Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1996/03/18
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]On Sun, 17 Mar 1996, Eric Welch wrote: > Jack Hamilton wrote: > > > > How can you forget to focus...??? I agree with Eric - for a change - the first courtship with a Leica rangefinder - after a zillion years with the old split image SLR was a real painful one! I had more trash than good stuff until I practiced, practiced, practiced!!! Camera stores and everyone else in the real world tell you to start reeling film thru a new camera like crazy----of course they do!!!! Just simple dry shooting for a couple of days to get the unique feel of a Leica and mentally falling in love with it was my cure. Actually, the first time I took it into fairly dim lighting - scenes virtually impossible to focus and shoot with a manual-focus SLR---I WAS in love!! The Leica viewfinder was as bright as the beach! The dual image snapped into view like a flash, I focused instinctively....and I've never looked back. I find focusing in bright light much more difficult; the dim stuff is a snap with a Leica. So, yes, it's not impossible to "forget" to focus the first few experiences with a Leica rangefinder. Maybe it's the "old dog, new tricks" thing! > With an M6, if you are like me, you have to shoot fast to capture the > moment quite often, and it's easy to concentrate so much on the > composition that after years of SLR work, it's easy to foget it's not in > focus until the images merge. It doesn't happen that often, but still, I > have to tell myself to focus. I'm sure that will go away. > > Like I've been told by many long-time M users, it takes at least a year > of using an M camera to really get to know it. > > -- > Eric Welch > Grants Pass, OR > > >