Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1998/09/30
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]- -----Original Message----- From: BIRKEY, DUANE <dbirkey@hcjb.org.ec> >I sold my 3 lens Hasselblad kit to buy Leica. For me, I found few >practical advantages of having the Hasselblad and it costs too much for >long or wide lenses. It's certainly not handholdable and forget >available light work. It weighs too much and isn't very portable unless >you have an assistant or a pack mule to carry it for you [snip] I think it's great to have an SLR such as the Hasselblad to complement a Leica M outfit, and for what it is, the Hasselblad is not overly large: It's boxy shape fits nicely into a lens-sized pouch in one's camera bag, and the square format is a natural for any camera used with waist level finder. It's great for more deliberate images (ones not requiring camera movements), yet is still very handy to use. But...I'm not happy with the price or the weight of most of the lenses! I hope to rent the Mamiya 645 Pro and Bronica ETRSi outfits and see what they can do for me. I had previously tried replacing the Leica M altogether with one compact MF camera or another, but this never quite worked out, as the camera maybe was too heavy (try carrying a Mamiya Six outfit everywhere), or it didn't focus as close as I wanted. Though the Mamiya Six was certainly the most Leica-like, I think the Fuji GA645 was closer to being the ideal go-anywhere Leica M replacement, never mind attempting any of that fancy available light stuff :-) Jeff