Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1999/07/19
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]We spent the weekend on Orcas Island (San Juan Islands, Washington State, USA) this past weekend, and I must say that it is one striking place. Incredibly beautiful even to me and I lived for 12 years in Hawaii! On Saturday, we were treated to a dazzling light show, as clouds moved across the island and provided a dark storm-like background for some scenes, as openings in the cloud cover would open up and allow a shaft of light to illuminate a peice of the landscape. Anyway, my experience on Orcas reminded me of a thread from a few months ago in which we were discussing slow zooms, missed moments, and fast primes. For this Orcas overnighter, I decided to leave my trusty Leica M6s at home, and take just the R6.2 with the 24 f2.8 Elmarit, 80-200 and 35-70 Elmar zooms and leave everything else at home. What a mistake. The most spectacular light we saw came right at the end of the day. Time and again, I ran into the maximum aperture of those damn zooms. Each time, I kicked myself, knowing that my Summilux 35, and APO Summicron 90 ASPH were sitting at home in my closet. And my tripod wasn't wasn't very helpful on rocking boats, vibrating ferrys, and windy hillsides. The photo industry has consumers convinced that those mid-range zooms (some even slower than my Vario Elmars) will help them capture more moments. Give me a fast fixed focal any day. Boy, M users sure are spoiled... - --Jim Laurel Seattle, WA USA