R: [Leica] My first week with Leica

["Guido Ridoli" <guirid@numerica.it>]

Yes,my friend
LEICA virus has captured you

Welcome into the LUG +ACI-hospital+ACI- :-)

    GUIDO RIDOLI
  LEICA M superfan
  guirid+AEA-numerica.it



- -----Messaggio originale-----
Da: Nathan Wajsman +ADw-nathan.wajsman+AEA-euronet.be+AD4-
A: Leica list +ADw-leica-users+AEA-mejac.palo-alto.ca.us+AD4-
Data: sabato 9 maggio 1998 12.53
Oggetto: +AFs-Leica+AF0- My first week with Leica


+AHw-Dear all,
+AHw-
+AHw-I thought I would share my experiences with the
M6, which I have now
+AHw-owned for about 10 days. While I have been taking
pictures (always as a
+AHw-hobby) since 1985, I am completely new to Leica.
I have until now always
+AHw-shot mostly with SLRs (Pentax)+ADs- I also owned a
Hasselblad 501 for a few
+AHw-years but sold it last year because I was not
using it enough. I have
+AHw-now shot 4 rolls of film with the M6,
transparencies and black+ACY-white.
+AHw-Mostly with the 2.0/35mm Summicron which I got
first, but also one with
+AHw-the 1.4/75mm Summilux which I got a few days ago.
+AHw-
+AHw-The things that I really like about the M6:
+AHw-
+AHw-1) The beautiful finish and general air of fine
craftmanship+ADs-
+AHw-
+AHw-2) The back-to-basics approach. While shooting
mostly autofocus SLR the
+AHw-past year or so, I had forgotten the joy of
carefully composing an image
+AHw-in the viewfinder, to think about things like
hyperfocal distance,
+AHw-exposure etc. The M6 encourages this kind of
approach, which for me has
+AHw-brought back the fun in photography.
+AHw-
+AHw-3) The superb lenses. When I looked at the first
slides shot with the
+AHw-Summicron, I was floored by the sharpness of the
image, corners and
+AHw-centre. I also shot a very familiar scene, namely
the view from my
+AHw-backyard, which faces fields and often looks very
beautiful in the
+AHw-morning as the sun rises and burns off the fog.
The Summicron captured
+AHw-the mood of the scene like no other lens I own.
Last weekend, I walked
+AHw-around Brussels' Grand'Place, taking pictures of
the tourists and the
+AHw-beautiful buildings on Ilford XP2. Again, the
sharpness of the images is
+AHw-amazing. I will put some of those on my web page,
but of course the
+AHw-scanner and monitor resolution will not do them
justice.
+AHw-
+AHw-4) The smallness of the outfit compared to an
SLR.
+AHw-
+AHw-5) The short shutter lag which allowed me to
capture an image of a
+AHw-Japanese tourist trying to get his little son to
pose, an image I doubt
+AHw-I would have gotten with my autofocus SLR (the
scene did not last very
+AHw-long at all).
+AHw-
+AHw-6) The fact that everything except the meter
works even if the batteries
+AHw-die. With my autofocus motorized SLR, no
batteries+AD0-no pictures.
+AHw-
+AHw-7) The helpful people here on LUG (and on
Compuserve's photography
+AHw-forum), who answer questions quickly, point me in
the right direction
+AHw-for information, and provide a supportive, mostly
flame-free
+AHw-environment.
+AHw-
+AHw-The negative aspects are few. Of course there is
the price of the stuff,
+AHw-but I do not mind paying for this level of
quality. Focusing with the
+AHw-rangefinder is not always easy, but I am sure it
is a question of
+AHw-learning and getting used to it. The meter is
nice to have and seems
+AHw-very accurate (I have compared the readings to
those given by my
+AHw-Seconic, which I know is accurate), but I wish
that the indications in
+AHw-the viewfinder were more comprehensive.
+AHw-
+AHw-I look forward to many years with this little gem
and hopefully also of
+AHw-hanging out on this list.
+AHw-
+AHw-Nathan Wajsman
+AHw-Overijse, Belgium
+AHw-
+AHw-
+AHw-
+AHw-
+AHw-