Re: [Leica] A Humbling Experience

[4season <4season@boulder.net>]

"Glen M. Robinson" wrote:

>      I am terribly humbled by these antique pictures; I cannot produce this type
> quality with my high tech gear.  The sharpness, gradation, and other visual
> characteristics of these prints are breathtaking.  I realize that these pictures
> are contact prints, but are the wonderful films and lenses that we use today in
> reality lower in quality in the essential operating parameters than those of
> that time?

Well, glass plate negatives suffer from no lack of flatness,and probably
aren't subject to scratches from faulty pressure plates :-)

The film was almost certainly orthochromatic (blue-sensitive) and the
printing material, probably much lower in contrast than what we're
accustomed to today. The best photos old landscape photos that I've seen
have a wonderful sense of, for want of a better word, atmosphere, though
were I using the stuff today, I'd probably wish for some actual sky
details once in awhile.

As for image sharpness, well, now you know why I eye 8x10 cameras with
too much interest! Contact prints from large negatives have a fantastic
sense of clarity and tonality to them.

But I simply could not do everything with such a big camera, and neither
do I care to trade in my 1998 M6 for some moldering relic! Case in
point: Last night, I decided to attend a reading and book signing by the
author Neil Stephenson, in town to promote his new book Cryptonomicon. I
happened to have the M6 with me at the time, and as my bag had set off
the store security alarms on the way in, I had to leave it at the
checkout station, but grabbed the M6 with 90 Summicron, and stuffed the
stacked set of 35/2 and 50/2.8 into my pocket ("Is that a Summicron in
your pocket or are you just glad to see me?"), took my seat, and happily
plinked away with the 90 at f/2 @ 1/30th or so. I don't expect the
results to be overly sharp by any means, but try doing THAT with ancient
gear without making a spectacle of yourself, or sending everyone fleeing
the room to escape the smoke of your magnesium-powder flash!