Leica M digital intermezzo 2 (november 13, 2009)
Where is the smile of the Cheshire cat?
In the German magazine, der Spiegel (the Mirror), there is an interesting section about analog photography or Filmchemie-Fotografie. The aim is to create a bit of a revival of classical photography with film. You cannot make headways nowadays without contemporary measures and the project can be followed on Facebook and Flickr. Great classica cameras like Hasselblad and Zeiss lenses can be bought for a handful of dollars and even less Euros and film is still available, even if you have to buy it online. But who doesn’t do much of their buying on the internet now?
One of the arguments to use films, is the specific color representation and grain impression of AgX material. This feature is now grossly neglected in the striving-for-perfection-and-uniformity in the digital arena. I have the big Magnum book on my table on a bookstand and can easily leave through the pages. The most arresting images are frequently the ones with special colors or monochrome tonality.
I noted in my blog and in my recent review of the color reproduction of the M9 and M8 that I prefer the different representations of the current slide and color films over the uniform reproduction of the digital post processing. The ubiquitous use of software test tools bring to the fore the slightest discoloring form the established norm (the Macbeth or other cards). In the film days no one would strive to reproduce the Macbeth colors perfectly, but the card was used to note the differences and how to use these differences to get the required color-images.
In this respect we may note the bad influence of the magazine- and internet-tests. It is nowadays extremely easy to calculate the color deviation in DeltaE values and conclude that big differences can be equated with bad quality. This is of course not true. Chemists in color photography often purposely changed the color reproduction from the possible to the desirable. It is known for a long time and digital capture does not change this, that pleasing colors are not the same as accurate colors. Kodak had a special film in its range that was tuned to get real colors, but that film was not very popular!
It was easy and is still easy in AgX days to see the special qualities of Leica pictures. It may not be obvious anymore, but the famous Leica fingerprint for images was the mixture of lens characteristics and the interaction with silver-halogen crystals. It is becoming increasingly difficult to discern the special Leica quality in todays digital image capture. Over a period of five years I have intensely photographed with Olympus E-1, Canon 5D and Leica M8 (with and without IR filters). If I print comparable images made with any of these three cameras and put them side by side on a table and ask for differences, hardly anyone will note specific Leica quality or Leica fingerprint.
To be honest, it is still there, but it becomes increasingly difficult to separate the image world in Leica versus the rest. It is not yet impossible, but the current tendency for uniformity in imagery, inspired by indiscriminately using the same test tools and demanding that results should be as close as possible to a norm, may be the cause for the Leica fingerprint to become an endangered species.
Perhaps the Leica digital designers could reflect on the peculiar characteristics of the Leica imaging chain and dare to offer a color space and a post processing algorithm that is not as close as possible to the norm, but supports the Leica fingerprint in image reproduction. And maybe Leica users should support the fact that Leica images are and need to be different from the mainstream norm.
In lens design the Leica solution has never been the easy way to design a lens that conforms to popular criteria, but to create a lens that supports a special vision of the world around us. Zeiss used the same approach but had a different view and that is fine because we had the choice. Now the relentless competition and universal support for uniform perfection is killing that precious characteristic. When you see the qualities of the Leica lenses as exposed by the famous K8 MTF equipment, you cannot but admire the design choices. After processing the digital image files, these characteristics start to fade.
In AgX photography is is easier to detect the Leica fingerprint. That is why the M7 and MP and the range of M6 versions are still in use and will stay in use.
My view is this: testing is more than just listing a range of numerical values, produced my software or physical instruments. Without knowing what these figures refer to and the context in which they are produced and the relevance of the numbers it does not make sense to compare results. And you should, when necessary, dare to say that deviating results are not always to be avoided, and should be supported when it helps to get interesting and important photography. I received many emails from readers who noted that my focus on the core of the photographic art and science is indeed a welcome approach that helps to create a proper distance from the tendency to use numbers as the defining norm for photographic quality.
Now the task is to rediscover and define the Leica quality in the digital realm.