Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2000/09/20
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]I've been thinking some more about giving a Leica to a budding photographer, and I'm having some doubts . I have a vested interest in this issue because I have two daughters, the eldest (6) is really expressing an interest in photography and has been given a Yashica T4. In my teens, when I was just learning the photography ropes I fell into the trap of believing that better (re: more expensive) lenses, cameras, flash etc would make me a better photographer. This is true to a point, but adding an Nikon F3 to my FM did not make me a better photographer. Only time, practice and a lot of time in a darkroom did that. Every time I did something wrong, I assumed that I if I had had better equipment (Vivitar 285 flash instead of a 283, a 55f1.2 instead of a 50f1.8 etc, Beseler 23C instead of Nikor) I would have made a better picture. I know better now, but the lesson that expensive equipment does not a photographer make was a tough and expensive one to learn. As Leica nuts, we are REALLY equipment obsessed. As a group we are dropping big bucks on cameras and lenses. Most of us (myself included) is continually lusting after some piece of glass or metal. My only fear with giving an aspiring photographer a, say an M4 with a used '35 cron, is that they may feel cheated, they may feel that they would be MUCH better creatively with an M6TTL and 35 ASPH-Summillux. I would worry that a new photographer dropped into the Leica world will start worrying about stupid things like: What version is my Summicron? Can I see the difference between an ASPH- and a non-ASPH lens? Do I clean my lens with underwear? What watch matches my cameras? Also, like many LUGers I came to rangefinders the SLR route. I appreciate my M6 in no small part because it is and never will be an FM or F3. Not learning "the rangefinder can be better" lesson for oneself may be for short term gain but long term pain. Maybe I'm overstating the case, but I'd never want a young photographer to become equipment obsessed like we here on the LUG seem to be without some experience behind that viewfinder. Jonathan Lee