[Leica] Re: fast glass

[Jim Brick <jimbrick@photoaccess.com>]

At 09:55 PM 11/3/99 -0800, Henning J. Wulff wrote:
>
>I was out today in Vancouver. Street photography took on the winter meaning
>here. Some rain; overcast you might say. 1/60sec at 1/4 with 400ISO film in
>the brighter parts at around 1:30pm. One of those times you might want some
>fast glass. Even Mike Johnston could find a use for it here, I'm sure :-)
>

It's funny. Most of my photographic life was been spent thinking that
anything faster than f/2.8 or f/4 was a waste of money. Actually, all of my
photography was with Leica R, Hasselblad, and 4x5 cameras. Everything
always on a tripod. I rarely ever used an f/stop wider than f/5.6.

Then I bought an M6. The world changed. I soon found that having a camera
with me all of the time, taking photographs of anything and everything,
many times required very fast glass. After a couple of false starts with
Summicrons, I now have Summiluxes and sometimes lust for f/1.

M cameras and fast glass go together. When the light starts to fail, night
arrives, or you walk inside a building, there is nothing like having f/1.4
at your beckon call.

Jim