[Leica] RE: Leica for Las Vegas Night

[lbonser@worldnet.att.net]

I live in Las Vegas and believe it or not, I've only done night shots once.
There's a blimp that's flying out of the North Las Vegas airport now and I
took a ride on it last month. Got some "postcard" quality shots of the strip
from about 300 feet up.

>I am planning to go to Vegas tomorrow.  It is my first time to be at night
>like Vegas and wonder how I take good pictures of the night life there.
Any
>advice will be appreciated.
>
>1. Leica M or R

Probably can't go wrong with either. I did my blimp shots with my Contax G2;
manually set the focus to infinity and let the camera do the rest. If you're
shooting from street level, you'll probably have to do more work than that.
:-)

>2. What range of focal length (wide angle or normal)?
>3. Do I need a flash or is it bright enough to do without it or do I need
>tripod?

I shot hand-held with 800 and 1600 speed film and didn't have too much
problem. If you're shooting on street level, you might like to use a tripod,
but I don't think you'll use the flash much--the neon is quite bright in and
of itself.

Do you shoot slides? If not, give it a try; the ISO for slide film is
calibrated for highlights. Neon and bright lights seem to do very well with
slide film.

>4. Any tip for taking pictures there?
>
> I have hardly taken pictures at night with lots of lights.  Thank you and
>wish you a Happy New Year!

I hope you're not going to be walking around on New Year's Eve here with
your nice Leica equipment? Not that Vegas is any worse than any other city,
but with the "biggest party of the century" going on that night, it'll bring
out all the weirdos and thieves. I guess as a tip, I'd say do your shooting
with the good equipment on any other given night and buy a cheap throw-away
camera for New Year's Eve.

Have fun!

Les