[Leica] Re: 50mm challenge (was sneak thief photographers!)

[Donald Ingram <Donald_Ingram@compuserve.com>]

Ted,

You 50mm challenge struck a cord with me. 

I also  recently rediscovered the joys of  the  one lens one camera
approach to life - with a Minox AX.
This tiny camera now never leaves my side.

The 8x11mm neg size also concentrates the mind wonderfully - form and
composition are everything .
The pure mechanics of the camera make you stop and think  about exposure
and film.

Getting back to Leica ( mind you Leica owns Minox ) :

How many would buy a new Leica pocket camera that is truer  to the leica M 
and LTM spirit  than the minilux etc.

1.. Pure mechanical:  wind, focus, apertures  and shutter  (no electronics
or battery)
2.. Fixed focal length,  but collapsable, 40..50mm f/2.8 lens 
2.. 35mm film
3.. Size and weight  of a Minox GTE but shape of a LTM camera
4.. Light  cast magnesium body

It would not be cheap,  but Minox managed to sell 222 black, battery less,
mechanical AX cameras in the last couple  of years for $1500 each. They
also sold 500  silver AX cameras a couple of years before that.

Anyone else want to campaign  for a true pocket Leica ?

Donald.










 

From: tedgrant@islandnet.com (Ted Grant)
Subject: Re: [Leica] Re:  sneak thief photographers!


While you were away this spring my associate and I did a "50mm challenge"
.....

The idea was to only use 50mm and to make the best pictures possible night
and day.  Well when this happens to a photographer who has had the luxury
of many lens and cameras for use at any time, it truly was a challenge for
the first day. Frustrating at times to say the least. But then I settled
down and began to look with 50mm eyes. :)

Then it was taking a little more time for compositional consideration,
anticipation of situation and waiting for the "bodies to walk into the
frame" . Slowly we began to shoot some very interesting images to the
extent that some appeared to have been shot with wide angles (this occurred
due to composition and using lines of subject to create the wide angle
look.

We also had images that appeared as macro lens shots, simply by screwing
the lens to it's closest focus point and working with very wide apertures
dropping the backgrounds into a mush of colour. A very interesting effect
when some folks viewing the images thought we had used macro's.

Taking ones time and being far more critical of elements within the scene,
we found the 50mm lens a very valuable tool. Unfortunately it is dismissed
by many photographers and relegated to the cupboard shelf in lieu of the
35mm focal length.

ted
<