Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1999/09/26

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Subject: Re: [Leica] Grey Zone
From: Eric Welch <ewelch@ponyexpress.net>
Date: Sun, 26 Sep 1999 16:43:32 -0500

At 11:51 AM 9/26/99 +0200, Anthony Atkielski wrote:
>I've read a bit about the zone system, and I can't see anything special about
>it.

A bit isn't enough to understand it. It's simply a way of interpreting the 
principles of sensitometry in a repeatable form. Once you standardize your 
film and processing, it makes black and white photography much easier to do 
in a consistent way and get the results you want. It's not magic, it's not 
difficult, it does take some discipline and testing. Some people are too lazy.

The fact that few people approach the technical quality of Ansel Adams' 
(one of the two founders of the Zone System) work. And all these books I've 
seen that go "Beyond" the zone system are the ones that are overdoing it 
with unnecessary complications.

Eric Welch
St. Joseph, MO

http://www.ponyexpress.net/~ewelch

Maniac: An early computer built by nuts...