Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1999/05/24
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]At 06:26 PM 5/24/99 EDT, Tom Shea wrote: > >Some like the protection, not the UV filtering. I sometimes feel like we are dealing here with folks who suffer from being hard-of-thinking. TAKE OFF THE FLIPPIN' FILTER WHEN SHOOTING. It is that simple. Is something obscure in the language of this? What bloody protection do you NEED in most cases? From the AIR? From SUNLIGHT? Or, mayhaps, from MOONLIGHT? Not all of us hike Mount Everest or live, as Jim Brick does, in a salt-marsh. Most of us live in relatively temperate climes and use our Leica gear in routine environments. SO, GIVEN THIS: WHY USE THE BLOODY FILTER? My local camera store used to pound on and pound on and pound on about the value of that "protection" filter. They recently got bought out by another company which never mentions the "protection" filter. You pays your money, and you takes your choice. Kiddies, I'm of Celtic heritage, that idiot last-ditchism of Wales, the silly obstinancy of Ireland, the wild romanticism of the Scots Hielan's, but, for the all of that, if one of my Leica lenses, even a new-bought one, were to be scarred by an errant light-sabre beam from some alien spacecraft, so be it. USE your tools. Don't pamper them. Leicas are tools. If you do not use them, then you have wasted all. USE them. Run risks. Be daring, don't be a bloody no-daring Sassanach, and peace to you, Jem! I go camping. I use a hatchet to chop wood. Do I check first to see the axe-resistant quotient of the wood? Hell, no. I chop wood with it. I rebuild transmissions from time to time. I use tools. Do I CHECK to see whether the 10mm socket is DESIGNED to remove this 8mm x 1mm bolt? Shucks, no: like meets like, and it is removed. Buddy boys, get with the programme: USE THE TOOLS TO TAKE PICTURES, and, you lousy ward-heelers, sons of Zapata, heirs to Chingza, or whoever you might regard yourselves as, TAKE OFF THE BLOODY FILTERS! I have said enough. I will keep quiet, for at least 11 minutes. I promise. But there are no filters on MY Leica lenses when I shoot, unless I need their filtering quality. I disagree with Brother Brick on a thousand detail issues, but, for once, and with a <sigh> of relief, I can say that he is right! Now, about Ted Grant and his impending 70th, the bullshit he speaks! From the way women chase him, and me being alone and unloved, he must be 20 if he is a day, but no more than that. Still, in celebration of his contrary soul, I've determined to do him the honour of swilling some <most expensive and almost Leica-valued> Lagavulin, my favorite single-malt, and I'm half-way there, that meaning that the bottle is half-full but not yet half-empty but this is the sort of foolishness only a deranged Canadian adherent of the Commonwealth Games might, conceivably, comprehend! Marc msmall@roanoke.infi.net FAX: +540/343-7315 Cha robh bas fir gun ghras fir!