[Leica] I'll step in

[Fred Rosenberg <fdr@netidea.com>]

Greetings,
	
	Ok, I'll step in...
	I've been using an M since 1968 - the first an M4 and one funny looking
collapsible lens - for $200!  Bought a 35mm which I carried around for
awhile in my pocket(!).  Traded the Elmar for a Summicron for no particular
reason while in a camera store one afternoon.  Fabricated and glued on a
finger tab of the 35mm style onto the 50 so I could continue to use my
finger tips to focus.  Added a shutter release extention so I could use my
thumb to fire and wind with virtually no lag time and, within a very short
time, knew that I was born to use this camera.  Worked-up on H.C-B, Frank,
Winnogrand, Davidson, Solomon and Weiner and I was off like a rocket.
Still am, with side trips through a couple pathetic attempts at commercial
studios.
	I still use those two lenses and, while I feel those neurotic tugs to
consume, upgrade, apo-this and pre-that, I know that 1) it ain't broke, 2)
I've never seen a photograph that moved me to tears or inspired me to get
out and do my work, that I wish was sharper - in the middle or from corner
to corner, and 3) that temptations of whatever sort are opportunities to
tone what one knows is true or to be derailed into neurotic frivolousness
(I go both directions).
	I figure you guys are having me on with this bokeh stuff.  Somebody's
going to spend $2500 for a lens for what it looks like... out of focus...
behind the subject!!  I'm missing something here... and I'm glad.  Yes,
"the subtleties of the connoisseur magnifying details nobody else cares
about," but let's get a grip....
	A few years ago I had the opportunity to buy a Noctilux.  Spent a few days
using it, exposed some film.  I thought it was a piece of crap.  The
barrel, forget the hood, took out 25% of the viewfinder; it weighed three
times the Summicron, took a vise-grip to focus and its clarity ("sharpness"
is too generous a word) wide open, and two or three stops down, was dull
and dumb.  I kept looking around for Allan Funt.
	I find the LUG a hoot; a mixture of wit, wisdom, nonsense, knowledge,
experience and a vicious sibling rivalry.  God have mercy on the human race.

Sincerely,
Fred Rosenberg


A life unexamined is not worth living.    Socrates
A life unlived is not worth examining.    A.E. Neuman