Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2004/02/04

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Subject: RE: [Leica] Film "died" for me this week
From: "B. D. Colen" <bdcolen@earthlink.net>
Date: Wed, 4 Feb 2004 16:44:41 -0500

Yah, right Cliff - BTW, is this the same Mark Rabiner who went utterly
loopy when he bought a Nikon D100? :-)

And about film dying -
I was shooting up to 25-30 rolls of Tri-X at a time, over a 24 hour
period for clients. I was shooting it at 800 asa, mostly in low light,
shooting with three Ms, three ASPH lenses and a couple other lenses, a
pair of Nikon F100s and two Nikon lenses. And at this point, my Ms are
gathering dust, and digital is giving me BETTER low light results than
film gave me - there is simply more dynamic range with the digital than
there is with pushed tri-x; there is better, smoother, wider gray scale
tonality. 

Now, would I like to be shooting with that digital M they sell in Middle
Earth and we may all someday get to use - sure; I still love those Ms. 

But reality is reality - for low light, black and white work, digital is
superior.

B. D.
http://home.earthlink.net/~bdcolen/BOOTCAMP

- -----Original Message-----
From: owner-leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us
[mailto:owner-leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us] On Behalf Of Clif
Wright
Sent: Wednesday, February 04, 2004 4:18 PM
To: leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us
Subject: Re: [Leica] Film "died" for me this week


> > I'll keep a few for my artsy work   

> > Richard Clompus
> > Roanoke, VA

Oh man, Rabiner, I'm a fan.  Keep ranting the rant!
Somebody give this guy a column. 
Regards,
Clif Wright

> This of course is a real pain in the ass thing to
> say on the Leica Users
> List but when this kind of post happens I wonder and
> my question often has
> been this in effect:
> How much died?
> Was he a great person with a great future? A great
> loss?
> How tragic of a thing are we really talking about
> here?
> Perhaps this person was slight and is finally being
> put to of a long drawn
> out misery.
> We should cry a whole lot less maybe.
> 
> Are we having a big funeral for what lets face it
> had been a fairly small
> commitment in the first place? I hope not!
> 
> Had they been in their darkroom cranking out 16x20's
> every weekend and now
> they're ratcheting out even more exquisite reams of
> A3's instead as they
> answer their email?
> 
> Had they been shooting a brick of Kodachrome every
> week but now wearing a
> necklace of compact flash cards around their neck
> like dog tags?
> 
> When you see a post like this it strongly implies
> the PROCESS let them down.
> Has been proved mediocre.
> The new one is taking over as it reigns supreme.
> 
> This implies strongly the strength in the new
> technology and the weakness in
> the old.
> But when I ask if I get an answer it's amazingly
> often a sheepish "No they'd
> not really been using their cameras that much anyway
> for quite some time.
> The darkroom had been sitting mainly dormant.
> They have no real body of work
> No stack of prints to show friends when they come
> over.
> No "book" as in prints stuck in pages.
> No tray (round of 80 slides to stick on a
> projector). Or Pages of slides or
> in boards.
> No website.
> Nothing uploaded much of anywhere.
> Not much of nothin.
> They are 4x6" once every month or so minilab for the
> most part people.
> 
> So I wonder; How much Tri X had he been shooting?.
> ...Before giving it up for charge coupled devices.
> Did they have so much Dektol in your blood that now
> they're going to go cold
> turkey? !!
> 
> I'm just guessing no -
> It's a new hobby to replace one that wasn1t really
> there.
> 
> Two dozen lenses? That's a sure clue.
> 
> Of the two dozen pro's I know personally locally and
> globally none of them
> come close to using or owning Two dozen Leica lenses
> for their shooting that
> I can think of.
> Is this the death of a Leica shooter?
> Because it just sounds like a funeral for a Leica
> collector or Leica buyer
> and seller. A Leica dabbler.
> 
> 24 lenses!
> That's 3 times 8!
> 4 times 6!
> Enough glass for 3 4 5 6 committed Leica shooters!
> 
> How anyone can look me straight in the face and put
> out the phrase "Canon
> Rebel with the $100 18-55mm lens." as a balance of
> some kind against a more
> than abundant setup of Leica gear is beyond me!!!
> What could be the
> correlation between one of those cheap plastic zoom
> lenses and any Leica
> glass ever made including wale blubber incrusted?
> ...A "Rebel" against an M or R? How do they in any
> way relate?
> Opposites perhaps?
> That's pretty simple actually!
> 
> But as I said earlier when someone says they're
> going digital now I say:
> "Really how lovely!!!"
> "Lets look at your prints!!!!!!"
> I love to see how the two technologies compare.
> 
> I LOVE to see how the new A3's (11.7x16.5") and
> letter sized prints stack up
> against the old thick 11x14's and 8x10's.
> They stick out on all sides by about 3/4s of an inch
> and get all crinkled at
> the edges that's how!
> I think plenty of people who struggled in the
> darkroom do fine at their
> computer. Maybe printing now for the first time.
> But also very much visa versa.
> They are just tools put into the hands of the
> unskilled and uncommitted to
> produce very casual results. Hopefully to be traded
> for something else
> sooner than later. And without making a Federal case
> out of it.
> 
> Mark Rabiner
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Mark Rabiner
> Photography
> Portland, Oregon
>
http://rabinergroup.com/Catagorypages/PersonalWork.html
> 
> NO ARCHIVE
> 
> 
> 
> 
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=====
http://www.pbase.com/clifwright

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Replies: Reply from "Bill Harting" <wharting@verizon.net> (Re: [Leica] Film "died" for me this week)
Reply from Daniel Ridings <daniel.ridings@muspro.uio.no> (RE: [Leica] Film "died" for me this week)