[Leica] ten years now use the right tool

[dorysrus at mindspring.com (Don Dory)]

Like many people on this list, I own a lot of different equipment.  Some
melted plastic 8fps auto Japanese, some do it all yourself larger
format, and Leicas, lots of Leicas.

The point is to use what makes the image you want to make using the best
tool.  Serious wildlife photography these days is digital because you
can shoot 10,000 frames of that beast to get just the correct light, eye
shine, expression, and juxtaposition with no added cost.  Think about
schlepping ten miles up hill on broken terrain to get the location
nailed and lose the shot because the camera was rewinding or the light
changed a lot and you needed 400 ISO and you had 100.  Large capacity
cards and a digital wallet and you can shoot and shoot and shoot.

But I don't often take those kinds of images; mostly now, I take
pictures of friends and the greater community to show as a PAW.  For
that, an M is what works for me.  After three decades I don't really
need to look at the camera to zone focus, guess an exposure on negative
film, point the camera and shoot.  For me, the M, any M is an extension
of my hand and eye.

Last, I am really comfortable with film.  Properly washed, sleeved, and
stored the B&W negatives will be available for a really long time and
may someday end up at some college like Sonny works at.  Images of
normal life showing how people lived, where they lived, and the stuff
they accumulated. Real information captured for social historians to
ponder.  In a hundred years, it will not be the famous that matters; it
will be the little everyday things that will be of interest.  Your photo
album and your mother in laws pictures will be what interest the future.

Will I go digital?  Probably, especially if a digital M becomes a
reality.  I keep trying to like either little pocket digitals or the
DSLR's.  The small cameras just get in the way too much, and I just
don't care to spend large dollars changing a system: my telephoto's
would work fine but I really do use 15-24 a pretty fair amount of time
and that requires money to replicate what already works.  Besides, the
really wides for the current DSLR's are pretty awful, don't flame me, I
have the digital files with really god-awful edges and corners.  B.D.,
the Olympus may be pretty good, but I am not going to buy into a new
system at this point.

YMMV and thanks for reading the rant.

Don
dorysrus@mindspring.com