[Leica] Early trauma

[afirkin at afirkin.com (afirkin at afirkin.com)]

> 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.

This is a great story and another triumph for Dr. Ted. (who is obviously
branching out into head shrinking ;-) )

alastair