RE: [Leica] Cosina new lenses (long)

[Alan Ball <AlanBall@csi.com>]

On lundi 24 mai 1999 5:25, Jim Brick [SMTP:jim@brick.org] wrote:
> ....snip....
> We've discussed "Leica Glow" and "Bokeh". I believe the "ethereal"
> qualities of Leica images are much deeper than what simply meets the eye. 
I
> believe good Leica images have a feeling. They have music. This is why "I
> like using Leica lenses," All others need not apply.

Jim,

Good images have a feeling, they sometimes have music, I agree. Cosina or 
Leica, Canon or Sigma, Zeiss or Minolta or whatever.

Most photographers will develop a very personal relationship with the 
hardware items that have helped them produce those 'musical images'. I do 
not believe there is such a thing as an objective 'Leica glow', but I 
believe there is such a thing as photographic talent and know-how. You seem 
to be getting a real kick with the images you have produced using Leica 
hardware in the last few years, and that's great. I can therefore fully 
understand why you would not want to experiment with anything else in the 
35mm field. It would be a waste of time, and it would (re)introduce 
elements of insecurity in your creative process.

But exactly the same words as those you have used are pronounced by a vast 
array of happy talented photographers using a vast array of other hardware. 
A visit on other lists will illustrate this. An eye on the dozens of great 
images one is exposed to every day shows that there is no hardware monopoly 
on 'deep', 'musical', images.

It is therefore perfectly understandable to me that photographers who are 
still searching for their own styles, angles, personal vision, or trying to 
renew them, are happy trying out new hardware items from many suppliers in 
a financially less committed way than buying exclusively the latest from 
Leica (or Hasselblad or Alpa, etc).

The 15mm Bessa is the perfect example of a very desirable piece of hardware 
for people who would like to experiment with ultra-wides while using the 
bodies and shooting behaviour they are accustomed with. The very compact 
and capable 28mm sm Ricoh is also a perfectly understandable choice  for 
someone who would want to dip a modern toe in RFsystems or for someone who 
primarly uses a screw mount system. Which does not necessarily imply Leica. 
So, I do not converge with your repeated puzzlement on those matters.

May I add that, judging from the info you posted here, you seem to have 
chosen a photographic style very much focused on landscapes and still 
subjects. You seem to generally use a heavy tripod and to favor high 
resolution films (the handheld 75mm summilux tulip with E200 seems like an 
exception, no ?). This behaviour, when mastered with talent, will end up 
with brilliant images. Most high end travel magazines publish brilliant 
non-Leica landscapes. Your shooting pattern helps you get the best possible 
imaging performances from the marginally superior hardware you are using. 
You are therefore in a position to squeeze the very best reproduction 
capabilities from 35mm emulsion, and your trained eyes might even detect an 
improvement on your large Ilfochromes that would originate in the lens you 
used rather than in the tripod, the film, the composition, the exposure 
settings or the enlargement lab.

I sincerely believe most of us are not in that position and have no wish to 
choose the same photographic subject matter as you. I think the Leica 
hardware I am using is an overkill for my style of photography. I love 
using it though, and feel absolutely secured (and often humbled) by knowing 
that failure in a picture will never be hardware related. But, objectively, 
a large percentage of my good Leica pictures could have been shot with a 
2nd hand 50 USD Cosina SLR with 2nd hand PK mount fixed lenses. I am really 
looking forward to using some of those rogue new lenses. Might even buy a 
sm body for them...

Alan