Rangefinder Style: More from my 3650 Leica M :)

This post, made last night, got nuked in the latest crash. Let me

see if I can reconstruct it. As I was saying . . .<p>

 

Speaking of rangefinder style . . .<p>

 

The Honolulu Festival here in Hawaii is an annual celebration of

Japanese folk arts. Each year hundreds of people - artisans, martial

artists, performance troupes, and so on - come here from all over

Japan, to publicly demonstrate their skills over several days. The

festivities culminate in a parade that begins at our convention

center and winds its way through Waikiki, ending long after dark.<p>

 

In years past I've shot the festival with Nikon SLRs. This year I

decided to do the whole thing with my Nokia 3650 cellphone. I wanted

to see what I could wring out of this phone-camera - and out of

myself, using it.<p>

 

I waited until the last day - parade day - to begin. Equipped with a

128mb MMC card, by the end I'd made 587 pictures. (It might have

been more, except that I stopped for a long lunch. :) <p>

 

Here are some results.<p>

 

<center><img src="http://images.fotopic.net/?

id=3297155&outx=320&oq=0&original=1&noresize=1&" width="320"

height="240"><p>Colors<p><img src="http://images.fotopic.net/?

id=3297143&outx=320&oq=0&original=1&noresize=1&" width="320"

height="240"><p>Along the parade route<p><img

src="http://images.fotopic.net/?

id=3297145&outx=320&oq=0&original=1&noresize=1&" width="320"

height="240"><p>Aunties on the move<p><img

src="http://images.fotopic.net/?

id=3297152&outx=240&oq=0&original=1&noresize=1&" width="240"

height="320"><p>Big Sister<p><img src="http://images.fotopic.net/?

id=3297144&outx=240&oq=0&original=1&noresize=1&" width="240"

height="320"><p>In Waikiki<p><img src="http://images.fotopic.net/?

id=3297139&outx=240&oq=0&original=1&noresize=1&" width="240"

height="320"><p>Night falls</center><p>

 

Had a great time putting my camera (guess I can call it that now)

through its paces. Comments welcome.

Thankyou CD, I was just about to ask you to repost your fine phone pics and there

they were!

 

There were some nice comments about eyes and the need for THE BEST CAMERA for

street photography I can't remember who posted but please do again.

 

Great stuff.

 

I�m waiting for Leica to bring out a Phonelux so that I can get on with some serious

street stuff as well.

Thanks, Craig. Yeah, wouldn't that be great? That's what I'm saying - I love my little "converged device" - but I'll love it more when it has five megapixels and a Vario-Summicron 24-75mm. Now wouldn't that be the cat's meow? Plus a couple of barks from Berek's dog.<p>I'm about to replace the operator logo with a red dot. Maybe that'll have to do me until then. (Or until I pick up an LC1. :)

This is an interesting idea; as the camera phone becomes ubiquitous, will it become the ultimate tool for un-obtrussive photography? Particular if we need no more than web-quality for a project? I don't own a camera phone, but I've been thinking about one of the phillips usb keychain drive camera thingymabobs. $100 for a camera that's always in my pocket is awfully appealling.

Seems appealing . . . but apparently no one is interested in rf type shots taken with anything other than a $$$ Leica. Or maybe all these pics just take too long to load? Oh well, I tried . . . :)

There's an interesting article about camera phone usage in a

recent PDN. I've been experimenting myself in recent months

with my own Nokia camera phone and found it offers some

interesting creative opportunities.

Yes, I saw that article. Glad about it, too. Though I must say I like my pictures better :D

This camera (Canon SD10) is as small as (or smaller than) a cell phone, but produces great pictures.<div></div>

Here is the picture she was taking ;-) Full size, original file.<div></div>

S. Liu,<p>

 

Thanks for your suggestion. Sorry for responding to it somewhat late. I am right now in the process of picking out a digicam. Trying to decide what my number one criterion is - resolution, shutter response, ergonomics (size, mostly - I guess they call that "form factor"); or, the ability to shoot in (or, as with the G5, convert to) RAW; among other contenders.<p>

 

What has all this to do with Leica? Well, it's my contention that the small digicam is to photography today what Berek's Leica camera was to photography in the 1920's, and even the 30's. <p>

 

I imagine that, back then, few people took a small handheld camera seriously. For a certain time even most photographers didn't take it seriously. As you likely know, "serious" cameras then tended to be fairly large.<p><center><img src="http://www.antiquewoodcameras.com/HGTV.gif" width="244" height="161"><p>Serious cameras.<p></center> This was true even of "portable" cameras. <p><center><img src="http://www.usinternet.com/users/rniederman/Henry_Clay-website_post.jpg" width="400" height="360"><p>Portability, circa 1900's</center><p>

 

Enter the <p><center><img src="http://www.hikari-camera.com/cameral/156-5670.jpg" width="450" height="264"><p><i>Ur-Leica</i> (1913).</center><p>

 

And now the photographer had something he could put in his pocket. More important, when he pulled it out to snap a picture, few felt threatened by it or took him seriously. And while it's true that you could do something similar today with an Olympus Stylus Epic and hundreds of similar models, such cameras represent the <i>old</i> approach - the tried and true approach - to shooting. What I'm interested in is exploring the new technologies.<p>

 

The camera phone, as it stands today, is in some ways the perfect street tool. I've found that people are far more candid and relaxed in front of my 3650, than they are when I'm toting (and pointing) one or more film bodies - even if that film body is a point-and-shoot. And, to top it off, using a smallish digital camera involves, for me, a slightly different way of seeing - much as the Ur-Leica must have in the early years of the last century.<p>

 

The <i>converged</i> digital device offers opportunities for shooting that might be missed with a dedicated camera. In part this is because it does so many things (phone, mp3 player, web browser, etc.) and thus you <i>always</i> have it with you. And, like the Ur-Leica, it too fits in your pocket and allows for unobtrusive use.<p>

 

Why should my laptop, music player, video recorder/player, voice recorder, calculator, PDA, phone . . . Gameboy . . . and, soon, TV, all be separate instruments? Why shouldn't I have all that in one pocketable device? And why shouldn't I be able to seriously pursue photography with it, as well?<p>

 

Granted, it's not all there yet - not quite - but it's coming, as we know, and quite soon. Even now my 3650 does most of the above, and does it fairly well. Sure the pictures are small, but I happen to enjoy just now taking small pictures. I enjoy also the challenge of its photographic limitations. And the total control allowed for when using Photoshop.<p>

 

Clearly this is an adjunct to dedicated cameras. (Hence my searching for a proper Ur-Leica-like digicam.) And it may always be only an adjunct. But it's <i>fun</i>. That, for me, is where photography began, and where it belongs. I do my best in fun. Which I hope can be seen in the ever so small images at the top of this thread.<p>

 

End of ultra-long post. If you've stayed with it to the end, thanks for reading.

Sorry, that should be <i>Barnack's</i> Leica camera, of course.

<center><img src="http://www.photovillage.com/graphics/shop_page/oseries_linedrawing.gif" width="230" height="138"><p>. . .<p><img src="http://www.4to.net/mag/2000-11/images/barnack.jpg" width="300" height="415"><p>Homage to Oscar Barnack<img src="http://www.leica-camera.com/images/logo/logo_ff.gif" width="35" height="35"></center>.

CD

<p>

I understand what your "convergence" means. My dream street camera is something that can be embedded in the frame of my eye glasses. (Or in the far future, some implant in my eyes ;-)

<p>

<img src="http://www.photo.net/photodb/image-display?photo_id=2217656&size=lg">

<p>

P.S. I DO carry an Olympus Stylus Epic in my pocket everywhere I go ;-)

<i>My dream street camera is something that can be embedded in the frame of my eye glasses. (Or in the far future, some implant in my eyes ;-)</i><p>

 

Yes. That latter would be best. My dream as well. (I guess we'll have a video out port, too, discreetly placed in the nape of the neck.:)<p>

 

<i>I DO carry an Olympus Stylus Epic in my pocket everywhere I go ;-)</i><p>

 

I did also - almost everywhere - until I got my phone. And I still have it, at the ready. Cheers.

<i>I guess we'll have a video out port, too, discreetly placed in the nape of the neck.</i>

<p>

Better connected to the wireless ear implants. ;-)