Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2001/05/09
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Hi, LUGgites! I'm back from my trip to Italy. Beautiful country, glorious art, generally nice people, and some of the best food I've ever eaten. And how can I look at a building in the U.S. again after having seen Italy? At the moment, I'm profoundly jetlagged. Monday had 33 hours, with 29 hours traveling and a 9 hour time difference. I'm still not sure where I am, what my name is, or what planet this is. But I'm very happy about my trip. Photos are at the lab, should have 'em back Friday. I'll try to post some highlights soon. This might take a while, because I only have access to a scanner at work, and it's shared. I shot 9 rolls of Kodak Supra 400 Professional. With all the going inside and out, it was the best compromise. Test shots the week before my trip convinced me that it was indeed only a gnat's eybrow more grainy than 100 film, and thus a good compromise for a one-camera outfit. I used all four of the lenses I brought, in this order of usage. 35/2 Summicron 50/2 Summicron 25/4 Skopar 90/4 Elmar At the last minute, I decided to bring the 50/2 Summicron along instead of my old brass-and-chrome 50/1.4 Nikkor LTM. The reason had to do with the Nikkor's extra weight and the fact that its lens hood intrudes too much into the viewfinder of my M4-2. It turned out to be a wise decision--almost always, when f/1.4 would have made a difference, I needed a 35 rather than a 50. So I did my usual trick of using the backs of church pews and other artificial means of support. I brought my little camera clamp and cable release, but never used them. I did black-tape my Leica Red Dot and insignia. A few people still recognized it--but only present and former Leica owners. This always led to a pleasant conversation. I used no UV filters. I did bring a polarizer (two actually--one to look through, and the other to mount on the lens). Rather than buy 39mm polarizers, I made do with 49mm polarizers I use with my Olympus stuff, plus a 39-49mm adapter. I didn't use them a lot, but was very glad to have them for a few shots. Thanks to the LUGger who suggested taking the film out of the platic cannisters and putting the film cassettes in plastic bags for hand inspection at airport security checkpoints. It always worked, even our our Northwest Airlines Amsterdam to Seattle flight, which had a 90 minute security check worthy of El Al, complete with extensive questioning and occasional friskings. More later! - --Peter Klein Seattle, WA NO ANTIPASTO