Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2010/03/13

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Subject: [Leica] international shoot a roll of film day
From: jhnichols at lighttube.net (Jim Nichols)
Date: Sat, 13 Mar 2010 22:44:19 -0600
References: <C7C1CE39.5F5D6%mark@rabinergroup.com>

Mark,

I agree with all of your reasons.  That's not my point.  People have been 
doing this sort of thing for almost a century.  I have my late 
father-in-law's studio camera boxed up out in my garage, a wooden 8x10 
monster, with a wooden crank-up tripod.  For the sake of economy, he had 
fitted it with a 5x7 back that was designed to provide two 3.5x5 exposures 
on 5x7 sheet film.  That was how he made portraits, which he sold to put 
food on the table. And, with that equipment, he turned out beautiful work. 
We have a lot of family portraits that attest to that.

My point is that there are no rigid rules that determine the way cameras and 
lenses are put to use.  Many of our LUG family choose to use M lenses on the 
M8, and make fine photos.  At a lower price point, I choose to use Leica-R 
lenses on Olympus 4/3 bodies.  The combination meets my needs quite well, 
though I know that users of M8 and M9 bodies can get better results.  I have 
no need for photo murals, nor extreme definition, and, hence can't justify 
the price difference.  I just get tired of your tirades about the negative 
side of such equipment choices.

Jim Nichols
Tullahoma, TN USA
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Mark Rabiner" <mark at rabinergroup.com>
To: "Leica Users Group" <lug at leica-users.org>
Sent: Saturday, March 13, 2010 10:20 PM
Subject: Re: [Leica] international shoot a roll of film day


>> Mark,
>>
>> Are you admitting to, in the past, using one of your despised "cropped
>> sensors" in your Hassie, albeit film?
>>
>> If so, why do you hate 4/3s digital versions of the same approach?  This
>> inquiring mind wants to know. ;-)
>>
>> Jim Nichols
>> Tullahoma, TN USA
>
>
> Now when you shoot medium format digital of any kind there is no such 
> thing
> as not cropped.
> But why crop in the days of film?
> The A16 back slices your film into 16 portions not twelve.
> If you have 16  hungry pix to take than that is real nice.
> Plus it is possible to get sick of squares on odd days.
> Its the A16S superslide back which gets raised eyebrows and I've only had
> them in the very last years of film in the end of the 90's.
>
> 1. its great to get short tele results from a compact 80 or 100 lens. And 
> a
> short tele is my bread and butter for portraits and fashion. A Hasselblad 
> is
> a handy camera you can hang off your neck all day as long as you don't put
> big stuff on it.
> 2. you see around with frame  when you are shooting like a Leica non SLR. 
> A
> 150 or 180 turns your camera into a bit of a monster otherwise so you 
> don't
> need to do that.
> 3. the results you get with Hassy 6x6 is way overkill anyway I did make at
> least one fiber darkroom full frame black border print from the superslide
> 4x4 format of a model in Sauvies island and nobody thought it looked funny
> or lacking and it was in a stack with all the rest of my prints.
> The V you get from the back border if its a Hasselblad appears deeper 
> that's
> the only giveaway.
> 4. you get 16 on a roll instead of 12. That means after shooting 8 shots 
> you
> get another 8. Not just 4. So no panic. Believe it or not that's the way I
> think when I'm out shooting with it when I don't have another loaded up
> back.. I bet I'm not the only one.
> 5. I printed full frame black border in the darkroom with most my shots.
> The clear edge on the end of medium format film is very thin.  Say 4 mils.
> When you file out your neg carrier its got precious little to grab onto 
> your
> film. Its hard to manage. It can slip and flop around.  So when you shoot
> 4x4cm instead of a nominal 6x6 you get some room on the sides for the neg
> carrier to grab your film. Its much easier to deal with in the darkroom. 
> You
> can use a piece of tape if you want to to make sure its in there securely.
> So it really doest feel like a waste at all of silver going down your 
> drain.
> Becaue it isn't. Its like the space you get with 35mm film but no sprocket
> holes.
> 6. no one I've ever met has done it. I like that. I like anything to give 
> my
> shots a look so it doesn't feel like everybody else's. As I'm taking a bit
> of a different approach they cant quite put their fingers on.   A rare 
> film
> or developer or camrea is nice but a rare format you don't run into all 
> that
> often. 4x4. You like it. It likes you.
> 7. my very first pictures I ever took in my life  when I was ten years old
> and which I of course have not surpassed since were done with a Brownie
> Starlet  which took 4x4cm 127 film. Would shooting 4x4 again bring my MOJO
> back?
> 8. its great practice for when I start shooting digital with my 
> Hasselblads.
> 9. you can project your slide film with a normal slide projector totally
> blowing any 24x36 stuff right of the screen.  The light bouncing off the
> screen lights up the audence. They think its 70mm. They think its Tod AO.
> They think its Star Wars.
>
> [Rabs]
> Mark William Rabiner
>
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Leica Users Group.
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>
> 




Replies: Reply from imagist3 at mac.com (George Lottermoser) ([Leica] international shoot a roll of film day)
Reply from mark at rabinergroup.com (Mark Rabiner) ([Leica] international shoot a roll of film day)
In reply to: Message from mark at rabinergroup.com (Mark Rabiner) ([Leica] international shoot a roll of film day)