Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1999/05/08
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]To: Allan Jay Silver... You wrote... - ---- From: allan jay silver <silver@proaxis.com> Subject: [Leica] AF Mark Rabiner wrote: Take our a tape measure and lay out 4 feet. Now set your camera at 4 feet with a 35 or 28 or 24 lens. Now walk around the house or studio and when you get 4 feet from things hit the shutter. I leant this while in London: My feet move much faster than my focusing ring! ;) ----->> Do you people remember years ago when flash units were rated by Guide numbers? There was no TTL metering. We often did the same thing that Mark Rabiner suggested. If the GN was 48, for example, I would set the f-stop at f8 and set the distance on the camera lens to 6 feet. Always making sure we were 6 ft. away when snapping the shutter. In those days we had to be inventive. Allan - ---- Hi Allan... Yes...I certainly do remember the "good-ole-daze" of Flashbulb Photography...using Guide Numbers...with my beloved 4x5 Speed Graphic...because I "still do that". Actually...I've got 8-full-cases of "WABASH" (before they became Sylvania) Press 40B bulbs...(now...don't ask which rock and cave I crawled out from under...hah). I'm just coming out of retirement and re-discovered photography...with the same thrill and joy I did as a 9-year-ole-kid...with a big difference, I now see. It's no-longer like developing a roll of 116 Orthochromatic film under a red lamp bulb in the bathroom...by the see-saw method in a 5x7 tray. What I see now, is...I have a choice...either get a Leica camera and lens...or use the money to buy a new car. ...hah. [Sidenote: Might I ask you Ladies & Gents a teeny-tiny favor?...When you mention "meters"...could you also translate that into "feet" as well? (i.e. "xx-meters" / "xx-feet") for us dimwits in the audience? My Bee-bee-brain never did learn "meters"...and the US school system gave up teaching that idea after 15 years of trying to force it down our throats...hah...Thanks Folks...luv-ya-all!]...ED.