[Leica] the future happened yesterday NAW EVERYDAY! ;-)

[tedgrant at shaw.ca (Ted Grant)]

Scott McLoughlin replied to B. D.

Subject: Re: [Leica] the future happened yesterday


> B.D.
>
> I don't think we disagree that much. I'm learning to print
> digital B&W images myself!  I'm a 38 year old fart :-)<<<<<,

Hi Scott,
Well me young lad you now have 38 more years to catch-up to me and I'd bet a
gold farthing by the time you get to where I am you'll be spitting out
incredible B&W prints beyond what any of us ever imagined possible by some
kind of super whiz-bang Epson or other printer. And they'll be the likes of
quality beyond old Ansel Adams could do and make them in a matter of
minutes. :-)

One of the things I've learned since beginning to play digital photographer
earlier this year with a Canon G5, then a Digilux 1, graduating to a Digilux
2 and all this in-between my "film assignments" is, folks spend way too much
time worrying, talking about the frailties of digital, sensor sizes and all
the other bull shit gear heads and techies go through to make it all sound
like some mystic mumbo jumbo.

Instead of going out, put the dang camera to your eye, shoot your own stuff
and make prints. Sure there's some learning bit and the first learning bit
is.... "don't read the complete manual first and don't worry about all the
numbers!"

Here's what I did and still do and it works like a dream! As I began I've
just set all three cameras at "A" for everything and began shooting just as
though I were using my M7's on  a book project or assignment. And so far
I've damn near wet my pants with excitement at the quality of prints,
autofocus, exposures day and night inside and out!  Yep a tad concern about
shutter release lag, but hell if yer out using the camera and not yapping
about it you can learn how to eliminate the lag! :-)  I figured out how to
eliminate it by putting pressure on the release ready to shoot right when I
need to capture a basketball jump shot and catch the players in the air!

And I still haven't looked at the manual other than how to change batteries,
memory card and charging the battery. And hell the Digilux 2 is amazing
beyond belief!

I know some guys whine about the view finder, hell forget it, just look
through it learn how to see through it and take pictures like yer using an
M7 and everything turns out like a dream of quality.

I'm at the moment waiting for a colour 18X12 print to come off an Epson 2200
that nothing was done to the printer other than it was out of the box
plugged in, hooked to computer and "click print!" And that was it some many
months a go and we're knocking off colour and B&W 12X18 prints here on a
regular basis that are as beautiful as film any day of the week!

Yeah, yeah, I know somebody's going to tell me that's not possible. Well OK
so what, that's their prerogative! But trust me, it happens here daily! :-)
See I've always worked on the KISS principal of "Keep it simple stupid" and
so far it's worked fairly well throughout my life.

Like there's no reason to learn everything your digital camera can do until
you feel comfortable with doing the simple things and the rest will
eventually fall into place as you evolve with what you want ...... "Oh I
wonder if it can do this or that?"  Then you read the manual and find out
something new and away you go doing some neat new things! :-)

And given I've 54 years of darkroom time it's easy for me to make
comparisons of print quality and so far I'm not having any concern over the
quality of the prints here.  And yep my darkroom is still ready to go as
soon as chemicals are mixed. However? Truthfully? I see the end of wet tray
processing around here in the not too distant future.

That doesn't mean I'd stop shooting film, it means someone else would soup
the film and I'd be scanning and printing via the computer and Epson! Dang
it's so easy! :-)

See keeping it simple and not reading too much about the do's and don't's
and hell you can do wonders on your own. Yep you'll screw-up sometimes, but
as long as you nor anyone else dies, the screw-up is no big deal. Just
figure out what you did wrong, correct your actions and get on with having
fun shooting .:-) See it's all about KISS simplicity mon ami and having
fun!. :-) :-)

ted