Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2003/02/26

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Subject: RE: [Leica] A camera is a box with a hole in the front.
From: "Kit McChesney | acmefoto" <kitmc@acmefoto.com>
Date: Wed, 26 Feb 2003 10:45:54 -0700

Speaking of boxes with holes in them ... you're absolutely right! When I was
in college and majoring in photography, in what was a scandalously bad
program somewhere in the South, my professor, who was the tyrannical
director of the program, would not allow his students to use anything BUT a
pinhole camera, one that we had to build from scratch from balsa wood, with
a precisely measured hole drilled into a small piece of sheet brass. Not
only that, but we had to create our own gray cards, gray scales, test for
reciprocity failure, and a whole host of other arcane tasks that had already
been done by Kodak and god and goddess knows who else, and surely didn't
need to be done by a cast of poor, overworked undergrads who only wanted to
learn to take a good picture and learn to use a Good Camera. This horrid man
fancied himself as The Most Knowledgeable Authority on The Subject of The
Pinhole Camera, and was one of the most unpleasant individuals I have ever
met in my entire life. He did more to kill the creative spirit of droves of
enthusiastic young photographers than anyone could possibly have imagined.
(I'm still in recovery).

However, I did learn that a camera is indeed a box with a hole, and that you
can take some very interesting pictures with such a box.

Makes working with an M a lovely and well-deserved reward for doing penance
in that dismal darkroom 25 years ago.

Kit
- -----Original Message-----
From: owner-leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us
[mailto:owner-leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us]On Behalf Of Beddoe,
Neil
Sent: Wednesday, February 26, 2003 10:03 AM
To: 'leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us'
Subject: [Leica] A camera is a box with a hole in the front.


My M6 is in a pretty sorry state with external bits falling off and the
superglue stuck to the chrome from when I glued the leather back down and
used too much.  Strangely it takes pictures just as well as it did when I
first bought it.  My lenses are still mint in every way as I wrap them in
cotton wool and tuck them up in bed every night with a lullaby since they
are the means by which light enters my camera and strikes the film and as
such are sacred and wondrous objects.

I hope all the black paint, titanium and other silly variants on the M
camera all fall under Mr Cassidy's bastard file and the people who buy them
realise that this WON'T AFFECT THE QUALITY OF THE PICTURES IN THE SLIGHTEST
AND THAT'S WHAT COUNTS.

Neil

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Replies: Reply from Rob Heyman <rheyman@bigpond.net.au> (Re: [Leica] A camera is a box with a hole in the front.)