Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1999/05/08
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Peter K wondered: > > I guess since sensuous is a means of affecting the senses a camera > could do it, but what senses does the camera affect? Taste? Smell? > Hearing? Sight? Taste? > Ugh! Tactile, anyone? Operating a Leica is definately a sensuous from a tactile point of view. I'd include hearing too: the soft "snick" of the shutter (although not a sensuous as a Rolleiflex leaf shutter) is a delight to hear, compared to the whirring of autoeverything, carbon- fibre clad formula 1 cameras. Looking through the rangefinder of an M3 is also a sensuous experience: The near 1.0 magnification, the clear view and the slightly yellow, hovering brightlines. Interestingly, I don't get the same feel from the M2's VF, because of the wider field of view. Smell? Yes, there can be. My 1932 Leica II's vulcanite has a definate smell, which is hard to describe, but quite distinctive (I guess it could be 67 years of grubby hands... ;-). Lubricants also give off smells in small quantities, which are detectible indoors with the camera to the eye. So yes, I would argue that using a Leica is very definately a sensuous experience. I don't lick my cameras, but short of that they affect pretty much all the senses and add to the experience of using them. M. - -- Martin Howard, Grad. Schl. for Human-Machine Interaction, | HMI/IKP, Linkoping University, SE-581 83 Linkoping, Sweden.| Just Tel: +46 13 28 5741; Fax: +46 28 2579; ICQ: 354739 | say "DOOH" E-mail: marho@ikp.liu.se; www.iav.ikp.liu.se/staff/marho/ +------------