[Leica] Lens Quality in the Digital Age

[krieger at usc.edu (Martin Krieger)]

Please correct me if I am wrong. What is most interesting in this emerging 
digital age is the general decline of interest in lens quality. Lots of 
interest in processing algorithms, in pixel counts, in noise in the sensor, 
but the lenses have been let off scot free. This may make sense for point 
and shoots (with exceptional cases such as the Digilux 2), but you would 
think there is more concern in the Nikon/Canon/etc digital world. They sell 
the models with not very good lenses, in effect reasonably good cars with 
thin rubber tires. You can buy better lenses, but as far as I can tell, 
there have been no real advances in lens quality. Leica still makes perhaps 
the best lenses, surely some of the best. Canon may make a few. But the main 
point here is that lens quality is no longer front and center. 

Moreover, no inkjet system (and I suspect no lightjet system, about this I 
am unsure) has the resolution of silver-gelatin or even color printing 
paper. You look with a 20x magnifier and you see the dots. Nothing wrong 
with this, except if you are curious about some detail twenty years from now 
and have only the print.

Have I missed the revolution?

MK