Re: The Leica Thing

["Steven Blutter" <sblutter@worldnet.att.net>]

not much to say besides-- welcome.  i would spend my time in the darkroom
or shooting rather than reading rec.point and shoot.com

i'm sure your gear is fine...  anti-Leica retoric is obviously not on topic
here

steven blutter

ps; have you posted that wedding portrait anywhere (binaries not  welcome
here...)?
- ----------
> From: Barney Quinn <barney@sgi50.wwb.noaa.gov>
> To: leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us
> Subject: The Leica Thing
> Date: Tuesday, September 30, 1997 5:16 AM
> 
> 
> Hi to All,
> 
> When I was in college, in the sixties, I used a Leica IIIf. Just for
> fun, during my vacation last August, I got it out, put an old f2
> Summitar ( the one with the funky f-stops ) on it, loaded it with a
> roll of Velvia, and shot away. I had a lot of fun, and as a bonus I
> ended up with a box of nice, great looking slides. 
> 
> I have been lurking on this list for a long time, and for a long time
> I have wanted to both get my old Leica gear back on the road, and to
> get some more modern equipment so that I could re-explore the Leica
> experience with my own eyes and hands now that I have had a chance to
> do some living. 
> 
> I bought a new M6, and I got a 50mm rigid black f2 Weltzar Summicron
> to go with it. I lucked across a mint CL which had just come back from
> Leica. It had a 90mm Rokkor and a 40mm f2 Summicron. I came across a
> 40mm Rokkor at a price I couldn't refuse, so I got it, too. My plan is
> to use it in place of a 35mm lens on the M6 until I can get a 35mm
> lens. Perhaps not strictly what a purist would do, but it works. I
> realize that this isn't the top of Leica's line, but, given that, like
> all of us, I have to live with limitations, I would prefer to live in
> a modest house in a better area.
> 
> I saw the drubbing Pete took when he posted his stuff about switching
> from a 1n to an R8 on rec.photo. I was going to write in an suggest
> that he ignore it, but then I started reading some of the stuff there,
> and now I am the one who needs help.
> 
> This is what I know for a fact. I have been shooting with Kodak's new
> T400 CN film. In my living room, even as I mis-spell this, I have out
> a group of 11x14 prints I made with my new-to-me Leica gear. The
> photographs are wonderful, exceed my expectations, and are identical
> in quality to shots made with name-brand 6x6 cameras using
> conventional emulsions. Believe me. Most of my work is macro shots of
> flowers made with a 4x5 Wisner and Schneider Apo-Symmar glass. To quote
> Hamlet, I most certainly can tell a hawk from a hand-saw when it comes
> to image quality. 
> 
> On rec.photo I read that only a fool would buy a Leica. I was assured
> that the range finder in my M6 was trash. I went looking in Deja News,
> and was informed that my CL was really a piece of mediocre equipment,
> that the 40mm Rokkor was something  to get rid of as soon as I could,
> that the split image prisim in the CL was going to die on me, and that
> the meter in the CL had weak wires which were guaranteed to break and
> leave me stranded. 
> 
> What's going on here? Have I just spent my retirement money on junk?
> How do you explain my 11x14's? Is part of the Leica experience
> learning to be hated and being required to cope with idiocy?
> 
> My friend invited me to her wedding. I went as a guest, not as a
> photographer. I took my new M6 with me in the hope that I could get an
> informal portrait of her which said something about our friendship,
> and about her wedding day. You should have seen the looks I got from
> the official photographer who was using rec.photo.35 officially
> approved SLR gear. I was able to get the shot I wanted, and gave it to
> the happy couple as a gift, They were thrilled. The real photographer
> took all his shots using the brick front of the church as a
> background. I allowed myself to shadow him one shot to see if it was
> really as gross as I thought it would be. It was. Reminded me of a
> firing squad.
> 
> What in @&#^# is going on? Good thing I had my piece of trash Rokkor
> with me. The bricks are gorgeous - clear out to the edge of the frame.
> 
> Help.
> 
> Barney
> barney@sun1.wwb.noaa.gov
> 
> 
>