Re: [Leica] Leica Glass, Filters, and Mental Tricks

[Jim Brick <jim@brick.org>]

As I've always stated. I use filters at least 90% of the time. The naked
10% is when shooting into the sun. But I only use useful filters. Those
that significantly alter the properties of the incoming light.

Jim


At 06:49 PM 3/26/98 -0500, marc wrote:
>Leica glass is tough.  You do NOT have to baby it.  Filters are fine, and
>mine are stored in odd locations with filters on, though Jim and Ted and
>Eric have so terrorized me that I no longer use them unless I am shooting
>chromes.  The outside of the lenses get dinged and dirty and crappy.  The
>glass will NOT wilt if you clean it with your shirt-tail, though I do not
>do so.  (My co-author, Charlie Barringer, the President of Zeiss Historica,
>does the moral equivalent, having saved his chillun's diapers, his kids now
>being in their 20's, and uses these to clean his REALLY rare lenses, on the
>grounds that nothing is softer than a baby's rear end.  It works:  he makes
>more in a year from selling glass than I do in the chasing of ambulances.)  
>
>Don't panic, guys.  Use logic and reason.  Bare glass is best to shoot with
>if, as I am, you wish to make images which are at the cutting edge of
>technical precision.  But filters have a role -- I would love to hear from
>Jim or Ted that they shoot b&w outdoors without a yellow filter!  Maybe
>they do, but their foliage must look, well, skimpy -- and engaging
>photographers know how to use them.
>
>Me?  I am learning.  I will be learning when the Black Camel Kneels At My
>Door which, if I keep irritating women the way I do, will be quite soon ...
>
>Marc
>
>
>msmall@roanoke.infi.net  FAX:  +540/343-7315
>Cha robh bas fir gun ghras fir!
>