[Leica] An attempt to change the subject to a Leica subject

[Ruralmopics@aol.com]

Well, since some folks seem to be tired of discussing America's friendly 
neighbors to the north and the peculiar legal system here in the U.S. I 
thought I would give you a Leica report -- as preliminary and uneventful as 
it is . . . 

I've been running some T-Max 400 through my new used M4-p with both the 35 
Summicron and 24mm. Mostly I've been shooting activities at work -- I work 
for an association of electric cooperatives and part of my job is documenting 
what goes on around the place. I've shot a couple of meetings, a fella at 
work in our print shop and a electric lineman's training class. I've also 
shot some photos of my son. I can't say I've made any stunning photos yet -- 
certainly nothing I care to show off here just yet -- but I am 
re-familarizing myself with rangefinder focusing. I'm heading out on a story 
shoot for the publication on Monday but I'm not sure how much I'm going to 
use the Leica. I'm still a little ill at ease with it so I may not rely on it 
too much. 

One thing I've noticed is that I'm paying a whole lot more attention to depth 
of field -- at least in the sense that I've been checking the near focus of a 
the subject area and the far focus and using the depth of field scale to sort 
of zone focus. I guess this is something I do with the depth of field preview 
on the SLR but it's been more of a conscious thing with the rangefinder. 

I've also noticed how loud my Nikons seem. The non-motored FE2 seems even 
louder than the F4. 

I've souped some film and made a couple of prints from the 35mm lens. I 
haven't printed anything from the 24mm yet but the first negative look really 
good. The first stuff from the 24mm that I souped was just sort of shake-down 
cruise stuff. I shot some more interesting photos today with the lens but 
haven't souped it yet. 

I'm pleased to see that my focus and exposure success rate is very high -- 
perhaps even higher than with the SLR on the focus front (I've been having 
some problem with that lately -- need to check the eyeglass prescription, you 
know). I have been metering very little actually but I've been shooting in 
situations where I'm pretty comfortable with the lighting so I haven't really 
had to worry about it much. 

Film loading has been a breeze. That much I hadn't forgotten from my last 
Leica, 12 years ago. 

Anyway, I've been sort of doing a little reintroduction, getting to know the 
camera again. I never really felt at one with the Leica I owned before so I 
feel like it's almost starting fresh. So far, it's going pretty well, though. 
I'll keep you posted.

Bob (I'd rather talk about Leicas than Canadians) McEowen