Re:Why are modern 50mm lenses so damned complicated?
by hilbert42 on Tuesday May 11, 2021 @09:52AM
(#27118124)
"and it would be a worse experience because the extra details reveal the low quality tricks you can get away with on lower reproduction quality"
I'd especially emphasize the 'tricks you can get away with' in low resolution television. A few months ago I was watching a rerun of an early 1960s B&W sitcom on a TV sub-channel running at normal 1080 HD resolution. The program was My Favorite Martian which is a spoofed up science fiction comedy series. The program features a Martian who can disappear and levitate objects so it's not unusual to see things either moving or floating in midair.
Anyway, the tricks employed to levitate things were embarrassingly obvious in standard HD/1080 resolution as it was dead easy to see that they had been suspended on nylon fishing line. When the show was first aired the most common TV standards were 405, 525 and 625 lines so the series producers were betting that the limiting resolution of these TV systems would hide the lines—which clearly they did. BTW, as a young kid I used to watch the show [on 625 B&W], and if I'd have seen that fishing line then I've made a big deal out of the fact.
Incidentally, the early series were in black & white and filmed on 35mm film which meant the original negatives would have been dazzlingly sharp in comparison to the then TV systems. It's interesting to note the present video quality of this series—unlike so many others from the time—is excellent (and that includes the later color episodes). Clearly, the recent transfer/digitization was done from negatives have been archived well. It's especially obvious in the color series which are of exceptionally good color quality given the passage of time (there's not a trace of fade, cross-coupling of color dyes or color bleed which plagues so many old films).
I'd especially emphasize the 'tricks you can get away with' in low resolution television. A few months ago I was watching a rerun of an early 1960s B&W sitcom on a TV sub-channel running at normal 1080 HD resolution. The program was My Favorite Martian which is a spoofed up science fiction comedy series. The program features a Martian who can disappear and levitate objects so it's not unusual to see things either moving or floating in midair.
Anyway, the tricks employed to levitate things were embarrassingly obvious in standard HD/1080 resolution as it was dead easy to see that they had been suspended on nylon fishing line. When the show was first aired the most common TV standards were 405, 525 and 625 lines so the series producers were betting that the limiting resolution of these TV systems would hide the lines—which clearly they did. BTW, as a young kid I used to watch the show [on 625 B&W], and if I'd have seen that fishing line then I've made a big deal out of the fact.
Incidentally, the early series were in black & white and filmed on 35mm film which meant the original negatives would have been dazzlingly sharp in comparison to the then TV systems. It's interesting to note the present video quality of this series—unlike so many others from the time—is excellent (and that includes the later color episodes). Clearly, the recent transfer/digitization was done from negatives have been archived well. It's especially obvious in the color series which are of exceptionally good color quality given the passage of time (there's not a trace of fade, cross-coupling of color dyes or color bleed which plagues so many old films).