Re: [Leica] Mythology v Reality - A Call For A Thoughtful Di

[pchefurka@plaintree.com]

>I spent some time the other evening looking for the umpteenth time at my 
>little Aperture HCB book. What struck me was how many not-quite in focus 
>shots there were. How soft the lenses used for many of the photos were. 
>And how what makes these photos great has nothing to do with technical 
>excellence of equipment, but of vision. What makes these great photos are 
>the framing, the balance, the subjects, the capturing of the decisive 
>moment, the seeing of something another person with the same or better 
>equipment might stare directly at and never see.

In the HCB 90th birthday edition of American Photo magazine,
he described modern photography as fostering "an unhealthy
obsession with the sharpness of the image".

As a recent (and more than slightly unwilling) member of a
camera club, I'm getting a first-hand look at this obsession.
Recently a local pro came in to judge a B&W print competition,
and his singular complaint about the images was a lack of
sharpness:  "Nice shot.  To bad you didn't use a tripod."

Sharpness; contrasty, saturated colours; printing and lens
effects - these seem to be the motivators behind much of the
photography I've seen at the club.

<Jerry Seinfeld>
"Not that there's anything wrong with that"
</Jerry Seinfeld>

But if that's all a shot has going for it, I'd rather read a
book.

Many people (who haven't used Leicas) fail to appreciate that
the vaunted sharpness of the Leica M lenses is less important
to the final outcome than the nature of the camera body itself.
After all, many of us use the things hand-held, and a the lpmm
in the world won't help if the camera jiggles just a jot.  But
as Tina observed, the camera itself allows you to get pictures
in situations that would otherwise be unapproachable.

That said, however, when I got back into Leicas this year,
I tried to save some money by buying older lenses.  To my
dismay, the little red guy with the horns who sits on my
left shoulder kept saying "But you know they're not as
shaaaarp!"  And he shouted down the little white guy with
the halo on my right shoulder who kept repeating that
HCB quote.  So I caved in and traded up...

Paul Chefurka