Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1999/01/20

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Subject: Re: [Leica] Rangefinder&Fast lenses
From: Lucian Chis <chis@ece.orst.edu>
Date: Wed, 20 Jan 1999 10:48:45 -0800 (PST)

Well, here you make the same mistake I warned of in the original post:
In the 70-180range of your zoom, for photojournalism, the rangefinder is
not a contender. As I said, Visoflex is dead!

What I meant to say was, for example, that if you take even an Leicaflex
or an R8 adn use a 50/1.4 side by side with an M3 with an 50/2.8, you
have all the chances to get a better result with the rangefinder.
So what if you get the subject moving? That is perfectly all right! It
just makes the image more dynamic. (not all the picture, just some part of
the subject, the remainder will have more depth of field and only
reinforce the dynamic).

Lucian
 On Wed, 20 Jan 1999, Eric Welch wrote:

> >With a slow lens on a rangefinder you can get the same results (or
> >better) as with a fast lens on an SLR.
> 
> Based on what information? There are always cases where that's going to
> be true. And not true.
> 
> For example:
> 
> I photographed the funeral of a 100 year old woman who was an important
> part of the civil rights movement in the 60s. Some great stories from her
> grandchildren of going to Washington to meed President Kennedy and
> hearing Martin Luther King give his "I have a dream" speech. I have to
> note, they gave me complete access to shoot anything from anywhere I
> want. They know the role photojournalism played in the civil rights
> movement back in the 50s and 60s. (See Powerful Days by Charles Moore to
> see what I'm talking about). Too bad Coretta Scott King has
> forgotten...but that's another story.
> 
> Now with all that falderall out of the way, I was sitting in a pew in the
> Cathedral (yes we have one of those in St. Joseph) hand holding (propped
> on the back of the pew in front of me or on a hymn book on my knees and
> camera propped on that) my R8 and 70-180 Vario Apo Elmarit R at 2.8 and
> 1/24 of a second. Got a bunch of sharp pictures, but many were also
> blurred. Most not by camera shake, but from the movement of the person's
> head.
> 
> So maybe you can shoot shaper pictures with slower lenses, but subject
> movement figures into the equation too. So the speed of the lens is as
> critical on a rangefinder as on an SLR for many subjects, especially ones
> that move.
> 
> Eric Welch
> St. Joseph, MO
> http://www.ponyexpress.net/~ewelch
> 
> Your E-Mail has been returned due to insufficient voltage.
> 
>