Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1998/04/18

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Subject: Re: [Leica] Leica-Users List Digest V2 #324
From: Summicron1 <Summicron1@aol.com>
Date: Sat, 18 Apr 1998 22:27:28 EDT

i see there's this huge debate over the wisdom of trying to use just one lens
and body -- people saying better pictures are only avaialble with several
lenses, and so on.

I am astonished how serious everyone in this group takes everything.

I've always said good training comes with using as little equipment as
possible. Only then do you learn to appreciate the other equipment. Yes, if I
take three lenses along on a shoot I have more options, but I also increase
the possibility of seeing too many options and wasting too much time switching
lenses around. This, of course, is why zoom lenses were invented.

What having just one lens does is not limit you, but teach you to look using a
set series of perameters. It makes you look for the best you can get, spend a
bit of time studying composition and position without letting the equipment do
the work for you.

Yes, you end up saying "Damn, I wish I had a 24 mm lens in my bag," but more
often limiting yourself helps you to concentrate and makes you appreciate what
you do get.

oh, and a note to those debating which lenses were made by Minolta. I have a
24 mm lens for my R, just purchased used, and it says "Made in Germany" on the
body and "Leitz Wetzlar" on the lens ring. I assume this means the lens was
made by Leitz in Wetzlar, since my 16 does say "Made in Japan" on it.

Both are supurb lenses, by the way, whatever their ancestry.

Charlie Trentelman
Ogden, Utah