Do Leica lenses have "built-in sunshine"?

Ai Print · Apr 21, 2017

Patrick Robert James said:
I think you have completely missed the point of this thread. Normally I would say it went over your head, but I get the feeling that you are so high up on your horse it probably passed beneath you...

Could you then explain what I missed instead of violating site rules by insulting me?

chip j · Apr 21, 2017

Lachlan Young said:
You mean the EMO Wetzlar Macromax loupe Leica bought the rights to?

Stop obsessing over the mystical properties you are spinning around Leica & get on & use the Contax - realistically there is vanishingly little between those Zeiss lenses & contemporaneous Leica glass. Both are about as good as 35mm lenses get.

yes, it looks like the EMO.

ciniframe · Apr 21, 2017

Not sure what this thread is all about but regarding lenses, I'm multi-talented. Hand me any lens, from the 60mm f8 plastic lens on a Holga to a 50mm APO Summicron.....and I can take a banal, formulaic, and just plane dull picture with it.

(but of course, of the two the Leica lens picture will be a more detailed and contrasty banal, formulaic and dull picture, so that's better, right?)

Arklatexian · Apr 21, 2017

jnanian said:
hi chipj

its just advertising, like "good to the last drop"
(and i've had maxweelll haus that wasn't that great ... )
sorry to hammer the leica mythos but i have seen plenty of
oh-hummm photos made with the german product.

I have made plenty of ho-hummmm photos with the German products but they certainly weren't the fault of the product. It was the nut holding the Leica.......Regards!

Arklatexian · Apr 22, 2017

ciniframe said:
Not sure what this thread is all about but regarding lenses, I'm multi-talented. Hand me any lens, from the 60mm f8 plastic lens on a Holga to a 50mm APO Summicron.....and I can take a banal, formulaic, and just plane dull picture with it.

(but of course, of the two the Leica lens picture will be a more detailed and contrasty banal, formulaic and dull picture, so that's better, right?)

Finally, someone has come up with the correct descriptive adjectives that best describe the results of my Leica technique...........now if I can just learn to make them less detailed....Regards!

E. von Hoegh · Jul 21, 2017

chip j said:
That's what I read in an old Leica review.

Yes, it's a marketing term for "veiling flare". The one with the most was the f:1.5 Xenon.

Ces1um · Jul 21, 2017

TheRook said:
Right. And if one has sacrificed a lot of money to acquire it, then there is temptation to see all sorts of (non-existent) magical qualities which help justify the expenditure psychologically.

Cognitive dissonance is a powerful force. I spent 10,000 on this camera therefore my camera/lens must be the best or I wouldn't have spent 10,000 on it....

https://www.simplypsychology.org/cognitive-dissonance.html

What I like now is when people pick up one of leica's old point and shoot crummy 1980's cameras before their luxury brand restructuring and assign to them the same magical qualities as their new, considerably finer models just because it has a leica red dot. That being said, I'd like a new leica please.

removed account4 · Jul 21, 2017

oldtimermetoo said:
I have made plenty of ho-hummmm photos with the German products but they certainly weren't the fault of the product. It was the nut holding the Leica.......Regards!

i know, but to suggest the camera contains sunshine ?
german, japanese, italian, french, ruskie, american & al. all contain sunshine
the problem is tapping into the sunshine .. its got nothing to do with the camera.

E. von Hoegh · Jul 21, 2017

Sonnars are the only lens with real sunshine.

Dali · Jul 21, 2017

E. von Hoegh said:
Sonnars are the only lens with real sunshine.

Much more than Noctilux.

E. von Hoegh · Jul 21, 2017

Dali said:
Much more than Noctilux.

Vampires like the Noctilux - couldn't Noctilux be translated as "nightlight"?

Sadly, when I took my prewar Sonnar apart to clean it, some of the sunshine leaked away and got lost.

Bob Carnie · Jul 21, 2017

Eric Rose said:
Mine has special Leica fairies in them that improve my composition, exposure and always put a halo around my lovely wife's head. The Leica glow is caused by these very same fairies as they refuse to turn their little lanterns off. I'm convinced they are the cause of global warming. They think everything should glow.

You should have had a filter that softened the cottage cheese on the picture in the river.

fiddle · Jul 21, 2017

Every time I take mine out in the rain, it stops raining. I think it's true...

Saganich · Jul 21, 2017

In certain low light conditions both my oldschool 35 and 50 Lux's seem to slightly amplify the high tones in the center of the frame. For example skin tones are brighter then I generally expect and whites are whiter than I expect.

Kawaiithulhu · Jul 21, 2017

I blame under-corrected spherical aberration and coma, and only in earlier lenses. The only reason I can think of that it became a "Leica lens" thing is that all the early designs had the same kind of imperfections, assuming that other manufacturers' lenses were each different this would make Leica stand out.

Plus Marketing !

E. von Hoegh · Jul 21, 2017

Kawaiithulhu said:
I blame under-corrected spherical aberration and coma, and only in earlier lenses. The only reason I can think of that it became a "Leica lens" thing is that all the early designs had the same kind of imperfections, assuming that other manufacturers' lenses were each different this would make Leica stand out.

Plus Marketing !

All nonsense aside, I think the Leica-glow was an attempt to assert superiority over Zeiss' products, which in the 1930s were formulated with a minimum of air-glass surfaces - and not incidentally giving Leitz a real run for their money. Next to a good Zeiss f:2 Sonnar, any uncoated f:2 double Gauss of that era would have a bit of glow. I'm thinking of the Leitz Summar, and later the f:1.5 Xenon made by Schneider but called "Leitz" here.

Dan Fromm · Jul 21, 2017

Um, Bill, if I'm not mistaken the Xenon's design was licensed from TTH.

ced · Jul 21, 2017

I think there is also some moonshine and butter to boot...
You see what you want to see when you pays the bucks.

removed account4 · Jul 21, 2017

i thought the magic design was the movantica design by THEBS

fstop · Jul 21, 2017

AgX said:
A german lens needs the right german musik to go by:

Is that organ a Hammond or a Wurlizter?

Wallendo · Jul 21, 2017

When a lens alters the appearance of a scene, it is a Unique Feature of a Leica lens ... and an engineering or manufacturing defect in any other lens.

blockend · Jul 21, 2017

Wallendo said:
When a lens alters the appearance of a scene, it is a Unique Feature of a Leica lens ... and an engineering or manufacturing defect in any other lens.

True. A number of my FSU lenses have the Leica glow. The 3-element Rodenstock on my Zeiss Nettar folders definitely have it. I wouldn't be surprised if the plastic lensed Olympus point and shoot has some too.

RichardJack · Jul 21, 2017

What are you smoking? I'd like some.

eddie · Jul 21, 2017

My Holgas and Dianas have "built in sunshine", unless I tape them up really, really well.

Alan Klein · Jul 21, 2017

I don't have a Leica lens. But I swear, whenever I take my car through a car wash, it drives better afterwards. It's smoother, quieter and faster. Anyone else notice that?

Do Leica lenses have "built-in sunshine"?

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