[Leica] Too good an idea to waste on just one list.

["Terry Price (Edgecombe-Coles House)" <terry@free.midcoast.com>]

The following is an excerpt from a current string on the IDCC list about
candid photos. I thought the gadget made by Ron Furukawa was well worth
copying.

Terry

>
> << Candids are fun.  But I've used the *opposite* approach for most
>  of my candid shooting:  I use a slightly wide lens (say 35-45mm).
>  The key here is to *not* raise the camera to your eye, but to fire >>
>
Hi Gang,

This note doesn't relate to a classic lens exactly, but a gadget that I
assembled from a junked classic.  I like to use a compact fixed fast
lens leaf shutter RF 35mm for a lot of candid work.  My favorites are
the Canonet 17 GIII with a Canon 40mm/1.7 lens or a Minolta HiMatic 7 S2
with a Rokkor 40mm/1.7.  They both have a non-TTL coupled CdS meter
which is sensitive enough for most available light work, unless you are
shooting in a dimly lit bar.

In order to help shoot from a waist level position, I got an old
battered Kodak Vest pocket that looked like (and probably was) a
surviver of a couple of world wars.  Parts were missing, and the bellows
were more daylight than leather, so it didn't hurt my feelings to
butcher it.  With my Dremel Moto Tool, I cut out the waist level finder
with some of the sheet metal lens mount to which it is attached.  I
carefully grafted this piece on a flash shoe, salvaged from a broken
strobe, with some epoxy.  By slipping this assembly in the flash
receptacle on the top of the 35mm camera, I can compose the shot at
waist level by looking down into the old finder.  The finder is mounted
on a swivel, so that by rotating it 90 degrees, I can use the camera in
either a portrait or landscape mode.  The leaf shutter on either camera
is very quiet, and most of my subjects are not aware that I took a
photograph.

Ron Furukawa