Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2004/08/11

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Subject: [Leica] decline in LUG membership...answers to questions
From: lea at whinydogpress.com (lea)
Date: Wed Aug 11 10:20:41 2004
References: <20040811164616.10883.qmail@web50506.mail.yahoo.com>

1) How does the act of photographing with your digital
equipment compare with your prior experience of the
act of photography with your Leica M? By this, I mean
the "groove" you get into when shooting; your ability
to get inside the moment while still recording it;
your ability to detect a picture instinctively and
then react to get it; your ability to work without
thinking about your equipment while events are
unfolding; your enjoyment of taking pictures.

I think that if your tools are preventing you from getting 'into the
groove' when you shoot you aren't using the right tools in the first
place. When I have a camera to my eye it doesn't matter what one I'm
using, I should be familiar enough with how it operates to let it be an
extention of me no matter what. I came from years of EOS shooting to the
Leica M6 and always stuggled with the manual focus. I got good at it but
it was a workout...and it was the only camera I used for a solid year. I
limited myself that way just so I would be forced to get comfortable
with it.

The first time I held the Canon 10D (I'd had an Olympus E10 prior to
that) I fell smack dab in love...everything about it felt good to me
because it is so like their film line of cameras. It was like going
home.

Several family members and friends have bought digital point and shoots
and while they are wonderful little cameras that shutter lag just kills
me. I keep thinking I want a little G5 until I go to the store and am
reminded of the lag. For now, I'll stay with the ever-pocketable (ha)
10D.

2) How satisfied are you with the final results you
get with your digital gear, compared to what you got
with your Leica M. This is a big one, so consider the
actual technical quality of the pics vs. what you may
have been getting with, say, your various choices of
colour slide film: colour quality and tonality,
sharpness, the WOW factor.

Shooting only digital is an interesting thing...I've shot over 10,000
images since February of this year. That's a lot of photographs. Shortly
after buying my first 10D I bought the Epson 2200 printer and have been
in my darkroom 3 times since...and that was July of 2003!

What I love about digital is that with such ease I can go big (11x14)
with so little effort...and I can go small, very, very small with the
blink of an eye. I put a new photo studio in my  home and purchased 9
11x14" frames to go up on the walls. I picked the images I wanted to
frame, printed them and had them framed in less than 3 hours. I could
never do that in my wet darkroom.

I'm a MUCH better printer in digital than I ever was in traditional. One
thing I find is that it's easy to be lasy in the darkroom...to accept
'good enough' rather than to really WORK on a print until it's perfect.
With digital you can add layers in PS and play and dodge and burn and
work an image until you love it and you don't have to stop, develop it
then start all over at point A if you are unsatisfied.

3) Do the final results you get come to you with less
or more effort than what you had to go through before:
buying and carrying and loading and rewinding film,
dropping it off at a lab and then picking up your
slides a couple of hours later, vs. the battery
management issues and time spent Photoshopping at the
computer.

My final digital results come with much less effort because I only shot
bw in my Leica so had all the processing and printing to do myself.
Battery management with my system (Canon 10d x 2) is moot...I have 5
batteries and so always have fresh ones charged and ready to go.

The excitement that has come to my work as a result of instantly seeing
what I'm getting is hard to put into words...since going digital (and
all my work is now digital unless I'm feeling very nostalgic...which
isn't often) I've added a studio in my home and really explored what I
can do with flash and strobe photography which until digital was an area
that had always been very mysterious to me. Seeing what I'm getting as
I'm shooting has added tenfold to my confidence. And talk about
smoothing the learning curve. WOW!

I was very Photoshop savvy before going to digital capture and I'm sure
that made it much easier for me to switch...I wasn't learning a new
camera AND a computer program all at the same time. I'd had several
years of scanning and digital manipulation under my belt when I opened
my first digital image capture on the computer and my very first thought
was, "It is soooo crisp and so clear and so clean...there's no dust to
retouch." I fell in love at that second.

4) How do you feel, after being M users, now being
electronic SLR users?

I shot mostly with the Canon EOS series for my work (children, pets,
weddings) before going to the digital; my M6 was the camera I always had
with me and I did use it for some portrait work but I never found it to
be as intuitive as the Canon stuff...I'm sure years of Canon use has
something to do with that comfort factor. So making the switch to the
10D was a very, very easy jump for me.

How does it feel? A Leica feels like a work of art in the hands; a 10D
feels like a tool. And that difference isn't wasted on me....but the
ease of using it is so much greater that the difference is worth it.

5) Is it really worth it? What does your
heart-of-hearts tell you?

You can make art with oils or crayons, Leicas or digitals. It's been
worth it for me.

Lea

----- Original Message -----
From: "Emanuel Lowi" <lowiemanuel@yahoo.ca>
To: <lug@leica-users.org>
Sent: Wednesday, August 11, 2004 11:46 AM
Subject: Re: [Leica] decline in LUG membership


> Nathan Wajsman wrote:
> >
> > In addition to what Frank says (with which I
> > wholeheartedly agree), there is also the fact that
> > all the P&S, including the high-end ones, have very
> > limited manual options and terrible ergonomics. Lots
> > of little buttons to push etc. The DSLRs, at least
> > the two Canon models I have held in my hand (Canon
> > Drebel and the 10D I bought), feel and handle just
> > like their film-based cousins. Not like a Leica R8,
> > since these are modern autofocus SLRs, but much like
> > the film-based Canon EOS cameras.
> >
>
> I have a few questions for the many people in this
> group who have adopted the digital technology in
> substantial ways during the past year, but who were
> previously mostly Leica M users.
>
> 1) How does the act of photographing with your digital
> equipment compare with your prior experience of the
> act of photography with your Leica M? By this, I mean
> the "groove" you get into when shooting; your ability
> to get inside the moment while still recording it;
> your ability to detect a picture instinctively and
> then react to get it; your ability to work without
> thinking about your equipment while events are
> unfolding; your enjoyment of taking pictures.
>
> 2) How satisfied are you with the final results you
> get with your digital gear, compared to what you got
> with your Leica M. This is a big one, so consider the
> actual technical quality of the pics vs. what you may
> have been getting with, say, your various choices of
> colour slide film: colour quality and tonality,
> sharpness, the WOW factor.
>
> 3) Do the final results you get come to you with less
> or more effort than what you had to go through before:
> buying and carrying and loading and rewinding film,
> dropping it off at a lab and then picking up your
> slides a couple of hours later, vs. the battery
> management issues and time spent Photoshopping at the
> computer.
>
> 4) How do you feel, after being M users, now being
> electronic SLR users?
>
> 5) Is it really worth it? What does your
> heart-of-hearts tell you?
>
> Emanuel lowi
> Montreal
>
> ______________________________________________________________________
> Post your free ad now! http://personals.yahoo.ca
> _______________________________________________
> Leica Users Group.
> See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information
>
>



Replies: Reply from george at imagist.com (George Lottermoser) ([Leica] decline in LUG membership...answers to questions)
Reply from george at imagist.com (George Lottermoser) ([Leica] decline in LUG membership...answers to questions)
Reply from joelmail at mchsi.com (Joel Anderson) ([Leica] decline in LUG membership...answers to questions)
Reply from images at InfoAve.Net (Tina Manley) ([Leica] decline in LUG membership...answers to questions)
In reply to: Message from lowiemanuel at yahoo.ca (Emanuel Lowi) ([Leica] decline in LUG membership)