jorn ake

Leica M7/28mm f2/Fuji NP 1600<div></div>

Ancient carousel horses in Prague, upholstered in real horse flesh.<div></div>

Round square.<div></div>

This issue is actually very frustrating for most eyeglass wearers I think. Most of us come up with approximate solutions. The optical acuity of Leica lenses (why we all buy and use these $1000+ lenses) runs counter to the idea of removing one's glasses, even temporarily, especially if one needs lenses for distance viewing. Left or right eyed, glasses interfere with direct, quick viewing of the brightlines.

 

For lenses 28mm or wider, hyper-focus technique and external viewfinders work really well, albeit with a bit of a compositional learning curve. For 35mm, slightly smaller depth of field makes hyper-focus & external viewfinder composition a bit more limited but not impossible. 50mm really seems to be the perfect .72 viewfinder lens - in my experience, the right combination of speed and compositional accuracy.

 

Whether part of an intentional marketing strategy or the result of the inherent limitations of rangefinder cameras, the best solution may be two camera bodies - a .72 for 50mm and a .58 for 35mm and 28mm (even here I find an external viewfinder 28mm helpful.) But if one camera body is the purse limit, I would still suggest the .72, even with glasses - much more flexible platform for running different lenses. The decision to buy a .58 comes after developing a sense of the sort of photographs one will be taking and how frequently one will be taking those photographs.

 

My only wish is that the old rectangular Leica 28mm single viewfinder was still made, in metal, with a down-locking foot. I'd buy one. Maybe a special Lee Friedlander memorial edition?

 

Alternatively to an external viewfinder (and for low light/wide apertures/close focusing,) practice using the rangefinder patch to guess-timate the composition of the image. The rangefinder patch will always be in the center. Distance from that patch to the brightline varies by lens, but by learning to use the patch as a "constant center," one can develop a fast, precise technique for composing images whether the entire brightline is viewable or not.

 

As for glasses, I recommend the new Oakley line of metal prescription frames. Closer to the eye than any glasses I know, and with the straight temples, one can really squash 'em in closer if need be. Plus you look like totally cool. Dude.

Innuendo aside, I fear that I am my wife's point & shoot.

Summicron M 28/2 M7<div></div>

Three photographers here in the Czech Republic - Jan Maly, Jiri Polacek, & Ivan Lutterer - used a large format camera to make a photographic census of this country's people after revolution. The project seems to have run from 1982-96. They would show up in a town, invite everyone down for a photo, and set up a tent-studio. After each shoot, the subjects would get a Polaroid version of their shot to keep, while the photographers kept the photographic negative. I don't think they used P/N film, but rather a film back and a Polaroid back (i.e like a 545i or something) on a large format camera. Evidently this became quite an event, and the person who gave me a copy of the book that followed, entitled Cesky Clovek (ISBN: 80 900903 4 6) had a wistfully nostalgic look on their face. The photographs are great and really capture a moment of transition for a strong-willed and optimistic group of people.

So many companies have been cooking their books for so long, I wonder if many corporations are taking the slow economy as an opportunity to recorrect (word?) while investor expectations are low. Save your losses for a rainy day sort of thing. What to believe.

Briefly as others have said most - I have a Microtek ArtixScan 4000tf with Silverfast + PhotoShop that is pretty zippy. I have found (as indicated above) that scanning forces one to be precise about one's film development to prevent "bulletproofing" the dark areas, and so, given a lack of time and energy I use Ilfrod XP2 which comes out the other side of a developing shop right nicely (though at a loss of archival stability perhaps.) And I print through an Epson 2100 (Euro equiv. 2200) on archival matte. Not yet perfect but I am getting better and prints are attractive and easily produced without chemicals in our small apartment. Makes my wife like me better.

 

To reply to the contact print/scanner question, decent contact prints can be done on a flat bed scanner by removing (or raising) the lid, placing negatives on glass and then placing an appropriately sized light box (I have a FOMEI model - Czech I think) face down on top. Use black paper to seal around the edges (or not) and scan with light box on. Not high art but useful for cataloging negative sheets in a binder.<div></div>

I had a Leica variable finder - 21-24-28 - and I found it large, cumbersome and inaccurate for 28mm. Too tall and no brightline. Right eyed viewing put my nose perfectly into the camera's viewfinder. And round design strangely mimics a staring eyeball, automatically drawing attention to the camera. Now have the aforementioned plastic Leica 28 (used but as new) which, other than its stupid plastic foot, is great - rectangular, brightlined, and accurate. When I win the lottery, I'll get a SLOOZ and tape it on. Can't help on the metal VC. Looks eyeballish. Why (oh why) not metal AND rectangular? I suspect nice 28 mm finders don't help sell .58 M camera bodies.

I think you need to carry the bag on you rather than on the bike. Otherwise everything just gets jostled way too much. I use a courier bag from Freitag (www.freitag.ch) but I modified it with a thin foam pad from a camping goods store stitched inside to keep the cameras and my back separated. I also have a Domke insert with three compartments that I use in it that further cushions the cameras. It is a huge bag, so all the sweets, coffee (earlier post) sweaters etc. fit in around the edges. Timbuk2.com makes a nice phone holder for the strap. And custom bags in custom colors and waxed canvas. More pockets would be nice. Courierwareusa.com makes a courier/camera bag with all these features already included, plus more pockets, but only in cordura rather than cool plastic vinyl tarpaulin scavenged from European delivery trucks like my Freitag. Eventually I will have to sew my own. The tripod is the only thing to mount on the bike. Get a nice rack at your local bike shop, or a really retro one from Rivendell Cycles on the web. Velcro bike pump straps hold the legs. Or you can just stuff it all into a Lowepro Stealth backpack, but this might not match the aesthetic of your Colnago, De Rosa, Batavus, Olmo, Ciocc, .... ah bicycles. Do you have a leather saddle?

Your project sounds really pretty great. Let me just brainstorm a bit in response, if that isn't too self-indulgent.

 

I teach college writing, and I sometimes use photography in my classrooms. My goals are simple. I do not expect anyone to even produce a photograph of merit. I just want my students to see something outside themselves and think a bit. Amazing how confidence increases once a student has produced something (anything) and realizes that now they actually have an idea (of their own!) as a result. I think with people such as you are working with, the opportunity to look outside themselves, regardless of what they produce or achieve, might be the ultimate benefit. Therefore, consider making the focus of the class the doing, the making and the conversations and interactions that accompany that process. Any product that comes from it should be a secondary gift, but not a goal oriented focus.

 

My first instinct is that Holgas may be too complicated and finicky for some fingers (film loading, spool unwinding, film exposed, frustration, etc.) but the donation of developing services will help minimize complexity on the production end. They are also terribly prone to light leaks and the general "fall aparts." Might be better to have one of those disposable 35mm cameras. Then the students can just shoot away, return the camera, and go from there. They are even available routinely loaded with black and white film now.

 

However, if printing is an objective, working with the larger negatives might be easier for say, people with Down's or other mental disabilities that have physical ramifications. Something like the Holga's might be good if simplicity and dependability can be created.

 

But if big is easier, consider a large format view camera (if you can find one for free or less!) They are really low maintenance, you can see through them very easily, the film/negative is huge and you can use any number of Polaroid films (including Positive Negative Type 55 film which produces lovely easy to print black and white negatives) with the right equipment. Polaroid film also has that nice instant gratification continuity thing going, which pays off when the students have relatively short attention spans. Several students could use one camera, given the step by step way they produce images. And you can contact print the P/N film negatives on printing out paper using sunlight and toner. No darkroom really required. Small image but again, simple.

 

Polaroid even has a nice pinhole camera kit. That is a simple camera, but it is (I think) very expensive - over $100. However, if you ask nicely, there might be a donation program or a subsidized purchase plan for non-profits.

 

Maybe get Christopher James' book, Alternative Photographic Processes. Maybe even contact Christopher James. He is a teacher and from what I hear, a right nice person. At any rate, his book offers good explanations of all sorts of alternative processes that are easy, fun and cheap - like P/N film, pin hole cameras, Holgas, and and and.

 

Also, look at some model organizations. The one I can think of right off the top of my head is Photo Voice. http://www.photovoice.org/ They run a personal empowerment program that teaches camera arts to groups who are suffering from AIDS, oppression and discrimmination in (typically) third world countries. Not a perfect model, but they might talk to you about your project and offer some on the mark suggestions.

 

Above all, collaborate. Contact local photography groups. I have yet to find a community like photographers (except perhaps birdwatchers) who contain within their numbers so many individuals who are readily willing to devote time, energy, equipment and money to worthwhile projects that bring photography to people who would benefit from the experience. Somewhere in Ann Arbor is a photographer just waiting for someone like you to ask them to share their experience with you. Maybe they have a large format camera with a Polaroid back. Be persistent.

 

Good luck! As a writing professor, I advise you to keep a writing journal full of everything good bad and out of focus, and then write it up formally later. Your essay can become the source of information for the next person, or the thing you use later to get a job.

The 28mm f2 Summicron ASPH is just an amazing lens. Along with a acces. viewfinder and zone focusing, street photography is fast. I also carry a 50 as well. Sharp and flat. And I have a 35 too. I use it as my one lens, one body minimal outfit, like my days as a Canon QL-17 rat (which I still have and love carnally.) So get the 28mm first, then later a 35mm. Oh and then you'll need another M body. Eventually we all buy all the stuff. Consider quality used, older, manual, etc. My dented M4 takes better photographs than I ever will. Then use it daily.

Coffee 'cause in order to take photographs, first I have to wake up. And plus, you just need a multi-tasking carry-all as Prague is really a pedestrian city (unlike most US cities) and the weather is cold-wet-warm-sunny-snowing (in the spring, sometimes everything within a 20 minute period.) Then there are crowded metros and trams and running to catch them. Military bags (and diaper bags! excellent) look like good ideas. And while I have never felt in danger anywhere here and I have insurance, street photography is an inconspicuous art so seems like a bag should be as quiet as the click of my camera's shutter. Part of the whole thing I suppose.

I live in the Czech Republic and shoot a lot of street photography.

Pickpockets live here too, as in other European cities. Fact of life.

I carry my M cameras in an old beat-up courier bag with Domke wraps to

be inconspicuous. I would like a bag with a few dividers though so I

can carry a camera and a pound of coffee without entanglement. I would

also like to ditch the wraps - too slow. All the M-suitable bags that

I have seen are way too pretty (M-Classics, Billingham) or look like

camera bags (Lowepro etc) or (ugh) waist packs. Even the courier bags

are too pretty now. I have an old Domke bag from a retired AP

photographer that is lightly padded black canvas, has been washed like

30 or 40 times, and shot full of holes. Perfect - except I would like

a big zipper under the flap to prevent hand intrusions. While my

camera is around my neck or in my hand most of the time, hiding a

camera without outward advertisement occasionally is invaluable - like

on the metro. Any suggestions, beyond sewing and washing and shrapnel?