Re: [Leica] new user

[Alastair Firkin <firkin@ncable.net.au>]

>Charles Hahn jotted down the following:
>
>>  I think using a screw mount Leica can not only be
>>  cheaper than getting a Bessa, it also gives you a real
>>  education in Photography.
>
>More likely to give you a real education in how far camera technology has
>come over the past 60-70 years.  Sure, we can wax romantic about the glory
>of screwmounts all we like, but the fact of the matter is that they're a
>gigantic pain in the arse to load, expensive to repair, likely to need
>repair (or at least CLA) right after being bought, don't have a built in
>meter, possess a viewfinder which is about as bright as the average garden
>snail, and are more likely to provide you with a real education in anger
>management than anything to do with photography.
>
>I had a lovely black Leica II from 1933 which I tried using as a camera,
>because I had romantic notions of 1930's photography.  After finally
>realizing that cameras are tools rather than items of jewelry, that I was
>living in the 21st century, and that no matter how hard I imagined it I'd
>never be HCB, I eBayed the little bugger and got a set of converter rings
>for my LTM lenses which now sit on my M6TTL, when not doing time on a
>Bessa-L.

Martin,
Well Leica do cater for all warps: you can buy a "new" 1928 "o" 
series and find out what all the fuss was about. It is great fun to 
use, and gives you yet another insight into the visualization of 
images. Now you can all laugh, but when I read about Cecil Beaton? 
complaining that the Rollieflex was limiting his vision after using 
the camera for 50 years, and that he had found freedom in photography 
by throwing it away, it did make me think about how I look for and 
visualize images. Some of the older cameras will give you forced 
alternatives, and I have found this useful. Just as the SLR is 
different from the rangefinder, the Rolleiflex from the large format, 
so the O series gives you another perspective on framing. Now this 
does NOT mean, that it is likely to become my main photographic tool, 
but it is interesting.

Cheers
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Alastair Firkin

http://www.afirkin.com

http://www.familyofman2.com

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