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Steve McCurry's promo video of Leica SL2

mi-fu

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The most interesting thing is how he holds the camera and the way he presses the shutter o_O
 

Ron Texas

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Bye bye Nikon...
 

anmpr1

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Do photography buffs buy in to the kind of tweaky stuff that audiophiles like? Are there photographic analogies to magic wire and those sorts of things? I don't know anything about it. I know Leica cameras cost a lot.
 

Tks

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Do photography buffs buy in to the kind of tweaky stuff that audiophiles like? Are there photographic analogies to magic wire and those sorts of things? I don't know anything about it. I know Leica cameras cost a lot.

Yeah the whole "magic of film" and stuff like that. Not too much nonsense like in audio, but they have their fair share of ardent belief on "that X factor" from X brand without any quantification.
 

Ron Texas

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Do photography buffs buy in to the kind of tweaky stuff that audiophiles like? Are there photographic analogies to magic wire and those sorts of things? I don't know anything about it. I know Leica cameras cost a lot.

It's nowhere as bad as audio.
 
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mi-fu

mi-fu

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Do photography buffs buy in to the kind of tweaky stuff that audiophiles like? Are there photographic analogies to magic wire and those sorts of things? I don't know anything about it. I know Leica cameras cost a lot.

The "magical" stuffs are usually vintage lenses and accessories, like certain Leica lenses, like 35mm double aspherical, old 50mm f1.2, certain camera models like KE-7a, some cine lenses like Dallmeyer super sixes, etc., which can easily go to six figures.
 

anmpr1

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The "magical" stuffs are usually vintage lenses and accessories, like certain Leica lenses, like 35mm double aspherical, old 50mm f1.2, certain camera models like KE-7a, some cine lenses like Dallmeyer super sixes, etc., which can easily go to six figures.
Is that because they are supposed to be 'magic' (some sort of undefined top tier quality) or because they are 'collectible'? Some vintage audio gear has a high price because of the collectable aspect. Old McIntosh amps, early Marantz stuff, and a few others. I don't think anyone thinks they are exceptional from a modern electrical standpoint, but they command high prices because of what they are, and what they represent.

Maybe it's that way with a lot of things. I used to own an IBM Selectric. I mean, it was the McIntosh of typewriters. Or maybe the M1 Abrams tank of typewriters. I think I garage sold it for a few bucks. It broke my heart to let it go, but only for a few minutes and then I forgot about it! :)
 

Rja4000

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Do photography buffs buy in to the kind of tweaky stuff that audiophiles like? Are there photographic analogies to magic wire and those sorts of things? I don't know anything about it. I know Leica cameras cost a lot.
There are a lot of legends regarding photographic gear too...
There even are several web sites that specialize in debunking those through scientific analysis.
But the main thing is: Leica, Hasseblad, Zeiss and the like are Hi End, Niche, Legendary and Luxury, Elitist products, all together.
 

Rja4000

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The "magical" stuffs are usually vintage lenses and accessories, like certain Leica lenses, like 35mm double aspherical, old 50mm f1.2, certain camera models like KE-7a, some cine lenses like Dallmeyer super sixes, etc., which can easily go to six figures.
Or Zeiss Otus...
Or Canon big whites...
Or...
 
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Rja4000

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Nothing is as bad as audio. Unless maybe fragrances..
On photo forums, pretty much like on audio forums, a lot of people write, as given truth, a severe amount of BS too.

And if you're looking after more serious information, you may look into
https://blog.kasson.com/page/3/
Or
http://photonstophotos.net/
Or
https://www.lensrentals.com/blog/2019/11/practical-use-of-field-curvature-graphs-the-50mm-primes/
Or even (given you add some common sense)
https://www.dxomark.com/category/camera-reviews/
 
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Frank Dernie

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The "magical" stuffs are usually vintage lenses and accessories, like certain Leica lenses, like 35mm double aspherical, old 50mm f1.2, certain camera models like KE-7a, some cine lenses like Dallmeyer super sixes, etc., which can easily go to six figures.
I have had both those lenses. The 35mm f1.4 is still my favourite lens, the 50 f1.2 was OK but only special (ie expensive) because of its rarity.
I sold most of my collection (I kept one of the 35mm f1.4 aspherical) as it was my pension fund. It is amazing how much rare Leica stuff had increased in value and very disappointing how badly Nikon and Canon stuff had done, even the very rare stuff.
In general people on the internet seem to be obsessed with lens sharpness, as if it were the only parameter.
Lenses are spectacularly more complex to measure and evaluate (except sharpness) than hifi.
Flare resistance is super important yet there is no accepted test procedure.
One of my favourite lenses, the 28-35-50 tri-Elmar is tiny and astonishingly sharp but in some common lighting conditions has so much flare it looks like it was misted up.
The other thing little mentioned is the mechanical precision needed to keep the plane of focus in the plane of the sensor (and the same plane as the autofocus targets). Not so important with slow zooms because of depth of field but astonishingly so for medium format and fast lenses.
This is rarely measured in reviews.
Overall, if sharpness is your only criterion or sensor performance itself there are plenty of review sites. However a sharp lens that flares or has a lot of field curvature on a camera body with a spectacular sensor which isn't accurately aligned with the lens mounting flange will perhaps give a warm feeling of satisfaction but not such technically good results...
 

Ron Texas

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Yeah, the Nikon 28mm f/1.4 AF (or was it AF-D) used to sell for a premium over it's new price.
 

Rja4000

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I used to own an IBM Selectric. I mean, it was the McIntosh of typewriters. Or maybe the M1 Abrams tank of typewriters.
Rather a Thompson machine gun, given the noise.
My mother used one for years. Now she's seriously deaf :-(
 
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Rja4000

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I have had both those lenses. The 35mm f1.4 is still my favourite lens, the 50 f1.2 was OK but only special (ie expensive) because of its rarity.
I sold most of my collection (I kept one of the 35mm f1.4 aspherical) as it was my pension fund. It is amazing how much rare Leica stuff had increased in value and very disappointing how badly Nikon and Canon stuff had done, even the very rare stuff.
In general people on the internet seem to be obsessed with lens sharpness, as if it were the only parameter.
Lenses are spectacularly more complex to measure and evaluate (except sharpness) than hifi.
Flare resistance is super important yet there is no accepted test procedure.
One of my favourite lenses, the 28-35-50 tri-Elmar is tiny and astonishingly sharp but in some common lighting conditions has so much flare it looks like it was misted up.
The other thing little mentioned is the mechanical precision needed to keep the plane of focus in the plane of the sensor. Not so important with slow zooms because of depth of field but astonishingly so for medium format and fast lenses.
This is rarely measured in reviews.
Overall, if sharpness is your only criterion or sensor performance itself there are plenty of review sites. However a sharp lens that flares or has a lot of field curvature on a camera body with a spectacular sensor which isn't accurately aligned with the lens mounting flange will perhaps give a warm feeling of satisfaction but not such technically good results...
Some serious website are evaluating flare.
It's very difficult to objectively measure it though.

Some other specialize on sharpness or, rather, MTF, which is way easier, but still subject to serious controversy.

Most are using target measurement method (dxo, Imatest are the most widely spread tools) but this is pretty limiting, especially with wide angle, due to target size limitation: you're limited to a distance of around 50-100x the final length, which is not representative of normal use for a wide angle lens. Lensrentals is the only one I know to measure on optical bench at infinity with at least 10 samples.

As you may see in the link I attached above, they also try to subjectively evaluate other interesting topics, like field curvature (a key topic for short, high luminosity lenses) or bokeh quality...
 
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Soniclife

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Nothing is as bad as audio. Unless maybe fragrances..
I'm sure the beauty industry is worse, they probably put literal snake oil into some products.
 

Soniclife

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The camera industry isn't anywhere near as bad as audio, probably more like the pro recording side of audio, where things that perform the same can still make people feel different using them, so you get different results.
 

NTomokawa

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I'm sure the beauty industry is worse, they probably put literal snake oil into some products.
What about alcoholic beverages? What's the difference between Two-Buck Chuck and Château-ci-de-ça? Honest question. I don't drink so I wouldn't know.
 

Soniclife

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What about alcoholic beverages? What's the difference between Two-Buck Chuck and Château-ci-de-ça? Honest question. I don't drink so I wouldn't know.
Similar to the rest of food and drink I would think. There are differences, and blind tests are done to establish preference, but there is also a whole lot of nonsense.
 
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