[Leica] Re: Using the Leica M6HM

[cummer@asiaonline.net (Cummer Family)]

After all the web site fire works over the last few days I thought maybe I
would talk a bit about my latest picture taking experience. I went to Kai
Tak airport in Hong Kong this morning with two of my daughters to take
pictures of the incoming planes. Kai Tak is rated as one of the most
dangerous airports in the world because at about 1000 feet altitude on the
western approach to the runway the planes have to execute a 45 degree turn
in order to line up with the runway. If you are sitting on the right side of
the plane as it tilts over you look right down into the lanes streets and
apartments of Kowloon. It is a spectacular landing and one of the things
that Hong Kong people will miss about the new airport at Chep Lap Kok, where
normal flat in approaches will be the order of the day. Hong Kong people
will also miss Kai Tak as a busy international airport in the middle of the
harbour of a city of 6 million people accessible in tens of minutes from
most places. I took my new (one film through) M6MH with a 35mm Summicron Asp
and an old 135 Elmar (early 60's) as well as my N***N F90  and 80 - 200
zoom. Two of us used the cameras and we switched back and forth. The N***N
was only useful on manual focus because on auto the focus wandered too much
as the planes turned in front of us. Still the zoom was handy for framing. I
really enjoyed using the M6MH with the 135 Elmar - the HM viewfinder really
helps with framing and focusing and of course you can see the planes as they
fly into the 135 view finder field and the short delay on the Leica shutter
means that the planes don't move very far between pushing the shutter
release and the picture being taken - and they are moving about 150 - 200
miles an hour as they pass by you! After taking many telephoto pictures I
switched to the 35 and moved by one of the exits to the parking lot so I
could look back across at the seven story corner of the lot next to the
landing strip  (where most of the crowd were gathered to look at and
photograph the planes) and this gave me a view of the crowd with the planes
in front of them - just a few hundred few away and a few hundred feet off
the ground. The 35 on the M6HM is definitely not for glasses wearers and
indeed I could only look through the viewfinder with my right eye sticking
my nose around the left side of the camera in order to see the frame lines
but then you feel like you have really leaned into the picture.  I think
Leica should reintroduce the 35 mm finder. I use a finder with 28mm, 24 mm
and 21mm lenses and like the clear view and would like to have the same
experience with the 35 on the M6HM without spending $400 - $500 for a
collectors 35 viewfinder.    I got some, I think, good pictures of
aeroplanes and the people photographing them which I hope will illustrate a
little bit the love affair that Hong Kong people have had with their scary
airport (from a landing point of view) for the last 75 years. The film I
used was ASA 200 Kodak and Fuji film, shutter speeds between 500 / 1000 and
F stops between f8 / f11 (it was partly cloudy) and if some of the shots
turn out especially well I will have them enlarged, framed and hung to
remind me of  Kai Tak which will close forever on July 5.
Howard Cummer