Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2006/02/06
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]I have a Leitz V35 (modified to Leica standards, mind you!) and a Beseler 23CX-II. I have most of the bells and whistles with both. I still am looking for a 127 mask for the Beseler but, what the hey, I can fudge with some chopped card-stock as a blind. I have the two APO-Rodagons for 35mm and 120 work and both are superb and easily beat the pants off those Nikon rip-offs <he grins>. The golden time to purchase either was in the later 1990's when newspapers and colleges were dumping these guys as the Golden Goose poops out auric eggs. I paid $400 for my V35, for instance. Today, as the True Believers (and remember that ease of operation, if this exists, is no answer to quality: in the end, chemistry still beats digital by quite a couple of factors in terms of optical quality) assault again from their former hull-defillade mode, prices have risen. Chemistry is king and will remain so for at least the next decade, at least in terms of quality. Ask Jim Brick. I do take a lot of digital pictures. I never print them as I cannot figure out the software. I have given up on this. Chemistry I know and I am 56 years of age, so I can stick with what I know up to my use-by date. You youngsters had better take note, as this one wil come back to haunt you in forty years when you are regarded as the sort of eccentric photraphers as were written up in this week's US edition of THE ECONOMIST. But digital and this lad will never be a happy match. Marc msmall@aya.yale.edu Cha robh b?s fir gun ghr?s fir! NEW FAX NUMBER: +540-343-8505