[Leica] What I did today

["Johnny Deadman" <deadman@jukebox.demon.co.uk>]

was to take my new M4-P and a 28mm 2.8 LTM Canon lens (the Summilux hasn't
arrived yet) for a test drive around Camden Town, in London. I used to shoot
with an M, but then switched to SLRs (Canon A1 & T90) for a few years...
enough to forget what shooting with an M is like.

Well, hell, it's all true, isn't it?

No-one takes a blind bit of notice. I guess I had forgotten this amazing
fact. You can stick the f***ing thing in people's faces and they hardly bat
an eyelid. I had one person challenge me today, which is pretty good,
especially as I had got real cheeky by the end of the day, and I was taking
pix of her kid, or more precisely, her putting her hand over the kid's face
to stop me taking a pic of her kid.

Also, how refreshing to have no meter in the camera, and to rely on
hyperfocal technique. God, it felt good. Like real life. The point being,
that if you have metered properly with the incident meter, and are aware of
the stop you are using and the depth of field, you can shoot candid and KNOW
you have hit focus and exposure. This is why the Leica is so cool... it
forces you to first (simple) principles.

Also, lovely to carry it in the hand, with the strap wrapped around the
wrist. Try that with a T90.

No camera bag. The M4-P goes straight in the pocket of a pair of combat
pants, with a fanny pack for film, and the meter in the other pocket. Cool.
And the M4-P loading/reloading is exactly as described on this list a couple
of days ago... fast, as long as you don't think about it. (One of the
beauties of the M-series is that you can reload with the camnera hanging off
your neck very easily, because the main film insertion is done vertically
through the base of the camera, whereas most SLRs reload from the back,
which is harder to do with the camera unsupported).

Of course, everything has a downside. In this case, it was that I was using
Delta 3200, and assumed it would behave like a regular film in stock D23.
WRONG. Film came out perfectly developed, but underexposed, even though I
deliberately exposed by a stop. Hmmm... that would put the real speed of the
film in D23 at around 600-800 ASA. Time to run some tests... those extra 3
or 4 stops are worth the pain.

Even so, a good day.