The 1950s origins of MFLenses forum

[alex ph]

Many of you should already know that amazing 2007 article by Herbert Keppler who tells a story of how lens comparison fever started in the 1950s. It was launched by journalists and Life magazine first, making tests between Leica/Zeiss and Nikor, then contaminated amateur photographers assisted by pro photo stores, finally reached the Popular Photography pages. Shooting brick walls and testing tables was all invented at that time. Aren't we all unconsciouss successors of a photojournalist David Douglas who introduced in all that fuss?

[kansalliskala]

interesting link

[luisalegria]

The article about Duncan and his Nikkors, by Bruce Downes, is in the March 1951 copy of Popular Photography in Google Books.

There is just a short bit, a couple of paragraphs, about the Nikkors.

https://books.google.com/books id=lF0zAQAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false

[ZoneV]

I don´t shot brick walls.
At work I do a lot of lens testing with an Imatest setup. But for my hobby photography I do no real testing. I make some fes images, and see wheter it is OK or too bad for taking a lens / experimental lens outdoors for some real images or a photosession.
Don´t care about MTF values, coma, distortion,..

[scsambrook]

That's iindeed an interesting article by by Keppler, although it only hints at the complexity of how Nikkor lenses were brought into being and acquired their early reputation. For those interested in learning more, it's worth looking for a copy of The Nikon Camera in America, 1946-1953 by Michael Wescott Loder.

I'm not sure that compartive testing of lenses only began in the photographic press of the 1950s. Photographers were maing preferences for one lens over others back into the late 19th century -although not by photographing brick walls, newspapers or bar charts. They just photographed the 'real world' subjects that interested them photographically. In that sense, MFL members are the "unconscious successors" of Victorian era camera users, not just the relative youngsters from the 1950s

[Ray Parkhurst]

I do many lens tests and comparisons each month, but I don't use any "standard" method. I just shoot coins, and compare the quality of the images. There are actually quite a few things you can see in real-world images that the standard lens test methods don't capture. Shooting shiny textured metal brings out the worst (and sometimes best) in a lens.

[kds315*]