Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2004/10/15

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Subject: [Leica] Digital "crop factor"
From: pklein at 2alpha.net (Peter Klein)
Date: Fri Oct 15 19:34:36 2004

B. D.:  At the truly "sweet-spot" medium apertures," I agree that most of 
us don't make use of the full capabilities of our Leica optics.  That 
belongs to the Tripod, Kodachrome and Velvia crowd.  Or to the inner 
sanctum of Erwin's Optical Bench.

But at full aperture and the next stop or two, I think we get a great 
benefit from using Leica lenses.  Compare a 35/1.4 Asph or a recent 50 
Summicron wide-open with virtually any other lens of similar speed, even on 
Tri-X at 1/60 second.  The Leica lenses take better pictures, on the 
whole.  At 85-105mm, the very best SLR lenses are pretty competitive.  But 
for fast normals and wides, Leica rules.  Especially since we can carry the 
Leica lenses without damage to our wrists or abdominal walls. . .   :-)

--Peter

B. D. wrote:
>I understand what you're saying, Luis. But the irony is that virtually
>none of us can begin to take advantage of the capabilities of our Leica
>optics, particularly if they're the latest generation of lenses, and if
>we're  shooting hand-held, which is what our Leicas were designed for.
>The reality is that other manufacturers make lenses that will get us
>images that are just as good as the images our Leica lenses will get us.
>We make like the particular fingerprint of a given Leica lens, rather
>than that of another manufacturer's lens, but that's a matter more of
>taste than optics.



Replies: Reply from bdcolen at earthlink.net (B. D. Colen) ([Leica] Digital "crop factor")