Re: M6 for Portraits

[Bob Parsons <bobp@dodo.demon.co.uk>]

In reply to Ulrich Faber Roger Beamon wrote:

>The M6 is eminently well suited for all that you mention above, BUT,
>you will have to work a bit to learn the proper handling of the camera
>and the proper interpretation of what the meter is telling you.
>Extremely rewarding if you put forth the effort.

Ulrich, I couldn't agree more with what Roger has said.

For me the M6 is super for portraits of people, animals and children.
It's fast, quiet, light and unobtrusive. One useful tip for using the M
series is to initially adjust the focus by turning the focussing ring on
the lens and then leave it alone. To focus accurately when shooting you
rock the top half of your body backwards or forwards slightly to get the
rangefinder images to coincide. This makes focussing very easy if the
subject moves.
If you do this, quite often after you have taken several frames people
will then ask "when are you going to start taking my picture"! They
expect you to adjust the lens before you shoot.

Although I've never used an auto focus SLR if I were buying one I'd be
careful to check how easy it is to focus on a persons eye for example,
and maintain this focus when you move the subject in the viewfinder to
compose the image, or, if the subject moves after you have focussed and
composed. If you want to use large apertures to make the subject stand
out from the background the auto focus has to be very precise.

For beautiful examples of what can be done with an M camera to
photograph children have a look at Tina Manley's web site:

http://www.photogs.com/manley/


Bob Parsons.