ditto in the brownie universe.
These are the sharpest optics i can so far lay my hands on. Someday I'll find sharper.

"Blast them!" i say


Mark Rabiner

Messrs. K. and H. assure the public
Their production will be second to none

Portland, Oregon
USA

http://www.rabiner.cncoffice.com/

In reply to: Message from Cmrausr@aol.com (Re: [Leica] Leica Quality versus Medium Format)