Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2003/12/19
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Adam, May I humbly suggest one of the Japanese rangefinders from the late sixties to early seventies? A Canon QL17 has a good lens, is relatively cheap(more money for film) and you don't have to tell the person how to use it in automatic. You still have to set ASA, focus, and decide on an appropriate shutter speed/aperture. A LTM will frustrate a new user with the film loading follies and confusion about which shutter speed dial is doing what when: not to mention forgetting to focus because you were looking through a viewfinder that didn't have a rangefinder patch to remind you to focus. No, I am not anti LTM's, I have four and use them fairly frequently. It is just when I was teaching photography to fairly bright kids, you didn't want to give them any more speed bumps than necessary. Don dorysrus@mindspring.com - -----Original Message----- From: owner-leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us [mailto:owner-leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us] On Behalf Of Adam Bridge Sent: Friday, December 19, 2003 3:01 PM To: leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us Subject: Re: [Leica] Why is the IIIg so much more expensive? The IIIg question came up because I was looking for a small, entirely manual camera for a "youngster" who was interested in learning black and white photography and has some dollars to spend toward that end but not enough for an M. (I didn't feel like loaning one of mine.) A IIIf was in the right price range with a reasonable piece of glass and a light meter. An automatic camera doesn't seem like a good learning tool because it's too darn easy to just flick it into auto mode and be done with it and then you haven't had to do the thinking required. After you have learned that THEN you can fall back and use automatic features. That's sorta how I think about it anyhow. A low-end used SLR would work too, of course, but I think there's something to be said for using a range finder and learning to work within the boundaries of a single lens (and a single kind of film too for that matter.) Adam - -- 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