Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2001/10/17

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Subject: Re: [Leica] a new (on)topic, or the conceit
From: "Mārtiņš Zelmenis" <martin@lrpv.lv>
Date: Wed, 17 Oct 2001 09:56:28 +0200

Well, friends - I take this as an opportunity to thank everyone who replied
to my provocation rgd. lens front/rear element scratches vs. filters. To me
it seems to be a form of conceit - blaming filters on everything tha's bad
in a(n unsharp) picture, and dismissing scratches/fungus as irrelevant. I
remember improving a Russian lens performance just because I had put a HOYA
1B filter on it. Therefore I am not so dismissive about filters. (Maybe I
haven't come across those real lemons you are warning me about!    ;-)    )


Now to the question:

"I take better pictures with a Leica rangefinder than with an SLR because...

- - well, actually I learned photo basics using a Russian-made Leica copy
Zorki that contained original Leica parts (the best Russian-made camera I
ever held in my hands); due to burned shutter I sold it (mistake! a big
mistake!), so probably I don't qualify as someone <who learned photography
on SLRs, not so much people for whom RFs are easier because that was the
only thing available in 35mm when they started>.

RFs were regarded as obsolete in 70ies. (<You can't see what you're
photographing> - the parallax problem!) It was a craze to get an SLR (and I
got a Zenith - supposedly a SLR that's in reality neither a RF, nor a SLR -
its WF covers som 70% of the picture frame, so in no way you can compose
your picture properly - actually it may have arrested my photographic
development for some years). I was young, and only when I saw a Minolta in
my friend's hands, I discovered what compositional facility I was missing
(what a disaster that Zenith was)!

So: I take better pictures with a Leica rangefinder than with an SLR because
it's a quality camera; I can rely on it; it's not recognised by the public
as a professional camera, so I can do the job nearly unnoticed; the Leica
lens quality is Leica lens quality; my M has less moving parts than a SLR,
so I can risk using it hand-held at lower shutter speeds (a decent picture
is better than a bad one - or no picture at all). All that said - it's
nothing more than the stuff you read in advertising booklets, and how come
it's so true?

 I must add,  however, that at times I feel I am taking different pictures
with my M - than I do with a SLR. Not due to parrallax (it's a M!), but
somehow I feel it's making me think differently. And that results in better
pictures.

Martin

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