[Leica] Re: Introducing Johnny Deadman

["Johnny Deadman" <deadman@jukebox.demon.co.uk>]

> 
> Date: Sat, 11 Sep 1999 09:42:00 -0400
> From: kabob@tiac.net (Bob Keene/Karen Shehade)
> Subject: Re: [Leica] Introducing Johnny Deadman/and stuff....
>
> I'd love to hear about a 'transatlantic maple syrup explosion'!

The Canon 7 + 28/2.8 was in the overhead locker in a carry-on bag with a
bottle of prime Candian maple syrup I was smuggling back into the UK. It was
as I was exiting into Heathrow that I noticed maple syrup dripping out of
the bag. I guess the pressure drop cracked the bottle. Anyhow, the 7 was
totally covered. I cleaned off the lens, but the body (which was pretty
ugly, a hotshoe epoxied on for the 28 finder etc) had been penetrated. In
the end I got all the maple syrup out of it... except on the film counter,
which is now permanently stuck at 40. The finder was screwed, too.
>
> As for edge-to-edge sharpness being over rated: I have a 35 Summilux
> (non-ASPH) and a 20 5.6 Russar for my M6 (the Russar won't screw into the
> Canon 7 because of the size of the rear elemant) and these lenses are
> TESTIMONIALS to the 'beauty' of 'blur'!!! Never mind the Canon 50 f1.4 I
> shoot wide open .....

Yeah, fat wides, all the way open. What a great look, especially backlit.
Screw bokeh! It's coma, man. Coma and spherical aberration. Your best
friends. My Canon 24/2.8 FD does the same thing. Just great. If you want to
go crazy, even overexpose a litte. Check out some of Robert Frank's pictures
in THE AMERICANS... exactly this effect. Very romantic, in a gritty kind of
way. Gentle and tough. Woo!

You see the same thing in reverse in Bill Klein's 50s NYC pictures... a
REALLY fuzzy enlarging lens, blacks bleeding everywhere. Kind of mannered,
like so much of Klein's stuff, but also cool. Anyone here recommend a lens
for this effect (I do it now with the ground glass out the back of a 6x6
slide)?
>
> Mainly an XP-2 shooter, but if time allows will delve into the Ilford Delta
> 3200 for that 'fun stuff'; would love to experiment with some infrared, but
> sigh.... those wedding albums won't put themselves together!

I shot XP-1 a long while, especially for flash, but the C-41 processors
scratch film too often, and the split D-76 or D-73 process is foolproof and
yet flexible -- amazingly fine grain, too. I also found XP-1 a little *too*
fine grained...or at least, not quite sharp to my eyes. One of the
corollaries of shooting soft with lenses wide open is that you need *some*
grain as texture in those fuzzy zone 5 and 4 areas... or it just looks
blurry. The eye needs velcro (TM).
>
> Having too much fun with the Leitz 'R' lenses on my Canon EOS A2; so my M6
> has been sadly neglected the last couple of weeks!!
>
> Hope you score the M4P! I loved mine- wish I hadn't parted with it- see if
> you can get an MR-4 meter for it- they work great!

The auction ends tonite. I checked out a knackered M2 in central London
today for the same price... no comparison really. The M4-P seems to have
been drastically under-rated... those rumours about build quality, which
seem to have been off mark. Certainly an exc+ M4-P has got to be a better
buy as a user than that trashed M2, which looked like it had been dropped
out of a helicopter, and needs a finder for the 28.

The T-90...one of those cameras that begs to be picked up and USED (like I
did mine, today). Not exactly inconspicuous, but great karma. It's my
point-and-shoot. Chakka chakka chakka! The dog loves it.

- --
Johnny Deadman

"The writer who writes a good book while sitting in torn breeches should
first mend his breeches" - Montaigne