Re: Snobby Leica/MFvsAF

[Donal Philby <donalphilby@earthlink.net>]

David,

Wonderful "war" story.   It makes my little jaunt seem like a walk in
the park.  Sometimes just being there is so much of the picture.  Being
there with skill is another level.

I agree with you about the F5 etc..  I have sort of resigned myself to
having to own an extensive Nikon system just for those occasional jobs
where AF and one handed zooms are vital.  After looking at new Leica
prices, especially for stuff like the 70-180, the Nikon begins to look
like cheap throwaways.   And I don't like rentals much, though I do it a
lot, especially to carry backup I seldom need.  But little of my work
these days would be very convenient with Ms.  So the ongoing Leica
delema--Do we get great lenses and sacrifice features or get wonderful
features and sacrifice lens quality.  

Interestingly, most of my clients would be more impressed with a Nikon
or Hasselblad than a Leica.  Name recognition.

Donal Philby
San Diego

David W. Almy wrote:
> 

> We flew up to Connecticut to meet up with the plane in, as I remember it,
> January, with a ground temperature hovering about 30 degrees with snow on
> the ground. Took the double door off the back of a Beech Baron, a twin
> engine piston airplane, into which I climbed with a motorized F3, a 180 2.8
> ED and a 105 2.5, and a few others. I sat in the back of the Baron by the
> large hole in the fuselage where the door used to be with the heaviest
> parka I had, no seat belt, and much dread. The two smart pilots sat up
> front, one to watch me and take direction by hand signals, the other to
> drive the plane.
> 
> We met up with the Challenger at about 6,000 feet over Long Island Sound,
> at full throttle, with the wind in my hair whipping by at 160 knots, a
> speed necessary to keep up with the jet. Of course, temperature drops with
> altitude, and with wind chill, well I probably was attempting to
> orchestrate formation flying between a jet and a piston airplane using hand
> signals while taking pictures at -200 degrees Fahrenheit (or at least it
> seemed that cold).
> 
> These were pre-autofocus days (I think the F3AF was just out) so the drill
> involved focusing and firing like mad (while the airplanes flew in a, for
> them, lazy circle) for 20 seconds and then ditching the camera and holding
> my ungloved (to run the controls) hands directly in front of a blessedly
> volcanic heating vent. This freeze/thaw cycle was repeated until I began to
> completely run out of light, and my bodily fluids began to solidify. I have
> never been so cold in my life, before or since.
> 
> The pictures (Kodachrome) were good (not great) but I was rewarded in July
> with a cover shot taken head-on of the jet with the pilots grinning in late
> day winter sun at 6,000 feet over the Atlantic. It was a treat to see the
> magazine up in the clothes pins of the news stands of Grand Central Station
> in New York. But all I really remember is the cold.
> 
> What would I shoot with today? An F5 or N90s, as autofocus is such a help
> in such circumstances, and the 80-200 2.8 ED-IF. I could use, and would
> buy, an R8 for other missions, but not this one.
> 
> And yes, I love my M6.
> 
> David W. Almy