Dan wrote:
> NOTA. Also, I don't wear a cowboy hat, drive a Caddy, belong to the NRA, or
> put recyclables in the landfill, and, *GASP*, I voted for the other major
> candidate who also lost the last election. However, if it's any
> consolation, I do live across the street from, and next to, lawyers. And,
> let me tell you, that'll make you think twice about loaning out your step
> ladder.
Heh!
> FWIW, I don't dislike HCB, who, from what I've seen since joining this
> list, is a cranky, self-centered old fart with better than average
> photographic skill and a predilection for speaking in "quotation marks".
> But, I have yet to see a single decent flower shot he's taken. <G>
Wouldn't you know it, at the back of Eisenstadt's _Witness to our Time_
there are a couple of full-page, full-bleed color flower shots. I never
noticed 'em before last night. Funny how you look at a book and see only
what you want to see. <g>
> So, anyway. What's your beef with sharp lenses? You sick of the focus on
> hardware instead of 'art', or what?
1. Lenses do other things besides being "sharp" that are important to me.
The finicky, delicate high-rez look that passes for "sharp" these days kind
of makes me queasy. Give me an old Pentax M42 lens over a new Canon zoom any
day. I like the look better.
2. "All lenses are sharp enough." Part of the reason I said what I did about
Eisenstadt the other day is that if you look at a bunch of his 35mm work
from the 1930s, it becomes quite obvious that the lenses he was using way
back then are "sharp enough," too. And, with reference to that quote of
Cartier-Bresson's I passed on from Bob W., it's not like HCB didn't have
sharp lenses--he mainly preferred custom-made, coated 7-element collapsible
Summicrons, the best lens of that day and still no slouch today for B&W at
moderate apertures. I've got some technically fantastic shots made with that
lens.
Really, is there anything much wrong with a plain-Jane, cheap-as-mud 50/2
SMC-A lens? Any one of us could make technically perfectly acceptable
photographs with that. Why waste endless energy chasing after something just
a wee bit sharper--especially given that you'll have to argue with other
photographers over whether it is or not? My favorite lens recently has been
the SMCP-M 50/1.4 lens. Just a great lens to shoot with--feels great, nice
and bright, good bokeh. I've gotten some quite nice results with it. If this
bloody scanner I bought actually _worked_, I could post a few examples to
the PUG. I'm an artisan to my fingertips...never was worth a damn with
compooters.
--Mike
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