Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2003/04/19
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Hi Jesse I hope you are not seriously considering taking these guys advice they don't know their tush from a hole in the ground! In theatrical photography the difference between a 135 and a 180 is between rows 128 and 137. The thirty two dollar seats and the thirty eight dollar seats. It seems one could crawl forward 5 or 10 rows and not bring the show to a stop or loose ones sight lines! To me the cropping is occuring because the shot's you are doing are being rethunk after they are shot and that happens. Was there a grain problem or not? And I forgot what you're using but try Fuji's 1600 pro film NPZ. Looks like 200 ASA film to me! It cost an extra buck a roll but the packaging makes it worth it. They use all kinds of high tech metallic inks, make me think I can win a major prize with each roll i shoot! Also do I recall you use a Rapidwinder? If so a Rapidwinder or winder would counterbalance a 135 3.4 perfectly for extended shooting. I shot a half a roll with the 2.8 and those goggles turned my camera into an entirely different beast. It was solid and impressive and very heavy (with winder i think). The 3.4 Asph is a half stop slower then the 2.8. Because of the way things go with Asph's and modern lens design or modern Leica lens design you can shoot wide open and stopping down is really not worth it. It's a wide open shooting lens as most modern Leica lense are tending to me. Super high quality. Wide open. And the winder and framelines are no darker as if we needed to remind ourselves with a 3.4 than a 2.8! I say that because we all come from SLR backgrounds. And the way we think is: Oh a 3.4 that's very nice no thank you!) because we want that brighter snappier groundglass! Well who needs those infernal groundglasses! And yes I'm sure the quality would be in small print only slightly better than a Nikon 2.8 180 stopped down two stops to 5.6. In effect to come close to Leica quality it is a 5.6 lens. But then you weren't interested in a 5.6 lens were you? Unless next year they come out with an ASA 6400 film with the quality of a 400 film. An event i fully expect. No I think you get what you pay for. The idea of telephoto shooting with the Leica M cameras and lenses seems to really freak people out. Even M shooters grain. The insistence over and over is that it is a wide eagle camera. Well I disagree my 135 3.4 was one of my first lenses i got it before i got my 24 even. I find rangefinder shooting with a 135 a breeze. The smallish framelines are an asset not a liability. Shots are composed for what's not in them, instead of what's in the shot. Very Zen. Very Gestalt. Very effective. For my 35mm work slr's are a necessary evil hopefully avoided for macro and longer lens photography. My feelings are "does it really need a 180? or can it really be done with the 135? and try to make it work with the 135. So far it's very very rare that the 135 has not been fine for the job" But most go "don't use the 135 get a Leica or any SLR and shoot with a 180" Perhaps that special formula designed for Leni Riefenstahl for the Berlin Olympics which comes down to us in so many forms. By the way I started my theatrical shooting with only a 50 in 1970. I did the photography for the Chicago premier performance of "Joe Egg." A play which remains popular. We also did Borstal Boy, Private Lives with Brian Bedford and Tammy Grimes, The Hostage by Brendan Behan and our Producer brought over the ACT company of San Francisco who did Checkovs Three women and i free reign on that. Also the New York city ballet came over and I shot a dress rehearsal. Dancers standing around casually with their ankle behind their neck and a cigarette in the other hand. That was the first time I ever saw leg warmers. Gee! All with a 50 Zeiss Planar on a Contarex bullseye. A lens so good it sends shivers through a person. Sorry Leica!. Some with a Voigtländer Vito BL with 50 Skopar. Some were head shots of the actors for the program and TV and newspaper. Others were shots from the wings or the over head "clouds", (catwalks). All on Tri X at 800 in Acufine. Lots depends on how free you are to move around folks. And what the penalty is when you move around too much. :) Mark Rabiner Portland, Oregon USA http://www.rabinergroup.com - -- To unsubscribe, see http://mejac.palo-alto.ca.us/leica-users/unsub.html