Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2002/07/02

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Subject: [Leica] Fuel to the M7 discussion fire
From: Herbert & Lee Kanner <kanner@acm.org>
Date: Tue, 2 Jul 2002 00:27:28 -0700

Some of the discussion of the M7 has been positively mouth-watering.  Oh,
that I were rich.  However, let me play devil's advocate.  I try, when I
can remember to do so, to put a crappy little Olympus Stylus Epic in my
trouser pocket whenever I go out.  Actually, it takes surprisingly good
pictures.  So, I'm in a local market and see a photogenic girl behind a
counter.  I was carrying the thing in spot metering mode, and in the second
it took for me to partially depress the shutter, freezing the focus and
exposure, she shouted: "Don't take my picture!"  This might be compared to
the moment Tina took to freeze the exposure by aiming at the floor with the
M7.

Well, the next week I was going to a local fair and took the M6.  I decided
not to make the mistake I had made with the point and shoot.  There were
only two illumination situations: sunlight and shadow. They were two stops
apart.  If I remember correctly, for 1/250 shutter speed, they were f/11
and f/5.6.  I set the focus permanently at ten feet and literally pointed
and shot, so quickly that I was not noticed.  The only improvement would
have been shooting from the hip.

I'm not denigrating the 7; I'd love to have one.  But I think there are
many circumstances in which I might operated one in the same way that I
operated the 6 on that day.

With respect to the choice of shutter speed.  I was traumatized during WWII
about camera shake.  This was wartime, and I had the good fortune to find a
used Wirgin 35mm camera in good shape.  I shot a bunch of Kodachromes at
1/100 sec (yes it was 1/100 on a Compur shutter in those days; they hadn't
yet invented 1/120).  I proudly took the slides in to show to a colleague.
The SOB started going through them with a 20X magnifier and pronounced my
camera to be no good--the slides weren't sharp.  Then, when he got to the
last few, he said: "Hey, these are sharp."  Well, those last few were taken
as the sun was going down, and I had put the camera on a tripod.

Ever since then, I've hand-held at 1/250 if conditions permitted.

Herb
- -- 
Herbert Kanner
kanner@acm.org
650-326-8204

Do not meddle in the affairs of cats,
for they are subtle and will pee
on your computer!
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