[Leica] Thoughts on cameras as instruments

["Doug Richardson" <doug@meditor.demon.co.uk>]

I really enjoyed the posting by "Mark E Davison"
<Mark_E_Davison@email.msn.com> on cameras as instruments.

>Unfortunately, our harried modern lifestyles, filled with work, often
leave
us with money to buy fine instruments, but not the time to master
them. We
end up with the instruments, but not enough time to develop our
talents.
This is a paradox of modern capitalism which is worth pondering. I
wonder
how many fine cameras are bought with the intention to make fine
images, but
end up filling up closet shelves. Or how many fine pianos grace rooms
as
beautiful furniture, but sit silent.

Last weekend I was passing through Cambridge, and decided to take
along a IIIg I've just bought. I wanted to check that it was working
OK, and to see what effect the scratches on the lens front element
would have on picture quality. A IIIg was my camera in the 1960s and
early 1970s, and travelled with me on many holidays to Rome, Greece,
and Egypt. My first attempts to use my "new" IIIg were very clumsy,
but after a few frames and a pint of Greene King Abbot ale my left
hand remembered its cunning, and I was using that IIIg as if the last
two decades had never been. It felt more familiar than the cameras
I've used since selling the IIIg. I guess that's nature's way of
telling me I don't use my Ms and 'flexes enough.

Regards,

Doug Richardson