Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2006/03/15

[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]

Subject: [Leica] Use of Film, Leicas Cause Ex-LUG-ger to Post Again
From: rpalmier at depaul.edu (bob palmieri)
Date: Wed Mar 15 15:30:24 2006

Y'all -

I've been off the LUG since last summer, when I had the experience of 
traveling around the Northeastern USA with a number of different things 
to shoot.  I carried my 20D with four lenses and my M6, also with four 
lenses.
Try as I did, I couldn't seem to shoot a single frame of film for the 
entire week long trip.  I figured my favorite film rigs were history.

Recently, however, I've found myself shooting Leicas with Film and 
feeling pretty good about the experience.  Here are some examples...

In this shot of a labor rally here in Chicago, the 15mm Voightlander 
and a CL loaded with Fuji (low contrast 4-layer portrait film) seemed 
ideal for dealing with wildly mixed light and close quarters (the 
vignetting is kinda cool, too):

http://gallery.leica-users.org/album389/stroger_labor_rally_21

In this early morning low angle sunlight streetshot in Brooklyn I felt 
that the ability of the Kodak 400CN to deal with a very wide lighting 
ratio without burning out the highlights was helpful (M6 w/50mm 
collapsible Summicron):

http://gallery.leica-users.org/album389/99_cent_3600_med_cntrst

And this interior snap (M6, 21CV on Neopan in T-Max) also seems to hold 
detail across a wide range of brightnesses with that familiar grainy 
texture:

http://gallery.leica-users.org/album389/Excercise_Program_1

On the other hand, this 20D shot (in the alley behind a fancy 
restaurant in downtown Chicago) kinda looks to me like it might have 
looked a little better if I had used one of those film rigs:

http://gallery.leica-users.org/album389/alley_soccer_52_b_w_jpeg

'Course, the DSLR has been a great tool in a whole lot of other 
situations in the studio and out shooting live music... although come 
to think about it there was one time when the damn clack & whirr of the 
peskey thing prevented me from shooting at all during a recital of 20th 
century piano music.

So, count me in as one of those who hopes that enough of these archaic 
tools and materials stick around for awhile...  'Meantime, I'm sure the 
digiworld will be catching up with the need for quiet, small cameras 
with optical viewfinders and wide dynamic range sensors (I'm sure the 
"grain simulators" will be improving as well.)

Comments, of course, are welcome, I think...

Bob Palmieri



Replies: Reply from bdcolen at comcast.net (B. D. Colen) ([Leica] Use of Film, Leicas Cause Ex-LUG-ger to Post Again)
Reply from bruce at ralgo.nl (bruce) ([Leica] Use of Film, Leicas Cause Ex-LUG-ger to Post Again)
Reply from philippe.orlent at pandora.be (Philippe Orlent) ([Leica] Use of Film, Leicas Cause Ex-LUG-ger to Post Again)
Reply from ricc at mindspring.com (Ric Carter) ([Leica] Use of Film, Leicas Cause Ex-LUG-ger to Post Again)
Reply from robertmeier at usjet.net (Robert Meier) ([Leica] Use of Film, Leicas Cause Ex-LUG-ger to Post Again)