Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2010/10/19

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Subject: [Leica] Early trauma
From: kanner at acm.org (Herbert Kanner)
Date: Tue, 19 Oct 2010 16:38:50 -0700

Around 1943 I got traumatized. This was the thick of WWII, and 
cameras were hard to find. I was lucky enough to find a little 
non-range-finder 35mm camera called a Wirgin, if I remember 
correctly. I think I found it in a large camera store in Chicago, 
where I was living. I took it with me on vacation to New York. At the 
end of a roll of Kodachrome, I took some pictures of flowers in a 
friend's garden. The camera was pretty small and light, and my 
hand-held exposures were generally at 1/100.

On returning to Chicago, I took the camera and pictures to the lab 
where I was working to show off to a colleague. The bastard started 
examining the frames with a 20X magnifier and announced: "Your camera 
is no good; they're not sharp." Then, when he got to the last of the 
lot, he exclaimed: "This one is sharp."

The last picture was taken with the camera on a tripod, as the sun 
was going down. I was so traumatized by this experience that for the 
next 55 years, I was reluctant to shoot hand-held at less than 1/250. 
Happily, some of the postings by Ted Grant have taught me to do 
better.

Herb


-- 
Herbert Kanner
kanner at acm.org
650-326-8204

Do not meddle in the affairs of cats,
for they are subtle and will pee
on your computer!


Replies: Reply from afirkin at afirkin.com (afirkin at afirkin.com) ([Leica] Early trauma)
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Reply from tedgrant at shaw.ca (tedgrant at shaw.ca) ([Leica] Early trauma)