Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2003/07/16
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]On 2003-07-16 mvhoward@mac.com (Martin Howard) thoughtfully wrote: >A pre-focussed, pre-set (shutter speed & aperture) Leica rangefinder >provides a combination of unintrusiveness, speed, and image quality >which you are very hard pressed to match with any other system. In >doing so, it puts you in a mindset and makes you open to images that >you would not see if you could not work in this way. > >Arguments that unless you're bolting your M cameras onto heavy tripods >and shoot at 1/1000s at f/8 on EI 64 or your not using the full >benefit of Leica glass entirely and completely misses the whole damn >point of their existance in the first place. I know that in interacting with people, one on one, not street shooting you understand but talking people's portraits when they know I'm doing it, the M is a terrific tool because the camera isn't intrusive: the body is small, the lenses are tiny compared to their equivalents in the R8 or SLR world. People don't feel intimidated by them in the same way as even my R8 or an F5 or a D1 which are vast machines. After all - why do so many of us want a digital M? Because of the form factor, the small lenses, the ease of use, the requirement for thought and attention to detail. Those are some of the essential parts about shooting with an M. And it's why they won't ever sell well again - we design too much knowledge into the new cameras, they focus, they make decisions about exposure, have everything but automatic composition features. But I do take your point about there being other issues besides simply sharpness. It's just that in the digital/film debate that's where the argument lies, after all what questions are being asked? #1 being: how big can you print your images? That's about sharpness. I like what I see about the digital back for the R8/R9 because it seems to keep intact the feel of the R8, which I like a lot. I think I'll feel in control of a digital R8 where even the D30 has too many stupid settings. and the new cameras have even more. all brought to us by the same folks who brought us our VCRs and their wretched clocks. Best regards, Adam - -- To unsubscribe, see http://mejac.palo-alto.ca.us/leica-users/unsub.html