Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2001/10/17
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Well, friends - I take this as an opportunity to thank everyone who replied to my provocation rgd. lens front/rear element scratches vs. filters. To me it seems to be a form of conceit - blaming filters on everything tha's bad in a(n unsharp) picture, and dismissing scratches/fungus as irrelevant. I remember improving a Russian lens performance just because I had put a HOYA 1B filter on it. Therefore I am not so dismissive about filters. (Maybe I haven't come across those real lemons you are warning me about! ;-) ) Now to the question: "I take better pictures with a Leica rangefinder than with an SLR because... - - well, actually I learned photo basics using a Russian-made Leica copy Zorki that contained original Leica parts (the best Russian-made camera I ever held in my hands); due to burned shutter I sold it (mistake! a big mistake!), so probably I don't qualify as someone <who learned photography on SLRs, not so much people for whom RFs are easier because that was the only thing available in 35mm when they started>. RFs were regarded as obsolete in 70ies. (<You can't see what you're photographing> - the parallax problem!) It was a craze to get an SLR (and I got a Zenith - supposedly a SLR that's in reality neither a RF, nor a SLR - its WF covers som 70% of the picture frame, so in no way you can compose your picture properly - actually it may have arrested my photographic development for some years). I was young, and only when I saw a Minolta in my friend's hands, I discovered what compositional facility I was missing (what a disaster that Zenith was)! So: I take better pictures with a Leica rangefinder than with an SLR because it's a quality camera; I can rely on it; it's not recognised by the public as a professional camera, so I can do the job nearly unnoticed; the Leica lens quality is Leica lens quality; my M has less moving parts than a SLR, so I can risk using it hand-held at lower shutter speeds (a decent picture is better than a bad one - or no picture at all). All that said - it's nothing more than the stuff you read in advertising booklets, and how come it's so true? I must add, however, that at times I feel I am taking different pictures with my M - than I do with a SLR. Not due to parrallax (it's a M!), but somehow I feel it's making me think differently. And that results in better pictures. Martin - -- To unsubscribe, see http://mejac.palo-alto.ca.us/leica-users/unsub.html