Leica philosophy

[nesrani]

OK, now I've stirred up the wasp's nest, here's my own feeling.

 

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I first started snapping in the mid eighties because I saw a book of

HCB portraits. I knew he used the Leica, so that's what I got. It

promised a kind of spontaneity and simplicity, I don't know why.

Mainly the transparency of the viewfinder and the small size.

 

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Nowadays, I feel the same way, with the added impulse that I can't

focus an SLR.

 

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I still love the Leica M and can hardly imaging using another 35 mm

camera.

[r_watson9]

After using a M for a wile, and get conscient of the frame and the

time of exposure, perfect focus, the demand from the camera to be ON

IT, and if with a little of talent it transform into good work, yes

my dear rob is hard to pick up another system.

 

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At the end it is a very demanding camera.

[Rob F.]

Hey Victor, I have a good wife, and she is a philosopher (expert on

French philosophy, Merleau-Ponty, Feminism) and I shoot with a

Leica. So what does that make me?

 

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Rob, try this:

 

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L ove of quality

E ngineering

I ngenuity

C raftsmanship

A ttention to detail

[msitaraman]

My two bits:

 

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Luxury Expense Improbably Coveted by All.

 

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Laughably Expensive and Inconvenient - Crazy Afcionados.

[victor_randin]

Bob, sounds like you are just twice as exception :?)

[dean_g1]

Ok, I don't own a real Leica. Reading the posts here though reminds

me of the Porsche 356 and 911s. They are widely acknowledged as

fundamentally ill-designed cars. In fact in terms of conventional

vehicle dynamics they are all wrong (too much weight way in the

back). However, those who have adapted to them have turned those

quirks into advantages. They do some things other cars just won't do

(and maybe thankfully in the hands of the average driver). As a

result Porsche drivers tend to have a distinct philosophy that

involves their cars as distinct from others. As for my camera.. I

have a FED-2 Russian copy of some imaginary Leica, perhaps with even

more quirks. A camera such as mine forces one to be philosophical

about everything ;)

[paul_chefurka]

"Narrative rather than graphic, more about time than form". That is

a brilliantly simple statement that I wholeheartedly endorse as the

core of this slippery concept. It's precisely what I got out of my

switch from Nikon to M. Thanks, Andy - that's going in my little box

of photographic aphorisms.