Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1996/11/13
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Hello, I am a Norwegian street photographer and freelance translator living in Paris for the last 12 years. I=20 found this forum looking for Leica-links, and I think it is both useful and good! I am preparing my=20 own Homepage, and I will for sure include a link to "leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us".=20 I am a "Leicaist" since many years. I bought my first Leica M 4 in 1971, when I passed the Highschool.=20 I lost it in Beirut in 1982, while I was serving in the United Nations Interim Forces in South Lebanon.=20 I changed it to a Leica M4P and so forth. Today I have my 3rd M6... Unfortunately I was obliged to sell my Leica equipment several times, due to financial problems. It was=20 terrible each time! And I felt somehow naked afterwards. I have had different lenses, but now I have only two Summicrons: 35 and 50 mm, preferring the last.=20 My granduncle, H.U. Sverdrup, who was a famous norwegian polar explorer, used Leicas during expeditions in the 20s and 30s. I still have one Leica II which belonged to him. It works, but needs some repairing. I was very sensible to the Leica history when I was young and was admiring the french and american Leica photographers, especially the Humanist movement and the Magnum people. I am still sensible to this, but times are changing. Instead of repairing the old Leica II, I bought an used Contax T2 compact camera for the same price as=20 the repair would have cost me. It was stolen last winter, but it was a very nice camera even if the=20 Carl Zeiss Sonnar lens is more contrasted than Leica lenses for b & w. I am doing 99,9 % b & w, and now I=20 am looking for another good compact camera again. It is amazing how convenient it is to have such a=20 camera in the pocket wherever you go. Some weeks ago I went to London with my family. I had borrowed a Leica Minilux (black version) from a friend of mine, and I did not bring my M6 at all.=20 The Minilux has got a very good lens! I developed the films (Tri X and HP5)from London and made some 30 x 40=20 prints using a big Devere (4x5=92) magnifier with a Rodenstock lens at the Imaginoir lab in Paris.=20 (The =AB boss =BB, Jean-Yves Br=E9gand, is a good friend of mine. They are= doing lab works for Jean-Loup Sieff,=20 Sebastiao Salgado, Peter Lindbergh, Sarah Moon, Raymond D=E9pardon, Francis Giacobetti a/o.).=20 I could not see any differences between the Minilux 40 mm Summarit and my 50 mm Summicron... not bad for=20 a camera built by Panasonic with the lens built by Hoya (somebody told me). It is true, the viewfinder in the Minilux is very small (0,35x), almost poor and ridiculous, and I am=20 ashamed on behalf of Leica seeing such a nonsense on a high end compact camera. Another thing, why shall=20 this flash always open in Auto mode? It would be nice if the selected functions would not be turned off=20 when the camera is turned off. Is it possible to modify the IC? I do not understand why the product developers=20 at Leica did it that way!=20 The other day I saw the new Minolta compact camera, TC-1, and took some pictures with it (have not=20 developed yet). What a wonderful camera! The problem is that I do not like 28 mm lenses too much. But what a great viewfinder Minolta has made.=20 I thought Leica and Minolta had some sort of industrial co-operation. Why did they go to Panasonic to make this "half fish, half bird" Minilux? Unbelievable! I need a small, in-pocket camera to tote around while walking in the streets of Paris or travelling around=20 elsewhere. I want a point-and-shoot that gives me creative control as well as the ability to take a=20 brainless 1 second picture. I want to be an "invisible" photographer, able to take a picture unnoticed. This is the original Leica/Barnack concept as far as I can see. The camera should be almost silent,=20 and make almost no vibration. I can usually take handhold pictures down to 1/8 with no serious problems,=20 and even longer with some luck. I am not sure I will buy a Minilux, in spite of the lens quality. Perhaps I will take another Contax T2 even if it is not "perfect" either. It is still the most ergonomic and intuitive camera in the Titan series.=20 Many years of computer working have weakened my eyes. Now I need AF to work quickly and surely. I do not=20 know if I am going to keep my Leica M6 or sell it again. If Leica could make a new and better Minilux 2, same=20 size, or smaller, same lens, or a fast 35 mm with: 1) more accurate framing and a better viewfinder (perhaps a little more to the left, not in the middle, with aperture and shutter speed information) 2) no auto flash mode as default -- selected functions would not be turned off when the camera is turned off 3) manual ISO in addition to DX -- I don't like having to use exposure compensation to adjust film speed I think time has come for me to change, not philosophy, but technology. The philosophy will remain. I will make=20 pictures the same way and also make the same sort of pictures.=20 The Leica M system is still a great working tool if you need several lenses. The annoying part of the=20 Leica story is the growing decadence, all these limited series for collectors and the ignorant rich=20 upper class (cf. The Bruckner M6). In fact I am thinking that even the Minilux was made for these people, as a status symbol. It is not easy to make pictures with it! As we know that is the main purpose for a camera... Sorry this is so long!... All the best Oddmund Garvik