Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2001/09/03

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Subject: [Leica] Hello (again)
From: "Alexey J. Merz" <alexey@webcom.com>
Date: Mon, 3 Sep 2001 20:43:21 -0400

Hello, all!

Well, I've been off list for more than a year but I've now lurked on and 
off for a month. Since I left the LUG I moved across the country to New 
Hampshire, was reunited with my lovely spouse (we spent grad school on 
opposite coasts: not a recommended stratagem), started a new job (much 
suffering but still probably the right choice). Anyway, it's great to 
see that Grant, Dr. Blacktape, Deadman, Tina, Rabiner, Small, are still 
around!  Yay.

I guess I will begin with a short story.  I'm a molecular biologist with 
an interest in optical microscopy. In June I had the chance to take the 
Analytical and Quantitative Light Microscopy Course at the Marine 
Biological Lab in Woods Hole. Now, this is the Kahuna of microscopy 
courses: 8 consecutive 14-hour days covering optics, CCD and intensifier 
architecture and use, image processing, etc. After this course I think I 
finally understand the technical aspects of Erwin's reports 8^). N****, 
Olympus, Zeiss and (of course) Leica (yes, I realize that the camera and 
microscopy organizations have fissioned) -- all provide numerous 
technical staff and millions of bucks worth of their latest-greatest 
diffraction-limited, 80%-quantum-efficiency, sample-movement-with-10 
nm-accuracy toys. Last day of the course I brought out the M6 to get 
some end-of-course snapshots, and the L and Z folks were *enormously* 
enthusiastic... several of them had M2's 3's and 4's but none had an 
M6 - let alone with the 35 Summilux ASPH. None reported owning a Contax 
G ;^). Anyway, this was an optics-lover's paradise, even better than 
getting a personal tour of the Celestron telescope factory several years 
ago. Guess I'd better visit Solms and take the tour...

As for photography I've been less active than I'd have liked during the 
last year, except for photomicrography (the Big Paper is in review at 
Cell). But now I'm looking at slide scanners and inkjets. I will watch 
for your opinions on scanners (<$1000) and archival inkjet inks and 
papers with rapt (rabid?) attention.


More later,

Alex
..........................................................................
Alexey Merz • alexey@webcom.com • alexey@dartmouth.edu • 603/464-6840
http://www.webcom.com/alexey • PGP public key: http://pgp5.ai.mit.edu/

	I am, as I said, inspired by the biological phenomena in which
	chemical forces are used in repetitious fashion to produce
	all kinds of weird effects (one of which is the author).
									-Richard Feynman