[Leica] F 5.6 and don't be there!

[faneuil at gmail.com (Eric Korenman)]

AH!
I can always count on 'ole faithful to blow (plus or minus 30 posts)

cocktail anyone?
Eric

On 4/21/08, Mark Rabiner <mark@rabinergroup.com> wrote:
> Leicas are impossible. Implausible. Unworkable.
> The wrong tool for the wrong job every single time
> Unviable. Unenviable
> The unviability of so much of Leica gear is a resurgent recurrent thread on
> the LEICA USERS GROUP the entire dozen or so years
> i've been on it; or in it.
> The Noctilux a prime recurring culprit.
> Yet the Noctilux seems to be the glass of  choice for Ted and I see  just
> last week Tina and certainly in the past Rei Shinozuka and a other masters.
> I have used it a whole bunch.
> Not missed the focus on that many shots.
>
> The modus operandi of Noctilux  might seem to be
> f 1 AND BE THERE!!!
>
> But in effect
> IT JUST AIN'T SO!
> Its more of an f 1000th of a second and be there kind of deal in real
> practice at least for me. I bet for others. You'd hear them say so in their
> sleep.
> As a day in the life light just does not cooperate.
> You end up having to STOP DOWN. The horrors!
> But with all your shudder speeds at 1000th.
> That's the constant.
>
> An ideal working situation for a die hard Noctilux user would seem to be to
> have two bodies. One with slow film 50 or 100 so you could f 1 till the 
> cows
> come home.*
> AND one with 400 or 1600 so you could really use the lens for its intended
> use. Shooting junkies in dark alleys between garbage cans petting their
> black cats at midnight. With someone's flashlight shooting into the top 
> left
> hand corner of the lens just right off axis.
>
> I don't even know what the top shudder speed is with an M8. But I bet it
> makes Noctilux shooting more fun as its probably a lot faster than f 
> 1000th.
> ....
> Ok I checked, its 8000th. Three clicks up from 1000th.
> Which is the difference between 100 and 400 film.
> I'd think f 8000th of a second and be there with a Noct would be loads of
> fun. You'd only need one camera.
> But shooting white bed sheet ads in the Bonneville salt flats at the SUMMER
> SOLSTICE AT HIGH NOON you'd have to stop down to f 5.6 or further even at
> ISO 100.
> Thereby blowing your whole shoot as we hear now.
>  F 5.6 AND DON'T BE THERE!!!
> Is what we are hearing now.
> I've shot hundreds of shots having to stop down right around there and did
> the depth of my Pan F or Delta 100 or Neopan 1600 save me?
> This DOES NOT ring that little bell in my head which tells me that things
> are honkey dory.
> My nose is sniffing.
>
> I suggest those with Noctili I guess you need to have M8's have an
> F 5.6 and be there day.
> Blacktape your f stop dial to that station.
> And go out and shoot like crazy and see if anything comes out when you get
> it back from the drug store.
> I bet almost all of it does.
>
> Then post it to the LUG.
>
>
>
>
> * or with an M8 firmware update to instate what's known in Nikon world to 
> be
> AUTO ISO
> Which I don't leave home without.
> You can set your shudder and f stop parameters
> And have your ISO do the moving around.
>
>
> Mark William Rabiner
> markrabiner.com
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Leica Users Group.
> See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information
>