Doing the micro contrast circuit on Y.T. While pleasant to watch, It's about time someone uploaded imagery showing the same subject with and without micro contrast, whether it be product,, portrait, insect, or street.

@SpaklesDr

Ай бұрын

never gonna happen lol. If id does that would be great.

Good video. Just a small point. The Kubrick stills you showed are from Barry Lyndon. On that film Kubrick used a Carl Zeiss Planar 50mm f0.7 that had been developed by Zeiss for use by Nasa in the Apollo moon landings. Not, as you said, a Leica. Maybe Nasa and Kubrick both thought Leicas were too expensive? I like and use both.

@nerwanisnoone1937

3 жыл бұрын

You're right. Just as a point of interest, that Zeiss Planar f0.7 wasn't developed to be used on the moon its self (it was bright down there). It was used by Michael Collins who remained in the command module and needed to be able to continue to photograph during lunar night because he was in orbit.

Great Video: I was once a big fan of sharpness and have converted to micro-contrast. My favorites are Contax Zeiss 21/ 35f1.4 /85f1.4 and 35-70. Also a FE16-35 F4 for traveling.

Interesting discussion, but I think focusing exclusively on portraits is a mistake. Edge to edge sharpness can be useful to me shooting landscapes, even on a tele lens, because sometimes i want to shoot a distant scene like a mountain at the end of the day. It certainly isn’t the end all be all and I try to keep an example of both very clinical and very classical looks for my common focal lengths on my Leica, but it’s not like a sharp lens is the enemy here. Also, adding elements does not decrease the natural look of the image, it fixes optical flaws or helps bend the light. Saturation is one of the benefits of modern coatings, and has nothing to do with elements unless the lens is an APO. If you’re shooting artistic abstract shots. 3D look is known as a benefit of Zeiss lenses, which typically use more elements than Leica lenses. Leica lenses use fewer elements because they can afford with their higher margins to make far more complex lens shapes that do more corrections per element, whereas Zeiss has made the decision to only do one or two corrections per element, giving a larger lens stack to do the same job. I love Leica lenses, but this is definitely not coming from anyone who even took a high school level optics design class.

Thank you for that insightful education on micro contrast, portraiture, lenses... wonderful lesson! Thank you!

love the explanation, I enjoy vintage lenses, love wide aperture lenses and that fall out from being very sharp in the middle or on the subject, Some lenses are bad many like german made, french or swiss made vintage lenses. some 8mm, 16 mm lenses were made so sharp that they beat modern lenses that costs in their thousands. Not every modern lens is better, they may be better a little depending on what you are looking for, I personally, love the 3d POP effect as Oz is explaining here, It is exactly how your eyes perceive everyday objects.

Thanks again for this video!!!

Oz but isn’t this against your thoughts of the APO 50mm? From your thoughts (and why I got it) it had great micro contrast.

Nailed it...I'm watching this in Dec of 2021 and I'm looking for lenses with the least elements and groups....I have a few and they are all manual focus but the photos are life like (3D look) because of the micro contrast....modern lenses and getting flatter and flatter which is ok in certain situations....

Any advice to achieve this in a reasonable price?

great review , well explained

I have a small set of Nikon Ais lens (1981) and a few Leica-R Lens (1980-1981). I made sure that they were made within the same time frame 1980-1984, etc. I had them all C.L.A at a local Camera Repair shop and Cine-Modded for EF mount. I just recommend that you stick to the serial number closest to each lens. Try to start at 3XXXXXX and above, but going 340XXX gets very very expensive.

Totally agree with what you say in the video. I use Leica M-P typ240 and Sony A7iii and I love older lenses.

I always find pixel peepers funny. Especially saying an image is “sharp across the frame wide open!” Who cares?? Such small DOF does it matter if the corners are sharp? I have a simple philosophy with photography. The image itself can be 1 of 3 things to have impact. The first 2 rely often on luck, so the 3rd is what we can focus on improving 1. Historically significant 2. Show a unique human gesture 3. Shapes. Put the right shapes in the right place. This is true for ALL art. Composition is king and it’s what makes someone like koudelka or bresson stand out. I recommend studying “notan structure” to improve this.

@yitzchallevi8208

6 жыл бұрын

wise words...

@theboss069

6 жыл бұрын

You obviously had no unsharp lens in your hands. I wish you good luck with your USD-100-f1.4-China-lenses.

@changleon7441

5 жыл бұрын

well, it's apparent that you have never attempted to do stock photography,,,,

@kenalgee

3 жыл бұрын

@@changleon7441 if your trying to do stock photography with your lens wide open you need to get out more, mate.

Loved this video. Do you think the Leica Elmarit-R 28mm v2 from the mid to late nineties is too modern to get that classic vintage Leica look? Does it have enough character? For video, I shoot documentaries

Will you ever do a Leica M10 vs Sony RX1R II.

Excellent video Oz. Most people are pixel peeping on the photographs they look on their hi-res monitors taken with a hi-res camera at 1/1 or even at 1/3 magnification. So lens manufactures are making sharper lenses as edge to edge sharpness and no vignetting is a more important than the rendering of the lens. I am still printing photographs just processing them on computer/dark room and not peeping at 200%....

Does Micro Contrast apply to film as much as it does to digital?

@Chris-ey7zy

3 жыл бұрын

Even More

Imagine if the lens makers used today’s lens coatings on older designs with less elements. It would be marvelous.

@humblepie9906

6 жыл бұрын

Those days are gone, because film is gone, and HD/4k is here.

@chucky29949

2 жыл бұрын

the zeiss classics line of lenses do this, look at some 50mm sonnar f1.5 images (only 6 elements)

Some honest feedback. The dialogue about older lenses and character is great. I however missed the deeper explanation and clarification about what microcontrast actually is. Aswell, your enthusiasm in your video about vintage leica lenses do not come back in the eBay links. These links do actually refer to the expensive modern lenses you don't like.

👍🏼

I love my SMC Takumar 15mm f/3.5, Super-Takumar 50mm f/1.4, Auto-Takumar 85mm f/1.8 for their micro-contrast 3D-pop-up effect with lovely color rendition and good contrast, without to much compromizing on the sharpness.

Great videos !!!

the 21/9 aspect ratio for that "cinematic" look, and the piss poor back lighting is the most pretentious thing ever. Great video!

@highacutance

6 жыл бұрын

Background brighter than subject is distracting. When basic lighting is a problem, can we trust your judgment on lenses?

Show the example !

Excellent video. I still prefer my old Zeiss lenses to the super sharp, 12 element new digital lenses.

The intersection of Leica users and pixel peepers is a weird place.

Micro contrast is a myth. A lens either has contrast or it doesn't. Zeiss uses the term to sell products. It won't make your photos better.

In short, your face is exposed with modern lens and background with vintage lens.

Sorry but this whole load of nonsense in order to justify the nonsensical prices of Leica. So what exactly is Micro Contrast? You didn't define it. And what is this 3d pop? How is it measured? All premium modern lenses are better than older lenses. And that is just facts. There is no mythical look which Leica gives you which cannot be easily replicated by Sigma Art and Photoshop.

@ricardoduarte6589

3 жыл бұрын

Watch this fabulous video that goes deep inside all aspects of the meaning of micro-contrast. There's nothing more pedagogic on the subject out there. It will become a legendary video. Check it out: kzread.info/dash/bejne/da1kyNNpdqu-dLA.html

@ricardoduarte6589

3 жыл бұрын

If you ask how much does Leica gear cost, you can't afford it. A Leica man is an unique animal breed living in a human stracta where, obviously, you don't belong.

@AminTheMystic

3 жыл бұрын

Ricardo Duarte No. I don’t.

@AminTheMystic

3 жыл бұрын

mrca Just like you’ve never seen such Leica lenses. They’re priced so high to create demand. No one who’s been fooled is going to admit it. No one can guess which shot was taken by which lens, everyone knows it.

@AminTheMystic

3 жыл бұрын

Sigma Art 85mm for example out resolves any Leica lens ever created. And that is ALL you need.

Lovely review, but you need to chill dude, the stress is real with your strong effort to speak with too much passion