Day 1 - the Spirit moves over the waters

["Garbutt, Robert" <RGarbutt@ncrpexec.telstra.com.au>]

Took possession of chrome M6 #2288084, 90/2.8 #3712002, 50/2 DR #2181157
last night.  Strangely everyone else seems to think that today is just
an ordinary day. People are rushing off to work and discussing the
latest service improvement initiative - all as if it mattered . . .  as
if nothing has changed.  Showed someone here my new camera but the
significance seemed yet again to be lost.  Oh well . . .

Walked into work with the 90/2.8 on.  The focus is certainly  quicker,
but I do miss the black box around the window of my FM2 - visualisation
of the image is more difficult than through the SLR but I guess I'll get
used to it.  I miss my DOF preview button.  This is one heavy camera.
One odd thing is that you can point it at people and they seem to look
straight through you, as if the camera wasn't there; and it is so quiet.
Is sleeping with your Leica considered odd?

I left the DR at home.  It has these weird spectacle things that I guess
I'll figure out, but it looks like a project for a quiet time in the
future.  This is certainly a lens with imagination - I think the
designers must have done some late night stints with some good German
beer (Weissbier - I think that's the stuff I had in Munich that was some
ridiculous strength like 9% - but I wasn't going to let those smirking
Germans think it would even start to dent the brain cells of an Aussie
abroad . . .  so unfortunately I had far too many - damn this machismo
thing)  because with its eyes on the DR looks like it comes from a
planet other than Earth.

Is there something I should do to test the camera function or is just
using it enough?  It seems to work well, sound good, and the meter is
great.  Love the half stops on the 90/2.8 but the built in hood should
be able to lock in position so that you can press against glass etc, and
for better lens protection.

Completed one roll of film.  Because of time constraints and deadlines
it will have to be used for my next assignment at school which is C41 to
E6 cross processing.  As photography is one big experiment that seems
fitting.  (By the way, discovered that Agfa RSX 50 is just beautiful
cross processed, Velvia was a little green.)

Tamarkin NY were a pleasure to deal with.  I searched their catalogue on
the Net and ordered by phone.  Considering that there was a little
stuffing around here and there (not by them) I still have my camera
within a week from the other side of the world.  Couldn't do that 30
years ago.  The bummer was that I got stung for sales tax when it
entered the country but the price was still better than here and I was
able to order exactly the lenses I wanted instead of settling for the
patchy offerings in Australia.  The guy in the Leica shop in Melbourne
didn't know what a DR was when I rang - so you have to wonder.  The
people in a Sydney shop that deals in Leica were lucky to understand 'M6
- - yes that's right - the ad says you sell the Leica em six'.

Big thank you to Dave Lam at Tamarkin - dealing with you was effortless.
Extremely big thanks to all the LUGgers who have educated me over the
last few months.  I will put up with discussions about free market
economics vs social democracy, whether Ansel was God or just another guy
with a camera, and all the rest *any day* in order to learn first hand
about this kooky little Leica fettish.  All that and more . . . I didn't
know for example that the Star Wars plot had anything to do with
photography but the link is clear - we first approach a subject from the
dark side, like the Spirit moving over the waters of Chaos.

Sorry for rambling,
Rob.