Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1999/12/29

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Subject: [Leica] was Rangefinder or SLR - now Wedding pics back
From: "Johannes A Dykstra" <hans.mieke@bigpond.com>
Date: Thu, 30 Dec 1999 12:37:29 +1100

Wow, I bet Tom's wondering what he started!  I hope he found some of the
discussion useful.

I've got the 1/8th wedding pictures back (M6 50/2 at f2).  About half
feature too much subject movement or too much camera movement, but the
others are very pleasing.  Retaining the view of the scene definitely helps
with long exposure times.  On a few occasions, other flashes went off during
my exposures (and I saw it happen because I was using a rangefinder) and the
different lighting effect is very noticeable, particularly the unusual angle
of the resulting shadows.

So, my ambient light shots look like it looked inside the chapel.  My mother
also fired away with her Minilux, which did very well, but the flash look is
there.  I think my cousin and his bride will notice that my pictures look
different from all of the other ones they'll see.

Someone mentioned another advantage of the M rangefinders, for sports use,
ie, seeing the action before it enters the framelines.  After lunch on
Christmas day in Australia it is traditional for dads and uncles to play
cricket with sons, daughters, nieces and nephews.  Cricket is a bit like
baseball, except the ball bounces before it reaches the batsman.  I got a
shot of my 4 year old nephew swinging at the ball which is positioned in
space in front of him and between his head and the bat.  11 year old nephew
playing as wicketkeeper ( like a catcher) is also watching the ball.  Yes, a
bit lucky, but the M6 viewfinder made it easier as I had more time to gauge
the timing of the shutter release (1/250th).  I would have found this more
difficult with the R8.

Regards

Rick Dykstra