matt_sachs
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Posts posted by matt_sachs
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The July 3, 2003 New York Review of Books has an informative article
by John Banville entitled "Secret Geometry" that discusses HCB and
Jane Brenton's book of essays, "Henri Cartier-Bresson: the Man, the
Image and the World."
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"When you look through this new Leica digital real-life viewfinder,
you immediately recognize the superior image quality produced by its
high performance Elmarit-Vario ASPH triple zoom lens."
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hope he doesn't disappear through an aperture
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No words from me on this except "FYI."
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The answer was revealed subsequently: it is an electric lighting artifact that occurs in some sporting arenas with fast shutter speeds and the slow-synch M shutter.
See:
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Dear Kelly,
Thank you for providing these data. It seems that your explanation covers why the problem would "disappear" when I stopped down the lens because I reduced the high shutter speed (1/500) -- things got better as shutter remained open longer, presumably because the synch issue improved. It also explains the arbitrary positioning of the bands on different frames of the same section of arena.
Matt
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Strictly at the frameline and strictly at wide aperture.
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Greetings, All:
The attached photograph is no prize-winner, but it illustrates a
problem I am having with a Noctilux lens at f1. Specifically, not
only is there vignetting, but there are color-shifts that do not
correspond to the vignette. Is this performance typical for the lens?
I purchased mine used and do not know whether it is example-specific.
Thank you,
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Sorry if I wasn't clear. I don't thinks it's a lens issue, since it is happening with both lenses.
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Greetings,
I purchased a used 50mm Noctilux f1 and put it on my M7 body earlier
this week; brick red vertical exposure stripes/bands are appearing
now (typically 2 of them, fairly dense, each approx 1/4-1/5 the
frame). It also happens now with my 35mm 'Lux 1.4 that I've had for
months and had not noticed was causing a problem previously. As I
stop down with either lens, the stripes lose intensity.
I expect its time to send it to Leica for Passport repair. But I feel
it is important to know what causes this.
Thank you for any information you might have on this problem.
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I don't have experience with any M but the M7, but for this I must agree with Roger, that one can sense when a problem with flare is going to occur. I, too, would be interested to know how the SHADE works to ameliorate this problem. Recently I was shooting an event at a large indoor Civic Center Stadium from the floor and the banks of sodium halide lights mounted in the upper regions of the building that all pointed down and in at the floor made using the rangefinder incredibly frustrating. Moving my eye or the angle of the camera (horizontal, vertical or any intermediate angle) had minimal effect when shooting in the direction of the action and I haven't worked out a way to easily hold the camera to shoot action, focus, and shield the prisms from highly directional light with only two hands.
My specific interest is dog agility photography (http://www.cleanrun.com/moreinfo.cfm?Product_ID=971 and http://www.cleanrun.com/moreinfo.cfm?Product_ID=1008 are two recent magazine cover photos of mine representing this work). Outdoors, my Canon tele-zooms rule; but indoors without flash (many locations require shooting at 250 1.4 with 800 film and even this shutter speed is bordering on slow for dogs that run 4 yards per second and are only meters away), the results with the Leica 35 Lux wide-open are stunning and in a heartbeat I would prefer to obtain a 50 nocti or 75 1.4 over the equivalent Canon glass on the assumption that the luminousness and sharpness of the 35 are retained in these longer lenses but for focusing concerns.
So... does the SHADE work?
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Information point -
A full page ad for the M7 with the text, "The Leica has a subtext, a
poetry and magic no other machine has," appears on p. 23 of the 23
Sept 2002 New Yorker magazine
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Check the films that interest you on the skin-tones that interest you. While Supra is a great film for colors and textures, you may not find it satisfactory to give skin the tones that you wish.
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I've also been keeping an eye on the "wrong ASA" issue when the M7 is turned on. Inserting the film cartridge past the "click" is important as noted previously. Yet this problem has recurred when I have taken the M7 on trail runs in a padded pack; presumably the jouncing is moving the cartidge around. While it has not happened often enough that I can claim this is a 100% fix, it seems that taking up slack with the rewind knob has helped in these cases.
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Greetings, All:
While using estimates of distance for choosing the focus-point has its
merits for speed, I would be grateful to learn how other photographers
choose specific subject detail for evaluating focus using the
split-image system quickly, and how do they do the evaluation? That
is, what are the preferred target areas for evaluating the convergence
of the split-image (e.g., on a human figure or face?) What technique
(move the focusing ring past, then back?)
My limited experience focusing by split-image only without
ground-glass (M7 vs SLR) is that when there are edges at the correct
distance, it seems relatively easy to quickly get to the correct focus
by split-image. But it seems not so easy to focus on specific points
in scenes containing repetitive elements (e.g., a field of flowers) or
in low-contrast situations in general.
Thank you.
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The AE is a great feature for my shooting style; I snapped at the M7
after wanting an M6 for many years but not obtaining one because I
didn't want to be forced to meter manually (although of course I often
do work this way). It is quite rapid to set the aperture, meter for
where "middle gray" should be, lock the exposure with a partial
shutter press to fix the shutter speed, and proceed. If I change my
mind, I just let up on the release, move the camera a little to fish
another shutter speed, trap with a partial press, and continue.
<p>
There is one thing to consider in your assessment, since it wasn't
obvious to me just by reading the specs, and is my major complaint
about the M7. With my EOS3 I can really use the exposure compensation
dial on the back "on the fly" instead of the catch and release
approach with the shutter button described above. The M7 requires you
hold a button with one hand while twirling a dial with the other,
which is not so much fun to do with the camera at eye level while
there is action going on. Indeed, people who use the
camera manually have it better for tweaking exposure than those who
use it automatically and would want to use exposure compensation to
quickly tweak the exposure. Furthermore, the "0" setting on the
compensation dial has the same click-feel as the other settings, so
you need to keep count of where you are (+/-6 clicks) or look to see
where you are compensation-wise. While purists who like an
uncluttered finder might shudder, the EOS3 is great since it gives you
exposure compensation settings right in the viewfinder. Possibly
someone on the list knows the proper "manual of arms" to use the
compensation dial more satisfactorily?
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Eliot's point is well taken. For curiosity, I searched the EOS3
archives on yahoogroups with "DX," since I have read postings there
for a long time and didn't recall this being a discussion point, and
found two independent occurrences out of more than 10,000 posts from
1999 (the beginning of the archives) onward reporting this problem
(numbers 4696 and 7250). In both cases, the problem was only with ASA
200 film. So, that several of the relatively small group of M7 users
who also read this group have encountered this problem with two
different films in the short time they've had their cameras may
already be significant.
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Greetings, All:
<p>
My M7 also "forgot" it was loaded with Supra 400 recently, though it initially detected it correctly. When partially through a roll, it flashed ASA 100 when turned on several times in a row (this maneuver on the part of the M7 was associated with a "What the ***?" sound-track from yours truly); then it got with the program again and flashed ASA 400. Having shot with Canon EOS bodies for many years now, without this ever having been a concern (indeed, I hadn't considered it even to be a possible problem!) and noting that a recent post concerning Velvia in the M7 also noted a similar problem, I am curious as to how common an occurrence this is proving to be.
<p>
Thank you for any light you can shed on this.
Best,
Matt
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Greetings, All:
<p>
This is not a Leica-specific question but given the interests of others using these cameras for available light there is likely great knowledge to help me with this.
<p>
I went with the M-system and a fast 35 lens to get back to available light photography with no fill flash -- I shoot mostly ASA400 color print film. This is proving highly rewarding except when shooting indoors with room light. Predictably, these photos have the orange cast that comes from using daylight film with incadescent bulbs.
<p>
Does one just endure, or is there (preferably a single) filter that Leica-philes use in these situations?
<p>
Thank you.
<p>
Matt
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Something similar happened to me when changing rolls with the M7 and
fortunately things unstuck. But I could not fire the shutter until I
rewound the (unexposed) film (carefully, to leave the leader).
Unfortunately for Anam things did not resolve so easily. I suspected
at the time it was because I was in AE mode with the lens cap on when
doing the frame advances and the meter made the decision for max
exposure time (many seconds) and I wasn't clued into this while I was
winding to go to the -1 frame since I wasn't looking in the finder.
Now I am careful to move out of AE mode and to set a shutter speed
when shooting the -2 and -1
frames with the lens cap on.
<p>
Not that I am satisfied with this arrangement...
<p>
Matt
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Greetings, All:
<p>
Forgive my ignorance here.
<p>
Spinning the aperture dial on the 35mm lens, and looking at the diaphragm blades, there is an extra click beyond each of the marked extremes that affects the blades as expected. Are there 1/4-or-so stops (guessing the number here) beyond the stated aperture range that are "valid"?
<p>
Matt Sachs
mattsachs@attbi.com
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Thank you. Clicking heels together 3 times (rather, 300 or so lock to
lock movements) appears to be acieving my wish for smooth helical action.
<p>
Matt
Review of book "Henri Cartier-Bresson: the Man, the Image, and the World"
in Leica and Rangefinders
Posted