Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2009/04/09

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Subject: [Leica] Hyperfocal distance
From: wildlightphoto at earthlink.net (wildlightphoto at earthlink.net)
Date: Thu, 9 Apr 2009 12:28:59 -0400

Sonny Carter wrote:

>>>
We have never been able to domesticate auto-focus.  It does what it wants to
most of the time.
<<<

I'm still seething from my latest brush with camera automation.  It's one
of those stories about the one(s) that got away: how I spent an hour
paddling to the location, finding my subject and having the incredibly good
fortune of having the loon eating a fish within 20' of the kayak in good
light for at least a minute with flat water (stable kayak) and a perfect
reflection in the water, and making several exposures while failing to
notice the camera's mode switch had been bumped to (a) instead of where I
thought I had left it, (m).  Maybe I made up the part about the fish but
everything else is true.

Result: badly clipped highlights.  F*** automation, f*** the
does-it-all-if-you-can-set-the-switches-and-modes-right design mentality. 
I want a digital SL with DMR image quality: an awesome viewfinder, RAW
only, manual exposure only and (obviously) manual focus only; a histogram
for review.  I'd rather concentrate on light & subject than modes, meter
patterns, algorithms and overrides, especially when I also have to pay
attention to wind, current, yaw, wakes and whether the paddle is falling
overboard.  I had to restrain myself from pitching the thing into the lake.
The f***ing mode switch is getting a healthy dose of gaffer's tape.

Doug Herr
Birdman of Sacramento
http://www.wildlightphoto.com

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