Re: Sports Photography with a Leica M3

[Paul Winkfield <paul@dunx1.ocs.drexel.edu>]

Happy Holidays all! Gee glad to know there's some1 else using their M3 in 
sports! My style is similar to Glenn's one fun day i was shooting a 
basketball game with a competing photog, he was using a Nikon 2002 his 
first autofocus SLR; I had M6,M3,and R4. the M's were equipped with 35,50 
and 90 tele-elmarit,(btw it's given me awesome slides,dont know why so 
many of you had bad one's, it's paid for itself many times over).

The player's were lined up on either side of the basket, making layups, I 
simply hyperfocaled and using Ektapress 1600 just shot away; the SLR guy 
was trying to follow each player up the the basket, moving quickly from 
left to right, and he says to me (frustrated) 'the autofocus can't stay 
with the action, I'm not sure how these pics will come out'. I never seen 
his photos but my employer got 38 out 38 usable shots per roll. 

The early Leica manuals mentioned that you should focus at the peak area 
of action and follow the progress to the peak then shoot. I was first 
taught sports photog using a SLR and was told the same. The big 
difference is the M's allow you to see outside the framelines. I also 
like the fact that once you learn which directions to focus, you can 
quickly refocus to capture action occuring before your planned 'peak'.

I also shoot tennis, often the U.S. Open, using 135F2.8 down to the 50F2 
and its really fun! One interesting point there is a photog that 
LeicaView hilited, he's been shooting with R's forever; Right after LV 
interviewed him, I saw him that fall using....EOS1!!!  go figure....

One last bit, on M loading, my first job using my Ms was to photograph 
strippers in action!!! I had an M and a Pentax LX slr, and I loaded 
both(with shaky hands! those ladies were beautiful!) in 
the dark (not knowing what film to use beforehand) I later found out that 
my M was loaded right; but my LX was not! While the Pentax does have I 
feel the best loading system for SLRs, I NEVER missloaded my Ms!
<paul>	
I LoVe my LeIcA