[Leica] Photographic tools

[Tom Bryant <tbryant@pars5.gsfc.nasa.gov>]

Hi Luggers,

    The discussion on tools in an interesting one.  I was reading a bike book
a while back, and one of the great racers (sorry, I forget who) said that
people who worried if they had Campy equipment were missing the point.  What
mattered, he said was the spirit and conditioning of the rider.  When asked
why *he* used Campy equipment, he said that it was the best, and it made a
slight difference.  That's sort of the heart of this discussion.  What's best?

    After decades of photography, I have come to the conclusion that, for
shooting handheld available light shots of subjects farther away than 1 meter,
nothing, but nothing, beats a Leica M, for reasons belabored many times before
on the LUG.

    It's not the ultimate for portability.  My Olympus Stylus Epic takes those
honors.  It's not the best for tele or macro work.  My Canon F1 does that very
nicely.  (I'm beginning to suspect that the R8 would do it better, after
reading the current spate of R8 posts... but $5,000 better?  I dunno...)

    It's a matter of making the tool fit the job.  It's a matter of your
experience and training and access to various tools that allows you to make
the right choice.  There are shots I have taken that would have been better
served by a 4 x 5 view, but I didn't have one.  Most of what I do is at least
adequately handled by my battery of 35mm cameras, and most of that is done
with my Leica M.  

    Others will differ.  Look at Phil Greenspun, the guy who set up photo.net,
and who also has taken some very interesting pictures.  He is a real 
Leicaphobe.  Thinks that Leicas are for effete snobs, and wouldn't be
caught dead with one.  It's also important to not let your prejudices get in
the way of your judgment, but I suspect that all of you already know this!!
 
    All that said, It's still mostly f/8 and be *there* that counts, IMHO. I
would revise this time worn adage, from the early days of Leica, to f/1 and be
there, as a recent Noctilux owner.  I's amazing how on silly little extra
stop can expand your horizons.  


I've always believed that if you put in the work, the results will come.

                -- Michael Jordan

Champions aren't made in gyms.  Champions are made from something they have
deep inside them--a desire, a dream, a vision.  They have to have the skill,
and the will.  But the will must be stronger than the skill.

                -- Muhammad Ali