braden_barclay

No, I'm not honestly threatening anyone with violence, that's what we canadians call 'dry humour'. I, just like most of the fellow forum readers, like to see useful information brought to this place. I'm passionate about photography, not learning what someone here ate for breakfast. There are a lot of people here who post a lot of relevant information and I love to read it because I'm completely self-taught in this area. I'm probably just having a bad day, and am sorry for the outburst.

 

Game on.

Frank, you'll find out, if I happen to run into you on the streets of vancouver.

 

Quit asking so many stupid questions and just go take some pictures!!! From what you have posted so far your time is better spend doing that. Otherwise when you die all you'll amount to is someone with the most amound of knowledge of a model of camera and not a damn thing to show for it!

 

This forum used to be a pretty decent place to learn from, now it's just a complete waste of time. I'm surprised I even took the time to write this.

Response to Another Reason Why Digital May Be Better

 

The reason is simple; there is currently a huge 'wow' factor in what you can accomplish with a digital camera and a little photoshop manipulation. Solid darkroom knowledge will be a rare and sought-after skill in the future, and most of us will then be at the fore-front! I also agree with the comment regarding the fact that many of these highly rated digital shots wouldn't hold a candle in a gallery to a 12x18 hand printed.

M2 50mm Elmar<div></div>

p:ano<div></div>

Mocha!<div></div>

I'm trying to figure out what the dark band along the side of some of the vertical shots might be. It can't be the shutter. Maybe the scan?

Mark, you made a great point. Most pop music today won't need to be around in 2 years, much less 40, because people won't give a sh*t about it once it's off the charts. Archivally unimportant you might say.

Jeff, what were my comments about the business of vinyl? Are you referring to my point about it being a better format? Please specify. My original point (for clarification) was that it's all just a choice. Film is better in some situations, just as digital is better in others. I'm not against technology, not at all. However, just because it smells pretty doesn't mean it's a rose. The analogy to vinyl is a perfectly fine examply of choice. I choose to listen to vinyl at home because it's the best environment for it, but I wouldn't obviously have it in my car. Simply put, both film and vinyl(including analogous recording) will be around for ages to come because in a lot of situations it's the best medium.

 

Volker, if you're comparing Hendrix to Dire Straits I can't really argue with you there as I don't care for either. I can give you some links to information on record care if you'd like to learn how to keep dust off of things, though.

Jeff, what exactly does working in the music industry have to do with what we're talking about here?

Jeff, the analogy to vinyl is indeed a proper one, you're just looking at it from the wrong angle. The reason for vinyl becoming popular again is not because of DJ services or any of that nonesense, it's simply because it's a better format. CD's made their big break in the 90's just as digital cameras are what everyone's buying today. After 10 or 15 years of listening to cd's people begin to realize their place as an audio medium; they're convenient, but don't sound better and are not archival. People realize that they only have to buy a vinyl record once and it will most likely last them the rest of their lives. A cd, on the other hand, will oxidize and deteriorate much faster than vinyl and will have to be repurchased. This is especially true when a new 'remastered' version comes out, or a new format such as dvd audio or sacd. The same folks will go back to using film more in the future just the same. Negatives, properly stored, will last much like vinyl. You don't have to worry about corrupted files and incompatible formats in forty years. Once everyone on the planet has a digital camera they'll go back to using film, I'm sure of it. The best things in life are left unchanged. That's why we're using leica's!

Albert, I'm eating my lunch! Damn near lost it!

M2 35mm Nokton Neopan 400<div></div>

Well I don't know if any of you remember when I dropped my M2 on <a href="http://www.photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=00Acau">New Years Eve</a>, but I sent it in to be fixed in early January and just got it back about a week ago. Gerry at Kindermann did an excellent job and even saved me money by finding sources other than Solms for the parts. (complete rangefinder assembly) Sometimes there are reasons beyond their control for the time delay.<p>

 

P.S. I was kind of going nuts being without that thing for so long. Pretty much all my photography and darkroom work had been put on hold until now.

CD, last time I checked GST was only 7% in Canada.

Trevor, the Leica rangefinder has a minimum distance of 50', since most critical camera focussing is done at ranges less than that it's hardly a valuable accessory.

Trevor, I'm guessing the shot from the marina was from color film converted to black and white. The tones from black to mid graduate nicely but drop off very quickly from mid to white. Where your church pictures have a much smoother transtion overall. Nice pictures. Salut!

I must say, there are some really good shots here.

 

Too bad I didn't set the self timer on my M2 before I dropped it, the 'last shot' may have been a keeper.

Thomas, I have only had limited experience with this lens as I've only had it for a few weeks now. Overall I'm really impressed with it. The build was better than I was expecting, the focussing is very smooth, and it is really quite sharp. Yes, it is big, not as big as the Noctilux, but more along the lines of a standard mf Nikon lens. The lens does protrude into the viewfinder but I have yet to have an instance where this was annoying. Basically, if you're looking for the fastest standard wide-angle lens for the money this is it. If I had the money to spend I would go for the Summilux-ASPH, but I don't. At least right now.

 

On a side note; although this lens comes with a metal cap that falls off easily, with the hood in place you can use a standard Nikon lens cap which fits into the lens flush so there is no possibility of it coming off. Though even if it did it would cost next to nothing to replace.

Thank you for the sympathy. I do have a strap but for whatever reason decided to not use it. Funny how that works! I figured out what the problem was in the first place however. The lens locking latch doesn't rise up that much so with the weight of the big nokton lens it's fairly easy to disengage the lens without pushing the release.

 

On question though, do service centers have some sort of filler for the vulcanite chips to prevent more from breaking away?

So I was trotting down a slippery sidewalk last night carrying my M2

by the lens when the body decided to release and hit the pavement

really really hard. The impact caused a few small chips to the

vulcanite, deformed part of the baseplate and left a couple heavy

scratches along the edge. But what is really bothering me is that it

looks like the mirror in the viewfinder has popped out or something.

When I look through the viewfinder all I can see is the rangefinder

patch and the frame lines, everything else is blacked out. The

shutter and all the levers seem ok to me. But I guess it's off to

Kindermann once again! Does anyone have any input as what to expect

the damage might be? After spending almost $400 CAD just 5 months

ago tuning it up, I'm not looking forward to what this might cost me.

...or the garden of couches on sidewalks.

Robson...<div></div>

Just look on the bright side, if these non-photographers didn't buy the expensive Leica equipment who would we buy all of our used equipment from?

I started off in the rangefinder world with a simple Voigtlander Vitomatic from a second hand store for about $30. The image quality (I thought) was much better than my Nikon F3 at the time. You don't have to spend much money at all, just make such it's a decent make and, I'd say more importantly, in good condition. If everything is clean and the shutter speeds sound good then you should be good to go! The vitomatic I use doesn't even have a coupled rangefinder, you just dial in the estimated distance. This really gets you involved in the picture taking as it forces you to think more about taking the picture before you actually take it. Then once you're ready, you don't have to worry about exposure, focus, anything like that, just compose and shoot! Have fun!