Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2002/07/02
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]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! - -- To unsubscribe, see http://mejac.palo-alto.ca.us/leica-users/unsub.html