RE: [Leica] RE: Re: No digital comments?

[Adam Bridge <abridge@mac.com>]

I'm absolutely in a agreement with BD here. (Did I write that? Is that why
there's a power failure? It was in anticipation of this?)

I like many of the discussions here. I've learned a lot and been encouraged to
try many new techniques. This is good.

I like my M6, especially for the portrait work I'm doing lately. I like using
TCN (which I learned to appreciate through discussions here. It's not Leica film
but it goes through my Leica camera.) I'd LOVE to have a digital M6, just like
many others have, because I'd like to keep the wonderful lenses.

But I also know that the digital world has arrived. I work entirely in
Photoshop. I scan all my negatives. I've been using TCN more and more because I
find I don't enjoy wet darkroom work all that much and find I can do almost
everything I need using my Coolscan 4000, Epson 2200, and/or Epson 1280 and
piezography. 

So it makes all the sense in the world for me to want to see Leica make a really
GREAT digital camera - one at least as good as the 10D and one which could fully
exploit its line of lenses for either the R or the M.

So we talk about the R back (due in 2004 when it will be even MORE behind the
times than it is now) and find it's frightfully expensive and doesn't measure up
to the 1Ds which is one fantastic camera, you can't look at the images it makes
and think it isn't.

And I still don't have what really want: a digital M - a camera I want because
of it's form factor, its lenses, and its ease of use. A 1Ds is too big, to
clunky, for me. I claim that autofocus is for whimps - but looking at the images
of children I shot last weekend I'd take all the AF I can get!

I want to see people's work! I figure they hang out here because there's a
certain sensibility we share in the choice of at least one camera we use. I
don't mind that BD posts images made with a Nikon or a Canon or a pinhole camera
because they are INTERESTING images. And I find many of the digital images to be
fascinating and worth my time to see.

So let's NOT make this a Leica exclusive or we'll never talk about the future,
or explore how our equipment could be better, or how to process film better, or
even (gasp) what memory card might work best in our Leica digital camera. Or
even things we've learned to do in photoshop.

adam bridge

Here is a digital image:

http://www.splitsecondfilms.com/PaloAlto/AileenSchwab.jpg

Made with an M6, TCN400, shot at f2.0, scanned and photoshopped and printed on
an Epson 2200 (although this is a jpeg made from the film scan.) I don't see
anything wrong with wanting to make this by eliminating the film.

ab


On 2003-08-14 bdcolen@earthlink.net (bdcolen) thoughtfully wrote: 

>But I own them not because they are Leicas, but because they are the
>best rangefinder cameras I could find, and they fit my shooting style.
>My interest in photography is an interest in - photography. I want to
>create outstanding images, and hope that once and a while I succeed. I
>want to share my images with people with an interest in - photography. I
>want to look at outstanding images, and care not with what they are
>shot, because I know enough about photography to understand what counts
>is the image, no the camera used to capture it. I also know enough about
>photography to know that I can improve my own images by studying the
>images of others, no matter what they were shot with.
>
>I chose to belong to this list because I share with people on this list
>the use of Leica cameras, and because I have a number of friends here. I
>am here because this is an interesting community.

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