[Leica] Shootout - L vs N

[telyt at earthlink.net (Doug Herr)]

On 01/03/2005, at 4:38 AM, B. D. Colen wrote:
 
> While I know full well that the automated tools have produced many a
> "really special" picture, there are indeed times when doing it manually
> is preferable to depending upon automation - and produces better
> images.
> Where we part company is when you contend that those really special
> pictures require a tool optimized for manual use - many a really
> special
> picture has been produced by high end auto lenses focused manually.
> But,
> obviously, if you have found that for your really special pictures you
> require manual focus lenses focused manually, then that's what you
> should be using. :-)
> 

I'll bet this is one of those posts that Brian wishes I wouldn't respond to.
B.D., with all due respect for your many talents, I haven't seen anything in
your posted photos that even remotely resembles the type of photography Rick
and I are doing with birds.

I won't presume to second-guess how a street photographer or documentary
journalist does his thing 'cuz I suck at it.  IMHO photographing small birds
at close range is one of those thing you have to have done and done lots of
before you can advise others how to use the equipment.

Consider this: your depth-of-field is a few mm at best, you have an active
subject so you can't use a slower shutter speed to get more DOF, the subject
is constantly turning its head, shifting its weight from one foot to the
other, its eye is in and out of the plane of focus at least once a second.

Also consider: you don't want a centered composition and even if the AF
sensors are in the right places, you have to keep one on the right part of
the bird as it turns its head left or right, looks up, preens or dips its
head into the water.  You don't just want to keep a sensor on the head, you
want to keep a sensor on a particular part of the head, the eye.  Not the
nostrils, not the crown of the head, not the whiskers at the base of the
bill or the feathers just in front of the eye.  It's much easier IMHO to
follow the bird's eye with mine as it moves around the screen, especially
when the bird's eye is not in an area covered by the AF sensors.

Also consider: by the time you decide the AF system isn't doing what you
want (which might be when the film is developed or when you open the file
with Photoshop to see where it really focussed) and you do these clumsy
button pushes and dial twists and hoop jumping to focus manually, the bird
is gone.

Also consider: Many experienced bird photographers recognize the limits of
AF and turn it off for one of the most demanding situations, flight shots,
because if you can't keep the sensor on the right part of the bird you get
the near wingtip in focus instead of the body or the AF system loses the
bird entirely and zips off to give you perfectly focussed backgrounds.

Considering this I find a camera optimized for manual focus instead of one
that merely permits manual focus is the better tool for the kind of photos I
want to make.  It's not just manual focus lenses, it's a manual focus camera
too.  Look through the viewfinders of an F5 and an R8 side-by-side with
comparable lenses then tell me which you'd rather focus manually with,
particularly outside the area coverd by the AF sensors.

Doug Herr
Birdman of Sacramento
http://www.wildlightphoto.com