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 p.18 #11 · Through Walter Mandler Glass (on FF Only) | |
Just came across this experience-based and very lucid explanation of why Mandler lenses remain so appealing.
http://www.l-camera-forum.com/leica-forum/customer-forum/45854-praise-mandler-lenses-2.html#post965253
"But when it comes to the overall feel of the image, especially in digital or slide photography, I still find the Mandler designs to be "miles ahead" in terms of rich tonality and the handling of color rendition (as opposed to color correction). For me, it's as clear a difference as that between a Beaujolais and a Bordeaux - one is bright and gay, but the other has infinite depths.
It has been my consistent experience with the M8 that the current designs (except the f/1.4s) push detail off the ends of the tonal scale, where even raw processing cannot recover it. It is normal with them to have exposure set to -1.00 (using ACR), shadows to 0, contrast to 0, and still have a "hot" image. Whereas with the Mandler designs, the same lighting will give exposure "0", or even plus a bit, shadows at 5 or higher, and the midtone contrast can be set as high as 50, giving a boost to midtone separation and saturation. In other words, at least a stop, and more like two stops, of additional dynamic range. And generally a bit less noise, through not having to dig into the shadows as much in post-processing.
I also find the older design telephotos to be more forgiving for RF use. They usually have longer focus throws, which allows for a more precise vernier touch in putting the RF images together carefully.
And the residual spherical aberration means that while they are not always as precisely sharp as the APO teles at full aperture, the zone of "reasonably sharp" covers a slightly wider depth of focus at the image plane. The width of the bright area, left to right, in this example: File:Spherical-aberration-slice.jpg - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
All this is why I posted this thread in the first place - on MFT charts, and in some imagery, the new advanced designs from Leica are certainly state-of-the-art - or even ahead of the art, when it comes to the 21 and 24 Summiluxes.
But over and over again, I have gotten pictures that please me more, technically, from the Mandler designs. And ultimately, it is those pictures, not the MFT charts, that I publish or hang on my wall."
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I would call it my favorite portrait lens except that it is a bitch to focus, especially for selfies. That it is not an apochromat is apparent with modern digital sensors (slight color fringing w/o), and that is sometimes a problem. Image taken with D3X, one studio light, f/11:
