Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2003/05/31

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Subject: RE: [Leica] Use film, or block the panel!
From: Tim Atherton <tim@KairosPhoto.com>
Date: Sat, 31 May 2003 17:39:24 -0600

> Hum.  I disagree.  That may be true for some people, but for some
> people, it
> is paramount, and if someone has taken the time to use a 4x5 (a Leica, a
> Hasselblad, Zeiss lenses etc.), then, obviously, that is a concern of
> theirs, and may in fact be very important.  Who are you to say what is and
> isn't important to someone?
>

Well - you are obviously - I know number of LF photographers who really
aren't bothered about sharpness (or for that matter depth of field from 1'
to infinity) - but you seem to presume for them the reasons they chose to
use LF camera... Hiroshi Sugimoto or Sally Mann for example - there are many
reasons top use LF, but you seem to have presumed what reasons somebody
would chose to use it for. The reasons are many and varied an not
necessarily obvious.


> Sigh.  You obviously live on a different plane than I do.  Why on earth do
> you use Leicas then?  Please, explain, of you are happy with an SX-70, and
> you think using a little P&S digicam is "sensible" for a shot
> that one would
> have previously though they needed 4x5 for?  No-sense is what I'd
> call that.

I use them (M's) because they are very useful in certain way of working - I
find the rangefinder viewing system and quiet shutter helps when I'm
photographing people in certain sorts of situations - the Leica lenses are
nice, but if Nikon or Olympus made a decent rangefinder, I might well use
that - if it was cheaper for example or offered decent TTL flash.

Don McCullin made some of the best photographs of conflict and the human
condition of the last century - a large majority taken with OM 1's and 2's -
why? Quality of the lenses? nope - because they were about the smallest SLR
and they were cheap - when one broke he just threw it away and used another
one.

>Well, obviously, that's quite subjective, so that really is a somewhat
>meaningless claim.

which is exactly the point and perhaps why you don't get it - it's not about
something objective - that the viewfinder and LCD have the exact same view -
it's about something subjection - vision and creativity - different peoples
different ways of seeing

> or somehow the
> > LCD lets you
> > "see more" or for some other "mystical" reason...it's just these cameras
> > have bad viewfinders.

Again, it's not "mystical" - just a persons vision.




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