[Leica] Visos and so

["Rod Fleming" <rodfleming@sol.co.uk>]

Hi


Was it Marc who wrote


>Which means you must have two camera systems with duplications in
investment, weight, and so forth<  ?

Duplications? Oh yes. Lemme see. That box over there is Leica
rangefinder......That big bag is Nikon SLR and so is the little one beside
it, the big one under the window is Pentax 6x7 and the black box under the
desk is 5x4.......Each one of these systems has a full range of lenses with
it.

It's about the right tools for the job, and the notion of "right tool" is as
much defined by the individual user and the specific job as any academic
notion of what will or won't work. The above paragraph might make me sound
like a gadget freak, but I'm not- just over the years I've realised that I
like to use certain cameras in certain situations, and because photography
has always been my major income, I am justified in indulging that. Some
duplication is inevitable, and anyway, it's not really  duplication- for
example, taking lenses which cover the same picture area for their format,
the Jupiter 85mm f2 I use on an M is a totally different lens from the 85mm
f2 Nikkor, the 165mm f2.8 Takumar is different again, as is the 10-inch
Ross....... (But all of them are gorgeous lenses in their own way).

Notwithstanding the pleasure I take in using my Ms, or any of my other
cameras come to that, if I was to be told that I could only keep one camera
system, it would have to be a 35mm SLR. They're not perfect, and in many
situations they are big and heavy and awkward with unreasonably dim
viewfinders (sic), but like adjustable wrenches, they will  just about do
anything, and with long lenses they simply can't be beat.

I love those "photosniper" outfits that put a Leica or similar with Viso on
a rifle stock, and I'm old enough (just) to remember when the Novoflex
version was quite commonplace for  action photography- but with the climate
as it is in UK, walk out the door with one of those under your arm and you'd
be arrested by a gun-toting "special weapons" police squad. I imagine the
same would happen elsewhere, and I can't see how you'd use something like a
Visoflex for sport or action without such an arrangement.

On another point, someone was saying they wanted to buy an SLR to complement
their M and wanted a motordrive and autofocus- trust me, most people don't
need the autofocus. If you have trouble focussing, update the eye
prescription (I fully accept that AF can allow people with really defective
vision to keep on snapping, but that does not apply to most of us). There's
a pretty strong anti Canon bias around here, but I'm tough enough to suggest
a S/H Canon T90, which will take the older FD lenses (the new Canons won't,
so the lenses are cheap, and they are very good). Alternatively a Nikon FE2
or FM2 with MD12 motor, but the Canon has a better metering system. Nikon
did not catch up till the F4.

If you're loaded, buy a Leica R- there is no question about the quality of
these - but if you bought the above instead, together with a few lenses etc,
you'd have enough change for another M body or a couple of
lenses.................

BTW the only way you can convert an SLR into a rangefinder is to trade it in
for an M!

Cheers


Rod