machiel_botman

looking at your forum now and then (more then) i find this a very

good question. I have negs dating back to the middle of the

seventies, done with various cameras (changing as we go, right?) like

Nikkormat, Olympus OM1, Leica M2, Olympus OM4, Leica R4s, Olympus

OM4t (I was unable to use a rangefinder, tried the M2 and later an

M6, really loved it's silence, but could just not get into the all

clear viewfinders).

 

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But I know very well what you mean by this quality, this look of a

print, and to me the answer does not lie so much in the camera, but

much more in the enlargers, the paper and how you developpe your

prints. From a print I can not tell which camera someone uses, but I

might see which enlarger was used. It's nearly always evident when a

Focomat 1c, or 2c, was used. Something about the grain in the edges

and the warmth, the feel of the image. The 2c has the additional

factor of printing between glass (the neg. carrier with the anti

newton glass) and Leitz managed to construct something that still

gives a brilliant print, despite it's changing caracter due to the

extra glass.

 

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Because I mix old and new work I still print from "all type cameras'

negs" and sure I get some differences, but these mainly result from

better film developpement and better light metering over the years.

I used to think the Nikkormat gave me harder, more contrasty, negs.

That the Olympus looked very much like Leitz, or visa verca, but now

I feel there just is not much of a difference at all. Anyway, not in

that "this is better than that line of thinking".

 

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Now I no longer use Leica's, it's back to Olympus, for many reasons,

but not because I think O. is optically the best, sorry I feel there

is no such thing. But I do swear by the 1c and the 2c - even to the

point that i've been buying more of them, so cheap now, because I

dread the moment when they'd break down and could not be repaired.

 

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To me the best camera is the one you forget about while working, the

one that does not give you a hard time, the one people don't fuzz

about when they see it. Paper is important and strangely enough,

with all the digital stuff happening, there has never been a time

when so many good fiber papers are being produced. Just search and

try the different ones. However, if you stick to mass produced

prints, that's where it becomes like driving a beautiful car on dirt

track roads, funky sometimes - sure, but in the end .......

 

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Machiel

Why such a technical approach? it's not even one stop of a

difference. So your kiddies move a bit sometimes, so what? so the

trees in Texas are a bit blurred because they wave in the wind. which

god ever said photographs should not have any motion?

 

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Many photographs gain from these unexpected factors, many photographs

loose if we stay in control. Ciao, Machiel

I use an Olympus slr with a 40mm. Because of the focal length and the compactness. I am going to buy a rangefinder to have next to this and wonder if Leitz has 40 mm's? Only one I heard of is the CL(E) 40 mm. Will this fit on the M7, crazy? What will I see in the finder? Opinions, thanks, Machiel

First time I 'visited' this Q & A. A lot of comment is at hand,

instead I would like the enclosed image to speak for me, done with my

Kodak Instamatic, at age 10. Machiel

 

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ps - not sure how to attach an image, let's see if I can