Leitz lens image colour?

[RobC]

I have seen quite a few images from leicas recently and most of them seem to have strange colour rendition. Is that a function of leitz lens colour contrast or something else?

 

[Pinholemaster]

Transparency or color negative film?

Leitz glass usually doesn't have the warmth Japanese lenses are engineered to have.

Any examples you can post?

 

[raucousimages]

If it was with an M8 it will have a bad color cast. I have not noticed a cast with my sumilux.

 

[Ian Grant]

Strange, the colour rendition from my Leica lenses is excellent, I'not seen any apparent difference compared to my other cameras/lenses.

Ian

 

[Tom Hoskinson]

I suspect that the weird colors reported with M8 images are due to the digital designs that Leitz employed and implemented and are not caused by the optics.

 

[John Koehrer]

I suspect that the weird colors reported with M8 images are due to the digital designs that Leitz employed and implemented and are not caused by the optics.

Ummmm, if not caused by the optics was it caused by tinted digicons?

 

[RobC]

Transparency or color negative film?

Leitz glass usually doesn't have the warmth Japanese lenses are engineered to have.

Any examples you can post?

The next time I come across some I will post a link. It could be because they have been digitised for the web or it could be a particular film type being used.

 

[raucousimages]

I tested the M8 against several other top digital cameras and the color of the M8 was way off. It is the sensor not the glass. My MP shoots a lot of Kodak UC400 and Fuji Velvia with no noticable color shift.

 

[Ole]

The M8 is famous for having insufficient IR filtration, so that many objects are rendered redder than they should be.

It's not the lens, and it's not even the sensor: It's the lacking filtration.

 

[Tom Hoskinson]

Ummmm, if not caused by the optics was it caused by tinted digicons?

Tinting the semiconductors in the M8 Leica Digicons??

No John, I think Ole has it right with the IR filtering.

Maybe that could be interpreted as tinting the digicons??

 

[Lee L]

I wouldn't trust scans or internet posts to be indicative of color characteristics of any lens system. Even color prints are interpretations. Judge from color transparencies, and then on a good light box or in projection. You need to eliminate variables other than the lenses, which would include all interim steps where color can be manipulated or reinterpreted. If you're judging from prints, you'd need a standardized color target printed with appropriate care and consistency, or a very large sample of prints from a very good (human) printer, but even the choice of color paper would affect the color "signature". Comparing prints on Fuji paper to others on Kodak or Agfa will not really tell the story about the lenses alone.

A good "neutral" transparency film is what I use to judge lens color characteristics.

Lee