[Leica] Re: filters - a new thread!

["David Kieltyka" <daverk@email.msn.com>]

Simon <michael@scoates.freeserve.co.uk> wrote (edited):

> I started photography ten years ago with a little Minolta
> FS-E2 compact camera, and was dissapointed with my
> landscape results - the background was always too dark,
> and the sky always washed out. The answer: an SLR with a
> grey graduate! I changed my camera for a Minolta 7000 and
> using print film, the same thing happened! So - I changed
> to slide film and finally got the perfectly exposed
> landscapes with a correct sky. I don't use filters for
> special effects - just to get an image on film that I saw
> with my eyes. Heck, I never use a flashgun - I would rather
> expose for 2 minutes using natural daylight for my macro
> shots rather than rely on a nasty blitz of fake light!
> (Must invest in that Noctilux and an M6...)
>
> I now use a Leica SLR system and have continued to use my
> Cokin filters (2 blue and grey graduates, and a polariser).
> How else can you get landscapes to look right? How do other
> LUGgers manage, especially those of use who use an M6, where
> you can't see the effect of the graduation?
>
> Incidentally, I don't have a protection filter on the front
> of my lenses.

I also use grad filters with transparency film when I want to control the
sky or just make it more dramatic. I get around the problem of not being
able to see the effect with an M camera by using my SLRs (a Leicaflex SL2 or
Pentax KX) instead. :-) With my M2, using B/W film, I'm partial to a #8
yellow or #16 orange filter for taming the sky and/or punching up contrast.
I'll sometimes use a #29 red if the sky is hazy, and with IR film it's my
filter of choice.

FWIW I only use filters as lens protection when I'm in an environment that
could muck up the front element, like at the beach on a windy day or out in
the desert. Otherwise I just try to be careful. But my opinion on the
matter: do as you wish.

- -Dave-