[Leica] Was UV, now on to better things

[rpalmier at depaul.edu (Bob Palmieri)]

Mark -

Well reasoned, entertaining and stylish, as always.  How any of us 
still have another stroke left with which to beat this very dead horse 
is remarkable in itself.  Bince you have raised a number of very good 
points, I feel specific answers are in order (the original post and 
response appear below.)

Actually, I do (or did) take the things off most of the time.  I think 
that a lot of the potential damage that people are trying to protect 
against is stuff that might happen when the camera is not being used.

"Work well" is indeed kinda vague.  Since I shoot Neopan 1600 in my M's 
a lot, max res. is not always the most important thing.  Lack of flare 
is very important, however, and that's the main thing that convinced me 
to lose these things, even the nice multicoated ones.  And since I 
rarely have the patience to run controlled A/B tests on anything, it 
was a gradual sense that I was likin' the filter-free snaps better over 
a coupla years that reulted in my current net-free policy.

And speaking of optical acuity, I (and I think many other shooters) use 
M's much more for their functional virtues.  I got no aspherics ('cept 
the 15 VC, which hardly counts) or APO's.  The reason I don't shoot 
with a Pentax is that it's often too big, I can't focus as quickly or 
accurately and it's noisier.

In conclusion, I was just trying to present a compromise for those 
folks who don't want to risk full frontal element exposure all the time 
and don't use caps or hoods for protection.

The slipcover thing is pretty good.


Bob Palmieri




> Folks -
>
> As regards this whole neutral filter thing, I'd like to suggest that
> the following version of the "clear lenscap" approach has worked well
> for me in the past.
>
> 1. You put the UV/Skylight filter of your choice on the lens.
>
> 2. Most of the time, when you want to take a snap you take it off like
> a screw-in lenscap.
Except that you don't.
>
> 3. Every once in awhile for a grabshot you "shoot through the cap."
>
> This having been said, I'm hardly ever using the things these days, but
> it's one approach that may work well for some people and situations.
>
> Bob Palmieri
>
It depends on what you mean by "work well" that's a little vague.

If it means you can tell who the person is who you took a picture of 
then
sure.

Nobodies going to throw you in jail for using a UV filter that's for 
sure.

But to spend thousands on glass instead of hundreds because of quality
issues and then compromise those optics for no well thought out reason 
then
no I don't feel there is good logic behind that which "works well".

Yes the pictures do "come out".

Why not just shoot with a Pentax and not worry about it?

It's like the plastic sofa covers you take off for company except you 
don't.
  that red wine is nasty!

And in the summer you don't sit on it with your shorts and sticky hot
thighs!

UV filters are the sticky see through plastic furniture covers of
photography.

Unicorns on the front yard...
And in limited high signed hand numbered editions on little shelves in 
your
bathroom.


Mark Rabiner
Photography
Portland Oregon
http://rabinergroup.com/