Magic

[Peter Klein]

I think "magic" is just a buzzword for a lens characteristic that is different from what we see in most pictures, and that we find pleasing. Usually it's about optical flaws that look pretty to us. The problem is that one person's pretty is another person's poison, hence the arguments.

Me, I love the DR Summicron. It's very sharp, but it's also got this nice way of slightly bleeding very bright highlights into adjacent dark areas. "Glow," if you will.

Another "magic" lens for me is the Summitar at f/2, especially in color with colored lights in the background.

Would you believe I love the humble Jupiter-8 at f/2.8 and 4? At those stops, it's a magic time machine--it makes things look like the 1930s. It's a Sonnar thing.

--Peter

 

[Gabriel M.A.]

The magic, if such there be, is in the person's perception of the item, not the item itself.

Kung-Fu Panda fan, eh? Yeah, the Secret Ingredient for noodle soup is in you!

 

[charjohncarter]

sonofdanang, por nada, you are 100% correct: fuzzy semantics, misunderstandings, misinterpretations and incorrect connotations are what cause problems in this goofy world. I, respectfully, stand corrected.

 

[helen.HH]

Magic to me......
the 35 Summaron & the 21 SA

Best-H
🙂

 

[bmattock]

Kung-Fu Panda fan, eh? Yeah, the Secret Ingredient for noodle soup is in you!

Sorry, missing the reference here.

 

[Gumby]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kung_Fu_Panda

 

[bmattock]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kung_Fu_Panda

Ah, you'll have to forgive me. I don't watch TV.

 

[Gabriel M.A.]

Sorry, missing the reference here.

http://ru.truveo.com/Kung-Fu-Panda-Video-Clip-Secret-Ingredient-Soup/id/2242725985

 

[Gabriel M.A.]

Ah, you'll have to forgive me. I don't watch TV.

::sigh:: ... I guess in Git'er-Done terms, you can say that it boils down to saying: "it's all in your head!"

Silly people with their cultural references. :bang:

 

[charjohncarter]

I don't watch TV either. But I do know that one lens can make you happy and other ones make you wonder why to bought them, regardless of price and brand name.

 

[JonasYip]

JonasYip, I like your images and your sites, very much. It isn't too hard to pick the magnifier lens images. Are they 35mm or something else? They are probably computer generated magnifying lenses, but still, I may visit the 99 cent store near me. Thanks!

Thanks! I used 35mm print film for those, on SLRs (FM2n or FM3) since I need to see in order to "focus". But I only used film because my "DX" DSLRS would have cropped off all of the weird fuzzy stuff near the edges.. the good stuff. But now that I have a FF sensor I use that instead...

j

 

[Ronald_H]

Magic is a very subjective term. But the 40mm f1.7 lens in the Canonet GIII QL17 gives me results that really thrill me for something I bought for 20 Euros. Why don't they put lenses like that on today's compacts???

 

[ClaremontPhoto]

I often use the term 'magic light' and can see a coherence among photos made in that light more than I can identify just which lens I used for them.

 

[aizan]

i have so few lenses, they all seem magical to me.

 

[laurentb]

I have a few lenses, but the sharpest ones don't have the magic of some older ones.

My favorites are the Tessar on my Rolleiflex, and the equivalent Yashinon on the Yashica Mat.

 

[dee]

Sometimes something just clicks .
In trying out my ex-USSR lenses on the M 8 , without much hope , I found that a really clean Fed collapsible created a kind of '' crisp sparkle ''. I can't expalin it , can't descibe it ,can't justify it .
it's probably not acceptably '' sharp '' , could not possibly match any modern lens , but it's consisitent , and , the proof for me , is that I keep coming back to it !

 

[cam]

love = magic

if you love a lens (for whatever subjective reason), you will bond with it and use it more.

you will get to know its strength, its weaknesses, and work with those unconsciously to make your photographs. my magic lens may be different from yours, but i believe the way you feel about your lens does show in the final image. i frankly don't care much whether people feel as strong as i do about a particular lens -- only that they feel that strongly about some lens. if a lens is merely a tool, not something you feel passionately about, it usually shows in the pictures. then again, falling for a lens (particularly fast ones) can lead you to take the most boring pics imaginable, simply because you're enthralled with the footprint. this is fine (guilty of this myself -- i just don't show anyone) as long as you know that....

i believe in magic!

but i believe it's you that makes it so....

 

[P. Lynn Miller]

A magic lens...

Yes and no...
The Nikkor 105mm f2.5 is just such a lens, is it magic...
Probably not, but in capable hands it can deliver magic photographs.

While I firmly believe that it is ultimately up to the photographer...
and the camera/lens plays a minor role...
There is no denying that some tools 'bond' better than others...
just ask a master carver about his favorite chisels.
He could carve a rose with any chisel, but 'his' chisels of choice...
Just feel better, more a part of his hand...
So it comes more easily and naturally to make a masterpiece.

So it is with cameras, some cameras bond better to different people...
While the magic photograph could have been made with any camera or lens,
The bond between the camera and photographer can determine the ease and confidence
With which the photographer can make photographs.

This is not new, talk to any master of a trade or skill...
From race car drivers to jet pilots to riflemen to chefs and butchers...
Each and every one will have his 'magic' tool.

 

[cam]

i am reviving this thread because i got magic last night.

i believed in it before, but now i am simply stunned. believe is too weak a word.... the Noctilux is capable of pulling shadows from near, if not absolute, blackness. how does it do this?

magic is all i can think.

magic!

 

[maddoc]

That, pulling shadows from near blackness and drawing texture from structures in deep shadows, is the "special" thing about the Noctilux. 🙂

Welcome to the "club" ! 😀😉

Cheers,

Gabor