Hello

[erik_den_hartigh]

After lurking on this forum for a few months, I feel I'd like to

participate. Let me therefore introduce myself. I'm a 32 year old

university teacher/researcher in the Netherlands. I've been taking

photographs for 15 years now, and I first becam intoxicated by the

Leica virus in 1993 through the writings of Erwin Puts in the Dutch

periodical 'Camera Magazine'.

 

Why Leica? Well, two reasons I guess. First, I like to be completely

responsible for my own pictures. The Leica accomodates this

perfectly because 1) it has complete manual control and 2) it has

the highest quality mechanics and optics. Therefore, if my pictures

are lousy, I am to blame and not the camera. Second, I hate camera's

that do 'beep' when you press the button, instead of just taking the

picture.

 

In the past few years I've done almost exlusively black and white

photography. The last time I tried color, I misplaced the film on

the take-up spool (first time in 9 years of using Leicas), so I

ended up with no photograhs at all. I take that as a sign of not

trying color again.

 

For years, I've been a member of a photography club, but I hardly

have time to go there. I hope to find a sustitute on this forum for

talking about gear and photography.<div></div>

[kajabbi]

Welcome to the Asylum Eric. Not only do we all have the terminal "Leica Virus" but "Leica insanity" to boot. I may be the oldest survivor but, from the looks of things, many are catching up.

[________1]

Greetings Eric, I hate beeping too. Welcome to the Forum.

[tom h.]

For all the hee-hawing that goes on, it's a great forum Erik, at

best informative and entertaining (though not always). Enjoy.

Cool photo, well seen, btw.

 

Tom

[gerard_captijn]

Hi Erik,

 

Goed een nieuwe Nederlander in het forum te hebben.

 

What Erik told, i.e. that he became interested in Leica through Erwin Puts articles in Camera Magazine, struck a chord as this was also the reason why I got interested in Leica again (after a 15 year Hasselblad/Nikon F detour). The interest of Erwin's articles, in my opinion, was that he did not compare Leica vs Nikon/Canon but Leica vs Leica. Comparisons between different brands are useless as one is locked into his camera system's bayonet. I found, for instance, Erwin's comparing Leitz/Leica's 35 mm glass very interesting as one can decide to photograph with any of the lens generations: the mounts are all the same.

 

I changed my opinion though on the practical use of these tests. The differences between many glass generations are so small that one has to enlarge above 30 X 40 cm to start to see differences. Finally, it is a lot of hyperbole about small differences. The cases where the differences are important are rare (for instance: Summilux 1.4/35mm vs Summilux 1.4/35mm ASPH wide open).

 

In order to get the improvements out of recent Leica glass one has to lavish extreme care and effort to exposing his images (tripod, high speeds, aperture not too small, etc.). The small differences in sharpness disappear in handheld photography. Differences in contast are limited since the sixties. Read Stephen Gandy on the subject, he is spot on. It is great though to see that Leica continues to improve its lenses (once they offer an improved Summilux 1.4/50mm, I will buy immediately).

 

Again, welcome to the club.

[bob soltis]

Welcome Erik,

 

and thanks for posting such an interesting photo.

 

Just got back from an extremely enjoyable eight days in Amsterdam with side trips to

Volendam, Marken, and Utrecht.

 

The Dutch are very friendly and in the words of our Governor-elect here in the land of

the nuts, fruits, and flakes (California), "I'll be back"

 

Welcome aboard. We look forward to future posts

 

Tot gauw,

 

Bob

[sheridan]

Welcome to an interesting forum Erik ... I hope you enjoy your stay.

[hans_berkhout]

Ook goejedag.

I am more of the Chris Broere (Odin), Ed van der Elsken, Wim Noordhoek, Aart Klein etc. generation. Make sure you have your MLeica with you at all times, that's what it's made for.

About 20+ years ago I wrote an article for het tijdschrift "Foto" about the Zone system which still something new at that time, in The Netherlands.

[erik_den_hartigh]

Thank you all for the kind welcome!

[travis1]

Hello Erik.

 

how did you only misplace colour film on the take up spool and not b/w film?

[erik_den_hartigh]

Hello Travis,

 

Beats me. Although I hear lots of people complaining about loading Leicas, I never had any problem with it. Actually, I think loading film through the bottom is much simpler and more intuitive than in most other cameras with swing-backs.

 

That is, until that color film in May this year. And it was a semi-commercial assignment on top of it. Luckily the b&w film I shot before the color came out beautifully.