[Leica] Ted is WRONG

[lrzeitlin at aol.com]

 Ted,?

Again with all due respect, you are simply WRONG. You have discounted a lifetime of photographic experience as being a trivial skill in the operation of a fully manual camera. Why on earth have manufacturers tried to put all the mechanical details of camera operation into a piece of silicon the size of your little fingernail if not for the fact that it will enable the neophyte to take photos (almost) as good as you? Not necessarily well composed photos nor those that have great content but pictures that are properly exposed and in focus.?

I fully recognize that you are certainly a very competent photographer with a long and excellent career. Certainly one of the best on the LUG. But you are a self admitted technophobe and, like a true luddite, predisposed to argue against the technological advances in the art. I remember that years ago when I got my first fully automatic DSLR and I complained about the 15 possible exposure modes, you simply advised me to forget about it. Simply set my camera on Automatic and take a lot of pictures. That time you were quite correct. It made my life much simpler and predisposed me to accept the pictures made by my kid's cellphones.

You can do wonderful things with a Leica but it requires that you be a knowledgable photographer. It is so much easier to use automatic focus, automatic exposure, automatic color balance, automatic ISO selection. Just point the camera and let it do the heavy lifting. Isn't photography supposed to be fun?

By the way, your estimate of the size of camera manuals is a bit in error. My original Leica M3 manual, the one that came with the camera in 1954, had 31 pages but only dealt with the camera body itself. It assumed that I knew all about lenses and exposure. The 1947 "Leica Manual" by Morgan and Lester had 551 pages covering only the screw mount cameras. Five full pages were devoted to how to put film in the camera. Clearly the difference between the two manuals assumes a degree of photographic experience such as you possessed. Andrew Matheson's "Leica Way" published after the introduction of the M series cameras had 540 pages. By contrast, the longest manual for a digital camera that I have is one by Olympus for the digital Pen. It has only 130 pages and most of that is devoted to obscure modes of operation that I never use. But then everything is automatic, isn't it?

Larry Z
- - - - -
Ted writes:
"In the "REALLY GOOD OLD DAYS" one bought the LEICA, added a roll of film
each time you wished to take more photos. And you did it that way and it
worked perfectly. oh for about 20-30 years and never let you down."

With all due respect this is a drastic oversimplification.<<<<<

LARRY!
well it might sound like that! HOWEVER HARDLY AN OVER SIMPLIFICATION!

HOWEVER!
Bull shit! Not the least bit if you had two hairs of brains! AND WERE A
COMPLETELY WIRED HEART AND BRAINS INTO BEING A PHOTOJOUNALIST/PHOTOGRAPHER!

The Leica worked fine provided you had the knowledge to measure the light
properly, chose the appropriate lens opening, set the shutter speed, focus
the camera, have a good reliable processing service or did the wet work
yourself.<<<<<<

OH CRAP BULL SHIT AGAIN!?
First of all anyone buying, owning and certainly using a LEICA KNEW VERY
Well how to use a hand meter.?
As far as setting the camera settings? It came within 24 hours or less of
having the camera in hand. As soon as you had that machine in your hands you
fell in love with it! Handled it almost blind folded Better than a hot
passionate love affair!

You didn't have the machine of today that requires without question reading
a 200 or more page manual to learn what the hell all the buttons do? ON &
OFF for crying out loud! And if you don't read and almost memorize from the
manual you are immediately????? SCREWED! KISS? THAT ISN'T A WORD APPLICABLE
TO THESE NEW MACHINES.

Over the years my LEICA'S were my bread and butter for my family and self.
NOT TO FORGET THEY WERE THE INSTRUMENTS THAT TOOK ME ALL OVER THE WORLD AND
BACK AND FORTH ACROSS NORTH and SOUTH AMERICA!

8 Published books, TV network documentaries and all kinds of other stuff!
And you know why? KISS WITH MY LEICAS!

And it didn't take a 200 page manual!

AND THIS BY YOU???????????????
"If not being handled by a person with years of appropriate experience it
was a inert lump of metal and glass. Even loading the film took specialized
knowledge.<<<<<

WELL NOW WHAT RESPONSE COULD I POSSIBLY GIVE OTHER THAN?????????????? ?"BULL
SHIT!! :-)

Sorry Boss Brian, but sometimes it just has to be like this!

cheers,
Dr. ted