[Leica] 35 mm format is best?

[mark at rabinergroup.com (Mark Rabiner)]

I love the Ansel "biggest one I can carry" quote but it has its caveats.
He suffered like a lot of photographers did with their hands in their Dektol
with horrible arthritis.
And like a lot of photographers they started using assistants as they
progressed with their careers.
So more to the point perhaps is it was the heaviest camera his assistant
needed to carry.
And that camera because a roll film medium format Hasselblad instead of
sheet film and before that glass.

Avedon unlike Adams when he found himself with many assistants went 8x10.
As they are the ones who had to deal with it anyway.

But Adams halfway thought his career really lost most his interest in
shooing.
 his main creative tool was his Olivetti Underwood. And it was not that hard
to carry.

--------------------
Mark William Rabiner
Photography
mark at rabinergroup.com


> From: Doug Herr <wildlightphoto at earthlink.net>
> Reply-To: Leica Users Group <lug at leica-users.org>
> Date: Thu, 26 Aug 2010 12:13:16 -0400
> To: Leica Users Group <lug at leica-users.org>
> Subject: Re: [Leica] 35 mm format is best?
> 
> Frank Dernie wrote:
> 
>>>> 
> Would make it hard to get exceptional wildlife or sport shots too, in most
> cases.
> <<<
> 
> IDK about sports, but for wildlife "in most cases" is correct, assuming
> commonly accepted technique.  Let's not forget about Nick Brandt
> http://www.nickbrandt.com/ who uses medium-format film, and Elliot Porter's
> birds http://tinyurl.com/29fzr7o photographed with 4x5 Kodachrome.
> 
> My favorite Ansel Adams quote is his response when he was asked what the
> best camera is: "the biggest one you're willing to carry".  For myself, the
> "35mm" format strikes a workable balance in my desire to combine high image
> quality and portability.  The image quality potential of bigger formats
> pulls me toward medium-format, the size and weight of the long focal
> lengths I typically use pull me back toward "35mm".  The S2's
> bigger-but-not-too-much-bigger format is pulling me in that direction, the
> present lack of native long lenses and the huge expense of the S2 (and the
> likely size & weight of long S lenses) is keeping me with "35mm".  Within
> the constraints of "35mm" format. I use Leica not because it's a religious
> icon, but because of the image quality / portability ratio.
> 
> Doug Herr
> Birdman of Sacramento
> http://www.wildlightphoto.com
> 
> 
> 
> On 26 Aug, 2010, at 15:23, Tina Manley wrote:
> 
>> But you should remember that the Leica is also better than MF or LF for
> some
>> uses.  I can't imagine carrying a medium or large format into huts in
>> Central America and trying to document family life without being
> obtrusive.
>> The Leica rangefinder and Leica fast lenses are the absolute best for my
>> purposes.
>> 
>> Tina
>> 
>> On Thu, Aug 26, 2010 at 9:54 AM, Lawrence Zeitlin
> <lrzeitlin at gmail.com>wrote:
>> 
>>> 
>>> I'm sure that by now I have irritated most members of the LUG. It helps
> to
>>> remember that the Leica is just a camera, not a religious icon.
>>> 
>>> 
>>> Larry Z
>>> 
>>> 
>> 
> 
> 
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