RE: [Leica] Fuel to the M7 discussion fire

["B. D. Colen" <bdcolen@earthlink.net>]

Hey, Herb, that same puts would have looked at the remaining Capa D-Day
shots and said, 'Boy, that camera you used really sucks - these aren't
sharp.'

Don't be frozen at a 250th - unless you're looking to blow things up to hell
and gone, don't ever want to shoot in low light, and don't care about what
look you can achieve with dof. Shoot for dof, and when the dof requires a
shutter speed so slow you know you won't be able to live with the results,
then worry about it. ;-)

B. D.



- -----Original Message-----
From: owner-leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us
[mailto:owner-leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us]On Behalf Of Herbert &
Lee Kanner
Sent: Tuesday, July 02, 2002 3:27 AM
To: leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us
Subject: [Leica] Fuel to the M7 discussion fire


Some of the discussion of the M7 has been positively mouth-watering.  Oh,
that I were rich.  However, let me play devil's advocate.  I try, when I
can remember to do so, to put a crappy little Olympus Stylus Epic in my
trouser pocket whenever I go out.  Actually, it takes surprisingly good
pictures.  So, I'm in a local market and see a photogenic girl behind a
counter.  I was carrying the thing in spot metering mode, and in the second
it took for me to partially depress the shutter, freezing the focus and
exposure, she shouted: "Don't take my picture!"  This might be compared to
the moment Tina took to freeze the exposure by aiming at the floor with the
M7.

Well, the next week I was going to a local fair and took the M6.  I decided
not to make the mistake I had made with the point and shoot.  There were
only two illumination situations: sunlight and shadow. They were two stops
apart.  If I remember correctly, for 1/250 shutter speed, they were f/11
and f/5.6.  I set the focus permanently at ten feet and literally pointed
and shot, so quickly that I was not noticed.  The only improvement would
have been shooting from the hip.

I'm not denigrating the 7; I'd love to have one.  But I think there are
many circumstances in which I might operated one in the same way that I
operated the 6 on that day.

With respect to the choice of shutter speed.  I was traumatized during WWII
about camera shake.  This was wartime, and I had the good fortune to find a
used Wirgin 35mm camera in good shape.  I shot a bunch of Kodachromes at
1/100 sec (yes it was 1/100 on a Compur shutter in those days; they hadn't
yet invented 1/120).  I proudly took the slides in to show to a colleague.
The SOB started going through them with a 20X magnifier and pronounced my
camera to be no good--the slides weren't sharp.  Then, when he got to the
last few, he said: "Hey, these are sharp."  Well, those last few were taken
as the sun was going down, and I had put the camera on a tripod.

Ever since then, I've hand-held at 1/250 if conditions permitted.

Herb
- --
Herbert Kanner
kanner@acm.org
650-326-8204

Do not meddle in the affairs of cats,
for they are subtle and will pee
on your computer!
- --
To unsubscribe, see http://mejac.palo-alto.ca.us/leica-users/unsub.html

- --
To unsubscribe, see http://mejac.palo-alto.ca.us/leica-users/unsub.html