[Leica] late night musings

[Robert Appleby <robert.appleby@tin.it>]

>>>>>>
Date: Fri, 20 Oct 2000 23:49:43 -0700
From: Jim Brick <jim@brick.org>
Subject: [Leica] Late night musings after a long but interesting day.
Message-ID: <200010210651.XAA07023@spoon.alink.net>
References: <200010210314.UAA26565@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us>

At 11:47 PM 10/20/00 -0500, Mike Johnston wrote:
>
>But I *would* like to see something...subversive. Unabashedly utilitarian.
>Anti-collector. Again, nothing against the collectors. I just get a bit
>overstuffed with all the limited-edition, carriage-trade marketing gimmicks,
>one after the next. It's all so damned...precious. I know, I know, it's what
>they feel they need to do to survive, and that's fine with me. I just don't
>feel I'm being served.
>
>It would be nice if there were a workingman's Leica.
>
>--Mike

There is, of course, a "workingman's Leica. All of them. M6, R6.2, R8. How
much more working can you get. Mechanical and/or electronic. Take your
choice. There are a whole lot of working folks in this world today making a
good living with these very cameras. They certainly don't need "brass gears
and the silken feel of the M4." That's for dabblers, dreamers, fondlers,
and writers.

You are a dabbler, a dreamer, a writer. Not a serious get out and get the
job done user. They will never "serve" you. They are serving the world of
real photographers.

Solms makes great and wonderful photographic equipment. The lenses are
unparalleled. And there is a used market out there to outfit any budget.
But if you are going to produce the goods for a paying client, the new
stuff will make you look extra good. And the guy paying the bill could care
less about the paint, gears, TTL, a silly millimeter, big shutter knob, or
whatever. He wants stunning images. And that is what the latest Leica
equipment produces. Images more stunning than ever before.

Want something, currently made, that is "unabashedly utilitarian?" Buy a
"0" A great camera for utilitarian dabblers.

Jim
<<<<<<<<<<

I tend to agree with Jim. The leica M6 (non ttl in my case, but that's just
the way I bought them - if I had stupid mopney I'd probably go for the TTl
for the larger dial) with modern asph lenses is a working combo which
produces stunning images of incredible optical quality in lighting
conditions which no manual focus slr can can handle (I don't know about
AF), at least in my experience (I have very short sight also). I love this
equipment because it gets the job done, for me, better than anything else
I've ever used. How more utilitarian can you get? The rest has nothing to
do with taking pictures.

Nothing wrong with Mike's position, it just isn't the position of someone
who's primarily interested in the pictures, but more in the
optical/mechanical characteristics of the equipment. Which is also
interesting, but simply irrelevant to snapping.

I've never been able to get the idea that somehow older, less "sharp"
lenses with the "glow" (which is presumably just veiling flare) are better
or more interesting than modern ones. In practical terms, that is. As for
the M3 etc against the M6 sort of thing, just try using those dinosaurs in
fast changing light with slide film. Or changing twenty films a day with
the old reel-to-reel set up! No thanks. The M6 just works better, and the
new asph lenses just give better results.

Rob.


Robert Appleby
V. Bellentani 36
41100 MO
Italy
tel. (+39) 059 303436
mob. (+39) 0348 336 7990