Re: [Leica] Camera / lens

["Steve LeHuray" <icommag@toad.net>]

Mike,
I could not agree more. This time last year I started to get hooked on M's
(I have been a dedicated Nikon user for 30 years) and through out the year
my photography results have steadily improved. Last week I put the M kit
away for a few days and started to use 2 Nikons with the same lens setup
that I have been using on the M's, 50mm and 35mm. By comparison the Nikons
seemed clunky, awkward, noisy and large. I like doing street photography for
fun and with a M I can carry it on my shoulder under a suit jacket with
nobody the wiser and have gotten many great photos that way. These M cameras
really force you to think and as far as being behind-the-times technically I
think they are really state-of-the-art (even my meterless M2's) for the
serious 35mm photographer.
Steve
Annapolis

- ----------
>From: Mike Johnston <michaeljohnston@ameritech.net>
>To: leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us
>Subject: [Leica] Camera / lens
>Date: Sun, Jan 23, 2000, 5:51 AM
>

>>>>the reason we use the M is not the camera, its the lenses which have
>transcended time with their wonderful resolution capabilities.<<<
>
>
>I don't agree.
>
>I started out thinking (in about 1986) that the whole point of the Leica
>M was the lenses, and that the camera was an antiquated, awkward body
>you had to put up with use the lenses. I now feel I was completely,
>180-degrees wrong. The camera is the only one that has ever functioned
>as a teacher to me--it improved my shooting skills. It taught me to pay
>attention to nailing just the right moment; the value of stealth or
>surreptitiousness; the value of wearing a camera all day, every day; how
>not to rely too much on the viewfinder; how to depend on my own
>judgement rather than the automated judgements of the camera; and it
>taught me how much the simple enjoyment of working a fine mechanism can
>improve photography!
>
>The lenses are nice. But the camera is the thing to me.
>
>In fact, I should write an editorial arguing that EVERY photographer
>should use an M camera for a year as a part of his or her education. I
>actually do believe that!
>
>--Mike
>