Snobby Leica/MFvsAF

["David W. Almy" <dalmy@mindspring.com>]

 Donal,

You struck a nerve with your war story of shooting the boots in the
frozen north. From the "I can top that" department, thought you'd get a
kick out of the following...

In the winter of 1985 I was an associate editor with Flying magazine in
New York. We decided to do a feature on the Canadair Challenger, a large
twin-engine business jet made in Canada. I was the author of the story
while our editor did the pilot's report. Lucky me -- I also got to take
the pictures.

We flew up to Connecticut to meet up with the plane in, as I remember
it, January, with a ground temperature hovering about 30 degrees with
snow on the ground. Took the double door off the back of a Beech Baron,
a twin engine piston airplane, into which I climbed with a motorized
F3T, a 180 2.8 ED and a 105 2.5, and a few others. I sat in the back of
the Baron by the large hole in the fuselage where the door used to be
with the heaviest parka I had, no seat belt, and much dred. The two
smart/warm pilots sat up front, one to watch me and take direction by
hand signals, the other to drive the plane.

We met up with the Challenger at about 6,000 feet over Long Island
Sound, at full throttle, with the wind in my hair whipping by at 160
knots, a speed necessary to keep up with the jet. Of course, temperature
drops with altitude, and with wind chill, well I probably was attempting
to orchestrate formation flying between a jet and a piston airplane
using hand signals while taking pictures at -200 degrees fahrenheit (or
at least it seemed that cold).

These were pre-autofocus days (I think the F3AF was just out) so the
drill involved focusing and firing like mad (while the airplanes flew in
a, for them, lazy circle) for 20 seconds and then ditching the camera
and holding my ungloved (to run the controls) hands directly in front of
a blessedly vulcanic heating vent. Change lenses/film/keep firing/thaw.
This freeze/thaw cycle was repeated until I began to completely run out
of light, and my bodily fluids began to solidify. I have never been so
cold in my life, before or since.

The pictures (Kodachrome) were good (not great) but I was rewarded in
July with a cover shot taken head-on of the jet with the pilots grinning
in late day winter sun at 6,000 feet over the Atlantic. It was a treat
to see the magazine up in the clothes pins of the news stands of Grand
Central Station in New York. But all I really remember is the cold.

What would I shoot with today? An F5 or N90s, as autofocus is such a
help in such circumstances, and the 80-200 2.8 ED-IF. I could use, and
would buy, an R8 for other missions, but not this one.

And yes, I do love my M6.

David W. Almy
Annapolis, Maryland