[Leica] The Leica M8.2 Experience

[r.s.taylor at comcast.net (Richard Taylor)]

David - That's pretty much what I do with my D300.  I set ISO and  
aperture for the conditions at hand and flail away!  I've even taped  
over one control to keep from hitting it accidentally.

... not so sure about that statement about time.  You'd have a hard  
time convincing me I could somehow revisit the lunch I just had.   
Time's arrow flies...


Regards,

Dick



On Jul 15, 2009, at 12:51 PM, David Rodgers wrote:

> Richard wrote:
>
>>> Just the right functionality to do the job at hand simply,  
>>> elegantly,
>
> and at minimal cost, sums the concept up for me.  The M3 had it in
> spades.  The D700 almost has it and would if it were less complex
> functionally, the GRD2 has it too.<<
>
> Funny you should mention the D700 functionality. I've become so
> accustomed to using only the few functions that I need - when using  
> my 3
> R lenses -- that everything is amazingly quick and simple. I mainly  
> just
> change the ISO. I also have the function button programmed so I can
> quickly change the custom lens focal length (28, 50 or 90).
>
> Everything including WB and exposure are so right on most of the time
> that I don't even think about it. Besides, I shoot RAW and can  
> adjust WB
> later. Sometimes, though it's rare, I'll adjust exposure compensation,
> or bracket. It's getting so I know when the exposure might be fooled
> (even before I chimp).
>
> The camera uses average weighted or spot metering with non CPU lenses.
> It doesn't call on a group of mathematicians to calculate exposure.  
> More
> like one guy using a slide rule. Yet he seems to know what he's doing.
>
> There's something to be said for simplicity. All the stuff that I  
> don't
> use I don't miss. I call it the reverse 80286 effect. Back in the  
> early
> 80's I was content with my IBM 8086 PC. Then I got an 80286 machine  
> and
> I didn't know how I survived before. Eventually I was never satisfied
> with existing technology, because I always knew that something better
> was on the horizon.
>
> Then I read Brian Geene's "The Fabric of the Cosmos" and I realized  
> that
> time doesn't really flow or have direction. Our minds are just fooled
> into believing that. Physicists say that all that will happen and all
> that has happened currently exists. We just remember the past, can't
> remember the future, and we think we're in the present, thus time  
> seems
> to have a flow.
>
> I don't really understand it, but Physicists are the same guy's who
> discovered those laws regarding why lenses can't be perfect, and  
> since I
> know they're right about that (based on my experience of owning just
> about every lens made at one time or another) I give them the  
> benefit of
> the doubt on the time thing.
>
> So I searched for and found a black hole in the bottom of my old
> Billingham bag (boy was it dark and empty) and I went back in time.  
> Now
> I don't remember autofocus lenses. I can't recall matrix metering. I
> don't know what I'm missing. I do, OTOH, enjoy the silky smooth feel  
> of
> the manual focus of Leica lenses, which BTW all modern non-Leica  
> lenses
> lack; and which seems to support the theory that we in fact might be
> going from a state of higher to lower entropy instead of visa versa.
>
> All those buttons on the D700 are for futurists, which I'm not. I just
> love my Leica lenses. FWIW, the 50/2 Summicron, which really acts  
> like a
> 50 on the D700, is currently my favorite. It's like butter, and on the
> D700 it's like a Noctilux. A buttery Noctilux that cost so much less
> than the real thing you'd need a slide rule to figure out the savings!
>
> Dave R
>
>
>
>
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