[Leica] F 5.6 and don't be there!

[mark at rabinergroup.com (Mark Rabiner)]

Leicas are impossible. Implausible. Unworkable.
The wrong tool for the wrong job every single time
Unviable. Unenviable
The unviability of so much of Leica gear is a resurgent recurrent thread on
the LEICA USERS GROUP the entire dozen or so years
i've been on it; or in it.
The Noctilux a prime recurring culprit.
Yet the Noctilux seems to be the glass of  choice for Ted and I see  just
last week Tina and certainly in the past Rei Shinozuka and a other masters.
I have used it a whole bunch.
Not missed the focus on that many shots.

The modus operandi of Noctilux  might seem to be
f 1 AND BE THERE!!!

But in effect 
IT JUST AIN'T SO!
Its more of an f 1000th of a second and be there kind of deal in real
practice at least for me. I bet for others. You'd hear them say so in their
sleep.
As a day in the life light just does not cooperate.
You end up having to STOP DOWN. The horrors!
But with all your shudder speeds at 1000th.
That's the constant.

An ideal working situation for a die hard Noctilux user would seem to be to
have two bodies. One with slow film 50 or 100 so you could f 1 till the cows
come home.*
AND one with 400 or 1600 so you could really use the lens for its intended
use. Shooting junkies in dark alleys between garbage cans petting their
black cats at midnight. With someone's flashlight shooting into the top left
hand corner of the lens just right off axis.

I don't even know what the top shudder speed is with an M8. But I bet it
makes Noctilux shooting more fun as its probably a lot faster than f 1000th.
....
Ok I checked, its 8000th. Three clicks up from 1000th.
Which is the difference between 100 and 400 film.
I'd think f 8000th of a second and be there with a Noct would be loads of
fun. You'd only need one camera.
But shooting white bed sheet ads in the Bonneville salt flats at the SUMMER
SOLSTICE AT HIGH NOON you'd have to stop down to f 5.6 or further even at
ISO 100.
Thereby blowing your whole shoot as we hear now.
 F 5.6 AND DON'T BE THERE!!!
Is what we are hearing now.
I've shot hundreds of shots having to stop down right around there and did
the depth of my Pan F or Delta 100 or Neopan 1600 save me?
This DOES NOT ring that little bell in my head which tells me that things
are honkey dory.
My nose is sniffing.

I suggest those with Noctili I guess you need to have M8's have an
F 5.6 and be there day.
Blacktape your f stop dial to that station.
And go out and shoot like crazy and see if anything comes out when you get
it back from the drug store.
I bet almost all of it does.

Then post it to the LUG.




* or with an M8 firmware update to instate what's known in Nikon world to be
AUTO ISO
Which I don't leave home without.
You can set your shudder and f stop parameters
And have your ISO do the moving around.


Mark William Rabiner
markrabiner.com