Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2010/03/27
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Sorry Mark, I am not trying to question your, or others expertise, nor to question the fact that most photographs are taken stopped down. Probably everybody here knows that, including me, a poor amateur of 40 years. The point I was making was that, if one -almost never- shoots wide open, a Leica lens is an unnecessary and expensive luxury for which one is getting only rare benefit. That was all. cheers, Frank On 27 Mar, 2010, at 09:47, Mark Rabiner wrote: >> If you are shooting at f5.6 Leica lenses are a bit of a waste of money. My >> Leica 50mm f1.4 is noticeable better that my Nikon 50mm f1.4 -at- f1.4, >> but at >> f5.6 i see very little difference. The price differential is almost 10:1. >> That is my experience in general, sure all lenses get better stopped down, >> very particularly the cheap ones. What makes Leica worth the money (if you >> have it) is it loses so little quality as you open up, compared to others. >> IME. >> Frank > > > Its good to be able to shoot wide open when you need to. > The idea that you'd almost never NOT need to is pretty amazing to me as a > commercial photographer for 33 years. Wide open shooting was luxury my > work > in any area could seldom afford. Even in the photojournalism I did I shot > it > at f 8 or f11 and used a flash. Certainly not the landscape work I did and > fine art stuff I did for a show which I did about once a year in some > gallery even if it was a coffee shop. > Half my stuff was on the white seamless backdrop I shot it at f11. > > When shooting commercially I fot the distant from the front of the object I > needed in focus to the back. Then I calculated which f stop I need to get > the whole thing front to back in focus. It was never wide open. Sometimes > it > was on a tripod and it was f22. > > I got my M6 with the idea of only using it for my fine art street shooting > but soon used it on the backdrop and shot a variety of jobs with it. About > none of it wide open. > > Wide open shooting seems to be a thing photojournist have done in the past > ten years or so this super selected razor thing area of what's in focus it > hardly is done for the bulk of photography. And its a style which I think > has come to an end. In the beginning of digital when everyone was shooting > cropped format it was certainly given up then. With the smaller format I > was near impossible to get the limited in focus are look. You got > everything in focus even it 2.8 with a wide zoom. > > Ok I just image Googled "best photojournalism photo" and I can't find one > shot which appears to be shot wide open. Try it. Deep depth of field seems > to be back. > > "best photojournalism photo" > > > [Rabs] > Mark William Rabiner > > > > > _______________________________________________ > Leica Users Group. > See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information