Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2000/08/10
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Maybe it's a totally different tool. If you're shooting inside a lot of cathedrals and want low grain and high speed, eschew the 35mm and rent (or buy) a Fuji GA645 with the 60/4 (equivalent to a 35mm on a 35). Not only does it meter long exposures, but it has a native vertical format and can be rested on a church pew instead of a tripod (try doing that with a rangefinder for 2 seconds balanced on one end). I shot a lot of the indoor pictures on my web site with that setup on Tri-X. No grain at all in 8x10s, and if the 60/4 Fujinon is less sharp for its format than my 35 Summicron, it's not to any degree you can see without a 25x magnification. The GA645 (which lens retracts when it is turned off, making it fit in a coat pocket) is also lighter than an M body. The other supreme indoor camera is the old black autofocus Hexar ($300-500), which again does long time exposures and in the noise department makes a rangefinder sound like a jackhammer. Plus it can focus even when it's so dark you can't use a normal RF. This - http://www-personal.umich.edu/~dante/stpeters2.jpg - is a shot taken in the Vatican with a Hexar. I question whether I should have forked over so much for my Leitz 35/2... But it is useful to have a manual body with the 35/2 Summicron because it can be set quickly and is easier to focus through glass, set for zone focus, etc. The Leica (pre-ASPH) is, looking at neg scans, marginally snappier. With a 35mm and 90mm you can cover about anything. Or you could use a 40 only, which I did for six months in Europe, never missing other lenses. I am going to Spain this fall and I am taking the auto Hexar (Supra) and Canon 7 with 85/2 Nikkor (Neopan 1600) and also the Fuji - with TX or TMX). The big thing is not to overload equipment. The last time I was over there (for three weeks), I went through 40 rolls of film (24 of TX120, 8 of PMC, and 8 of T400CN). That consumed a large part of my small luggage. But a 24mm, as others have mentioned, is hard as hell with an SLR when you *can* see the distortion (of course, you never do when you're shooting), to say nothing of trying to get a 24mm finder that has exactly the same distortion as your lens. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Dante Stella http://www-personal.umich.edu/~dante