Image Quality

[mikebidwell]

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Good evening

 

I've uploaded this scanned print in the hope that someone can give me their considered opinion as to the quality of the image. It was taken using my Leica IIIf Red Dial + 50mm Elmar f/2.8 II Lens.

 

I posted this image onto another forum I belong to and the comment is it's a bit too soft.

 

The problem is these days one is so used to seeing images taken with digital that unless it is so sharp that you cut yourself then people presume there is a problem

 

 

It was taken around mid-day in Lisbon.

 

I look forward to your comments please

 

Best wishes

 

Mike Bidwell

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[lars_bergquist]

I have used that lens a lot, though in M mount, and use it still occasionally for that old time look. Contrast is low wide open, with a bit of flare (a.k.a. Leica Glow) but with very little performance fall-off in the corners. Stopping down brings rapid improvement, and at f:8 it is as good as a contemporaneous Rigid Summicron, which many still like -- for the 'look'. I have even used the lens at f:8 for copying, with a BOOWU-M. Use the lens and relish it.

 

The old man from the Elmar Age

[luigi bertolotti]

It's an image taken with an Elmar ... and if one searches for top sharpness there are many other ways to go; I can add also, for personal experience, that scanned prints (expecially if made at home as I do) lose a certain flavor in respect to the print itself.

I have a number of 20x30 enlargements made with film and my Elmars : none of them is as sharp as my recent prints from M8 + Summicron 35 asph... but some of them are much better IMAGES, period.

[Guest mc_k]

I think the sharpness is acceptable, but maybe not the leveling, given the architectural subject.

[rob_x2004]

Youve scanned a print, and the file we are looking at is 96k. No one can make a valid comment really. People can say what it might be like with proper post processing but thats a tall order.

[tobey bilek]

The image is soft. It also has poor tonal qualities.

 

That said, it is poor scanning and/or film exposure and not the lens.

 

I strongly suspect you failed to sharpen the scan or the negative is out of focus. A scan is a digital capture that requires sharpening. My flat bed Epson does better than this.

 

There are the way too bright stones. These should have gone darker and the shadows darker still. The archway is in shadow and is represented as if it were in sun.

 

Rescan and fix these and I bet you will see significant improvement. You probably need to get the scanner off automatic.

[wizard]

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Let me put it this way: A red scale Elmar 50mm lens inherited from my father was the lens that made me invest (heavily as it turned out) in Leica about 8 or 9 years ago, when I discovered that color slides taken with this lens were sharper and simply better than what my considerably more modern Pentax camera (MEsuper and LX) and lenses (mostly of the Pentax-M variety) could achieve. If this lens, the Elmar, which at the time was almost fifty years old, was able to deliver better results than my Pentax gear, what must the current Leica lenses be like was what I thought, hence the investment that followed.

 

That said, it is impossible to judge from your above shot whether it is indeed a bit soft or whether PP is to blame. Your lens could have an issue, e.g. the focal plane may not coincide precisely with the film plane (that could be rectified), but then again it may be fine, too. An Elmar lens in top shape is able to deliver very, very sharp shots except at full aperture (where it isn't a slouch either).

 

Andy

[earleygallery]

I agree with Andy, the lens (if a good example) is capable of pin sharp results. In my experience its very slightly softer wide open but sharpens up from 3.5 onwards.

 

The issue with the image here could be due to a number of factors individually or combined, but I suspect its mostly PP/scanning.

[mikebidwell]

Here is another image but taken in Palma a few days earlier using the same film, I do have problems focusing because I wear Varifocals and its not too easy looking through the eyepiece and trying to focus the split image. The other thing is as I've said before is I'm not too happy with my Weston Master IVLight meter I'm about to send it Megatron for calibration along with my Weston Master V.

 

Or as you say it could well be down to my scanning and PP work. One thing is for certain I've got to get it right cos it's annoying me. I'm sure the body and lens are not the problem, it was sent to Malcolm Taylor about a year ago for a complete overhaul.

 

Best wishes

 

Mike B