[Leica] New member and photos now posted on LUG Gallery

[afirkin at afirkin.com (Alastair Firkin)]

I am sure you will continue to enjoy rangefinder photography, but for close 
focus its not really the bee's knees. In fact many of the best RF images 
over the years are a bit "out of focus". I submitted:

<http://stmaarten.globat.com/~afirkin.com/NewSite/PARIS08/source/parisweb110.htm>

recently. I walk the streets pre-focusing. Its one of the niffty tricks of 
those lens tabs. Learn to shift them to approximate focus, then you are 
ready to fire in a split second. If you have time focus by all means ;-) 

Light, quite (my M8's are a bit on the noisy side as many will attest) with 
wonderful optics, rangefinder photography has clear advantages on the street 
and when travelling. For more formal portraits (like yours) SLR's are 
possibly better, but as HCB portraits show, the RF can capture much about a 
person that the slower machine could miss. 

If you are like me, it will take you a long time to really begin to 
understand how the RF works: BUT ITS WORTH IT.

Cheers

--- ihatethebart@gmail.com wrote:

From: Mr A-Z <ihatethebart@gmail.com>
To: Leica Users Group <lug@leica-users.org>
Subject: [Leica] New member and photos now posted on LUG Gallery
Date: Thu, 06 Nov 2008 07:15:11 -0800

Thanks for the welcomes (and for not throwing me out already due to me 
just using a Contax IIIa for now and not a Leica).
Also thanks to Jim for recommending the Bessa R2 camera - it's an option 
I have not considered but may well be a contender to the M3/M6/MP I'm 
considering.

I also uploaded two photos to the LUG gallery (thanks for letting me 
Brian :-)).

You can see the photos in my galler at: 
http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/AdamMraz/

The photo from the gardens shows one 'issue' I am often fighting which 
is that I find that I focus an inch off what I want to be the main focus 
(in this case Amy's eyes). Not sure if it's the rangefinder or my eyes 
that needs to be re-aligned as just as often things are IN focus where I 
want it. Sigh. I guess a f/1.5 aperture doesn't leave much margin for error.

About my camera:
As I mentioned it's a Contax IIIa with a Sonnar 50/1.5. I love the lens 
but am not as enthusiastic about the body as I find it much less 
ergonomically correct [for me] when comparing to how an M3 feels and 
loads. It's all in great condition - even the built-in light meter work 
and I've been toying with the idea of selling it to finance an M3/M6 at 
least in part - but I'm really hoping I can keep it so no offers please :=)

About me:
Adam Mraz. East-coast native but have been on the West-coast for quite 
some time now. Like older cameras, polaroids and dogs. Not an extensive 
experience with rangefinder cameras but so far I am loving the lack of a 
mirror and how small they can be.

Thanks,
A



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