Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2003/07/08
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Hi My name is mark Rabiner I am a Leicaholic. I've gone 37 days. The minute i got my first M6 3740 days ago (+ten years ago) I had little interest in my Nikons. I got the Leica for causal "street" work but ended up using it to shoot jobs of every sort. Over the past ten years once or twice I'd pull out the Nikon box and grab the 105 macro with a body and do some copy work or shoot mushrooms. So now this year we have digital bodies going for a grand and a half. I think that makes 2003 the official kick off year for the whole digital thing. This is the year swarms of photographers get one of these cameras to add to their Nikon or Canon systems. The glass case at Pro Photo is filled with used F5's and Hasselblad gear, With my very modest assortment of Nikon glass it would've been a good time to switch to Canon as many have done. Not on your life baby. But my Nikon glass is really very very modest. So I've had to finance getting a whole bunch more up to date and good stuff. I also got a cheap Analog camera to check out the technology ahead of the time it took me to get the guts to get the D100. An N80 for 400 bucks. Has all the gizmos the D100 has. Maybe I didnt like having my metering done in 3D? But the N80 is an Analog camera. Analog cameras are interesting because you cant just hook them up to your computer and download all the stuff yo shot that day. Instead there is "film" in there which you have to take out of the camera and develop with chemicals and water and wait for it to dry. ... then scan it. Then breath free you're back to your digital workflow… In the old days of course they'd not even scan it but put it into a thing they called an "enlarger." by the way i've quickly learned love the darn N80. The lens on my D100 right now is interesting. I love 50's the best usually. This is a 50. It's the 50 1.8 D. It cost $99. It widely has the reputation as being one of the best Nikon lenes made. Sharper than the 60 macro. Certainly sharper than the 50 1.4 Sharper than lots of glass which cost over a grand and has the grey pebbled finish like microscopes in the 30's. The front element of this lens is nicely recessed so really doesn't need a lens shade. It's as light as a feather, much lighter than any other lens I'm sure. With the D100 it gives me 75mm's. Love that. Never had that in Leica M. With the N80 it gives me 50mm. Wide when it needs to be wide. Tele when it needs to be tele. F22 and be there. When it gets dirty I'll just throw it away and get a new one. My first lens which I got with the camera was the 60 macro. I'm already shooting with the 100 on the Hasselblad. The 60 weights a ton and is long. Weights quite a bit more than the 85 1.8 by the way. It will not be my kick around lens. Anyway god knows how many elements are floating aound inside the thimg. Tantalum, Ununbium. Most my existing Nikon glass was old for ten years ago. They do fit on the D100 or N80 but there is no metering. None. Which is OK if I'm shooting on the white backdrop. But not so great of the model takes a cigarette break outside in the back and looks great sitting there. I have to run and get my Gossen which is great with brightness but doesnt know from Hue or Saturation let alone whitepoint. All the new ones "D" lenses which means the metering is done in 3D. "Is that a flashlight or is it Venus? Ask your Nikon, it knows" "its not Venus because you're holding it in your hand!" "Also it's only 4 feet away!" the Nikon thinks "Ah that much be the headlight of a Maserati Spyder bearing down on us at 97.3 mph, lets see we'll just aim ahead by 2.4 feet...) CRC Close range correction. You don't loose your sharpness close in because of a train of moving elements which come rushing towards you. I also assume this means if you smashed you lens agonist something you would jar these elements off their track out of place. This gives a different meaning to the therm "SLR") DC Defocus control. Nikon is into bokeh like no other company it would seem. It mentioned the term by name in it's description of many of it's lenses talking about how it uses 9 aperture blades and each blade is curved. I think Leica worries more about the optical formula itself. For aperture blades it uses a hole punched through a pice of Reynolds Wrap. But DC stands not for DC Comics but Defocus control which is a collar on your lens where you can tune in the bokeh of your choice. As Nikon says" we don't USE bokeh we OWN it" IF Internal focusing. Which enables the silent wave focusing (AF-S). which enables the lenses to not sound like a little robot which makes the Canon users giggle. I'm sure some Leica R glass is IF it's been around a while. But with Nikon it has become as part of it's silent wave approach. Also part of that concept is to have the focusing done with the rear elements which is pretty usual and I like it. This helps the waves move more silently. ED Low dispersion "glass" Remember the beginning of Superman when we have Joral, Supermans Dad, played by Marlon Brando in which he made 8 million dollars for 12 minutes work? And Marlon was in a sea of crystals which as it turns out was Marlons idea in the first place. But where myths come from who cares all i know is when i think of low dispersion glass i think of the planet Krypton. I'm sure that's where it's mined. Noct Nikon has it's own Noctilux, manual focusing although it's a 1.2 a half stop slower than the Noctilux. It uses the previous standard 52mm filters and coast about $500. Its not that big of a lens in more ways then one as it's largely dismissed by just about everybody. But hey shoots better at 1.2 then any other Nikon lens. But buy some non AF lens!!!!??? Not on your life!!!! VR means vibrating reduction. Or very religious. It supposedly gives you 3 extra F stops - 2 would be very OK with me. Imagine shooting a 135mm lens at a 15th with impunity? I cant! I bet the reality of the situation will be a 30th. Which is science fiction enough for me. So yesterday i shot a bunch of well not film and downloaded it into my computer. The camera came with a CD you see. That went into my computer. To say that this might not take me away from my Leicas for awhile, till i come up for air would certainly not be true. It will. Some of my glass i expect will be a bit glamorous. Like the 28 1.4 I might get which gives me a 42 mm 1.4 lens on the D100. A 42 1.4 that would be alright by me. By the way the filter size on Nikon is no longer standardized at 52. I remember Canon was 55 and Olympus was 49. Nikon is now standardized I kid you not at 77 mm!! That's bigger than my kitchen! It's because of the zooms. The ED-IF, AF-S Zooms. We thought we could control them. We pulled the plug August 27, 2002. But they fought back. What do 77 mm filters cost say at Central? would you believe $77!? How much for 39mm? A skylight filter is $38.95. 77 mm is three inches. That's not a filter that's a picture window. I may not get the zooms. By "the" zooms i mean the 2.8 zooms one for wide, normal and tele. Mark Rabiner Portland, Oregon USA http://www.rabinergroup.com - -- To unsubscribe, see http://mejac.palo-alto.ca.us/leica-users/unsub.html