Malcolm_Stewart
Pooh-Bah
Reged: 11/07/2005
Posts: 2373
Loc: Milton Keynes, UK
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I've come across the following quote on a page describing the Voigtlander 12-on-120 Perkeo II.
Quote:
The first folding camera that really impressed me was the Voigtlander Perkeo II. The Color-Skopar lens is wonderful; it seems to render images with a little more 3-dimensionality than other Tessar-type lenses I've used.
I'm puzzled as to what the writer is getting at. I haven't done any formal tests of MF camera lenses, but are his comments alluding to the artistic effects of well corrected astigmatism and/or spherical aberration? Is it another word for "bokeh"? Would the effects show when viewing an inkjet print?
Very many years ago I carried out detailed lens tests on my Contaflex 1 45mm f2.8 Tessar and my Vito II 50mm f3.5 Color Skopar. I was surprised at the large differences I found, but have no idea whether the same design philosophy carried over to MF lenses. The Tessar was very sharp in the centre even at f2.8 but had distinct curvature of field, whilst the Color-Skopar had a flat field and never reached the very high resolution heights that my Tessar managed.
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Malcolm Stewart
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huwevans
Old Hand
Reged: 05/08/2000
Posts: 15272
Loc: Dorset, UK
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I can't say for certain, but I think you might be on the right lines when you mention bokeh. I think when people talk about 3-dimensionality in a picture they usually mean something about the way a subject stands out from its background in a shallow depth of field situation. So the character of OOF regions could perhaps have a positive effect on that. Couple good bokeh with good contrast and 3-dimensionality might well be a natural analogy to use for the results.
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Huw Evans.
  
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Lounge Lizard
Old Wrinkly
Reged: 17/01/2004
Posts: 17885
Loc: Cambridge, Cambridgeshire
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Quote:
Is it another word for "bokeh"? Would the effects show when viewing an inkjet print?
Bokeh is a function of the taking lens irrespective of the output device used so it will be seen equally well on an inkjet print as a darkroom print but may well look more acute on an inkjet print if the image has been poorly manipulated. In other words, sharpening or adjustments to curves and levels may increase the contrast in out-of-focus highlights or even burn them out.
I would guess that 3-dimensionality is very difficult to convey in words and may mean different things to different people. On the one hand, it may mean that the rendered image is very natural looking and well-corrected but on the other, it may well mean that that certain lens aberrations are causing a kind of optical illusion leading us to think that the scene is more than just a 2D representation on a flat sheet of paper.
Certainly, more comparisons were made between lenses many years ago. Some lenses were sharp and critical, some imparted a cooler tone, some were a little softer but gave a warmer tone etc. Depending whether you were a portrait photographer, a wedding photographer, a landscape photographer, an architectural photographer or doing technical/record photography, you would choose a lens on those characteristics. Cameras like Rolleiflexes and Zeiss Ikontas were offered with different lenses even though they may have the same focal length and maximum aperture. These days, in the 35mm/DSLR market, choice is made on speed, sharpness, price and image stabilisation and these other somewhat subjective qualities are often overlooked.
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Lounge Lizard
Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm.
Winston Churchill
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Benchista
Wich Tyler
Reged: 11/08/2000
Posts: 36966
Loc: Everywhere and nowhere, baby
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Thanks, David, you've saved me a lot of typing. 
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Nick
www.nbrphoto.com
Light and Shade II - the new blog
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Lounge Lizard
Old Wrinkly
Reged: 17/01/2004
Posts: 17885
Loc: Cambridge, Cambridgeshire
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Quote:
Thanks, David, you've saved me a lot of typing.
Well, you can take my words and re-post them and I'll delete mine.
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Lounge Lizard
Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm.
Winston Churchill
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beejaybee
Marvin
Reged: 18/07/2007
Posts: 4442
Loc: Really Here In Name Only
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Quote:
I'm puzzled as to what the writer is getting at.
So am I. The only "three dimensionality" I'm aware of is with colour images - only transparencies, in my experience - where objects which are bright orange or red may appear to be closer than other objects in the image, even when this is obviously not the case from perspective or other clues. For instance, a bright red sweater seeming to be much closer than the rest of the clothing being worn by the same person.
For me, this phenomenon is more marked when the transparency is viewed with one of those cheap hand viewers than it is with a decent projector, possibly because of uncorrected chromatic aberration in the viewer optics. It does vary with the film and exposure - slightly underexposed transparencies show the effect to a greater extent, because of the higher colour saturation I suppose, whilst contrasty images also show the effect more markedly; the film types which I've noted as showing this effect most strongly are Fuji Velvia and Kodachrome 64.
I can't say that I've noted any particular variation between lenses.
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