Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2008/04/25
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]I think you're absolutely right about the lenses, David, but I don't think it's limited to "digital" lenses. I believe that lens quality - at least in terms of image quality (build is another matter entirely) - has improved so dramatically over the past several decades that now, as you note, even most inexpensive lenses are "good." In the past, there was much more variation in quality, and there were more 'okay' and 'passable' lenses that were good for certain looks or certain kinds of photography. Now lenses are either good, or they are so gawdawful you want to toss them away. As to the comment about digital bodies, I'm not so sure. I think that once we got to 5 mgp sensors that would produce good images, we started to have cameras that are fun to go back to, and, in fact, may even be better for certain uses than newer cameras. Where you're absolutely correct is in terms of obsolescence - these older cameras will be irreparable soon, if they aren't already, so they're only useful until they fail. B. D. On 4/25/08 3:56 PM, "David Rodgers" <drodgers@casefarms.com> wrote: > > One thing I've noticed in digital is that lenses are either good or bad. > It's just like a byte. It's either high or low, on or off, good or bad. > I can put a lens on a digital camera and size it up pretty quickly. > Pretty much all the new zooms are decent. They have to be. Even the > inexpensive ones are good...though slow. > > With film lens quality seems more analogous to analog, just like film > itself. Lenses get better or worse. But there's not such a distinct > cutoff. It's not "sharp or unsharp". It's "sharper or less sharp". Or a > lens may have other desirable characteristics. > > It just seems that with digital a lens either has it or it doesn't. > There's no middle ground. > > Same with cameras. With digital newer will always be better. I can't > imagine anyone every going retro with digital, like a person might still > today have fun with a Leica SM, and even turn out photos that rival > those from newer cameras. "Classic" is likely a word that will never be > attached to a digital camera. At least not in the film sense. Digital > retro will be nothing more than a software plugin. > > DaveR > > > > _______________________________________________ > Leica Users Group. > See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information