Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2009/07/21
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Hi Mark, Those little screens on the back would be OK for me if I was wearing my reading glasses, but then I can only see the image in the screen at the back of the camera, my long view being blurred due to the reading glasses. If I wear my varifocals I can not get a comfortable view of the screen since the view is through the long distance part of the specs. I can still use my Rolleiflex fine, or Panasonic G1 with its little screen horizontal and looking down on it through the close focus part of the varifocals, with wide angle lenses I could get away with it. (Particularly using flash, or even only using flash, which most people using their P&S cameras of this type do in poor light, probably since they don't know how to switch it off...) Otherwise I could not hold a camera acceptably (to me) still enough without bracing the camera as I learned 50 years ago. I have "85mm eyes" a 35mm lens is pretty wide for me, though I have had fun playing around with wider ones from time to time. For the lenses I use (35mm to 85mm) I think one would get pretty crap results composing on a screen held about 18" away from the face and no flash, even with image stabilised lenses. I have tried this way lots and it really doesn't work for me hand held. My children are happy, I gave them my un-useable P&S cameras with no viewfinder. The guy in the video with the MF digital Hassy either was -not- using the screen as live view, or was the most myopic guy on the planet and had taken his specs off! It was on the tip of his nose, looked like he was just firing off continuously with a view to editing later to me. Now if you are now comparing with LF working style, on a tripod, live view is super, works well, much better than a viewfinder IME, much better to manually focus on and, of course, holding the camera still is not an issue. In summary, for me, hand held live view is uncomfortable and poor and I have only used to, say, hold the camera in the air to shoot over peoples heads - emergency use only. On a tripod, brilliant and just like using a Rollei with focusing magnifier, only better! cheers, Frank On 21 Jul, 2009, at 19:28, Mark Rabiner wrote: > The thread title says it all. > We turn today to page 153 in the B&H summer catalog. > To the Large Format Cameras and Accessories page. > Read it and weep. > Much is made about Live View compatibility in this high end view > camera. > The Toyo view 23 VX camera for digital > "Graflock back which allows for Live viewing with a digital camera > back > which can provide a live image preview." > > As it turns out the "23" is indicating medium format not large > format but > its a blurred line with large format digital > - we on the Leica list demur live view as low brow the guys who > view 35mm > capture as low brow seem to be assimilating it in large quantities. > This was plainly evident on the fashion video I put on the lug last > week. > - a guy shooting a model with some kind of medium format camera with > live > view holding it 4 inches in front of his face. He used other cameras > later. > > Apparently top shooters of high end digital photography are not as > aghast at > the thought of looking at a screen to view their picture as effete > camrea > collectors .... who seem to feel that if they are not looking into a > viewfinder of some sort they are not doing real photography. > I find it arbitrary not very logical. > Myopic, specifically: > "tunnel vision: Loss of peripheral vision with retention of central > vision, > resulting in a constricted circular tunnel-like field of vision. > And, by > extension, any very narrow point of view. Also called tubular vision." > > As the screens on the back would be much more conducive to off the > cuff > shooting than it would be for making long time exposures of trees > and table > top. > As a matter of fact its a well known boom for such photography. > I can't articulate it any better. > > I think we need like Ostridges to take out heads out of a hole we > dig and > take a look around at what's going on and how its going on. > http://codgus.com/images/ostridge.jpg > > I had to teach my spell check dictionary " Ostridge ". > > I'm going to have to feed it a bird dictionary. > > > > http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/shop/11361/Camera_Bodies.html > > > Mark William Rabiner > > > > > _______________________________________________ > Leica Users Group. > See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information