s_r_c

<p>Yeah, I don't know. It's kind of a charming camera for what it is. I got one as a gift early on in my little shooting career. I guess I was one of the lucky ones, in that I maybe got a 100-something rolls through it. The first blow was to the film transport & frame counter. Gears ceased meshing, I think I might have been too rough with it.<br>

So I opened it up and found that the thing is an ugly mess of nasty misshapen pot-metal gears, deeply inadequate springs, poorly aligned and retained everything. But, with some filing, adding shims, and cutting better springs I finally got it to work again. This is slow years of getting charmed by it and the little tessar, and disassembling and reassembling it.<br>

Finally got it together recently, shot some stuff on christmas, left a couple blank frames on the roll and it's sat since. Picked it up yesterday, and the shutter jammed/wont fire.<br>

I slapped it off the desk and it fell near my Nikon coolscan V which met a similar fate.<br>

Don't count on either to really stand up to the task.</p>

Hank - Ever do speed with Gene Smith?

Acknowledgment of street in the art scene will come and go.

People will do it anyway, and from time to time shaky shots of back-lit redhead kids and seagulls shot w/ a 300mm lens will be called street.

And we'll see it all on flickr.

If I ever meet anyone who paid off their M by selling street pictures, I'll give them a hi-five.

Because I can't afford to buy them a beer.

People who do street, really do it, just can't help it. I have tan lines from my wrist strap.

But can't afford to process. I just keep shooting, assuming I'm getting pictures.

One thing is certain - it is increasingly becoming illegal.

If not straying from the vision of the what, nine, originators.

as they say, shoot first & ask permission later.

If you don't, your fault.

If you suck, your fault.

But if someone wants to give you money for it, keep your mouth shut and get back out there.

And try not to get arrested or stabbed.

"Night Photography" by Saunders.

Great exposure tables for light conditions & f-stops w/ corresponding illustrations.

My old stolen M4 :(

Someone gave me a parts IIIc sharkskin that was worn to brass. I took it down to prep for paint but decided I really liked the patina. Haven't put it back together yet.

Daniel: Never seen an MP3.

My. God.

Anyway:

<img src="http://c2.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images02/49/l_f3496906be694efeabfb6728acdaf139.jpg"/img>

<i>not</i> an original black body.

I imagine William Klein working much the same way.

It's a valid and interesting style.

Like Phillip Jones Griffiths vs. Martin Parr.

Both phenomenal eyes; polar opposites in style and approach.

I think it's largely a demeanor thing.

Or a New York thing.

I'd have been stabbed in the stomach ages ago if that's how I shot.

But I wouldn't, so I don't, and I'm not in magnum either. And haven't tried to be.

Thanks for the responses. I don't participate much in forums. I understand the value of sending it off to the

right guy, if you have an old Citroen for instance, I'm one of the guys for that and I'm flattered when they call

our shop a "Citroen Salon". Then of course, we have a waiting list and cars often stay for a year resulting in

frustration on both ends. Last time I dropped dollars on a CLA + partial rebuild the camera immediately got

stolen. I'm simply not willing to hand it over.

But yeah, I can certainly take it apart and put it back together. The dilemma is parts and downtime. I'll glean

what I can from the links and hopefully be back in business.

Cheers -SRC

Well I got an MP from an insurance payoff. It was a NIB one from the first batch with the different ISO dial, so

not at all old and definitely not used, but neat.

I noticed that the top plate was loose around the counter dial after a day or so, but it all worked and didn't

leak light.

now the top plate is tight and the counter is jammed at 36. It's visibly popping up from where it should sit in

the window. It's been less than 100 rolls through it, and more than 50. I don't know.

I've sent leicas off and not seen them for five months and never had it cost less than 300% more than quoted,

which was already a lot.

So, screw that. Honestly, I'm a mechanic, I've been a projectionist, I've built SLRs out of junk bodies... don't

tell me to send it off. I'll wait until it's so old it needs everything.

Is this a known bad thing, do i need a part, or did they just not build it right in the first place?

Just looking here to hopefully glean some practical experience. The damage has been done, it's well on it's way

to becoming a brassed-up beater; but I figured a new one would last 40 years like my m4 seems to have done.

Thanks & cheers -src

... for the support.

yes, the police have been contacted. going on 24 hours later, and the report hasn't been filed yet; they wouldn't accept my serials.

so i'm canvassing the pawn shops and the used dealers i know in the city tomorrow.

it was after a shoot. i had everything with me. i have an old okay-looking peugeot, not exactly a high-profile car. Literally nothing was visible, and they didn't try to steal the car. they knew what they were going for.

sadly, i really think it was my ex-girlfriend, who lives up the street. turns out she was a fairly notorious con artist in the san francisco music scene. i never met a con artist before.

the officer made a "pfft-tch" sound when i said that.

it's all scrap metal by now probably. cameras, lenses, computer, and a body bag full of light stands.

the annoying thing is that this is the culmination of the systematic deconstruction of my sane, stable life since feb. 15th.

now i'm homeless, broke, AND will have to stop freelancing unless i can find people who want available light film shoots. i had my digitals on me, but all but one card was with the rest of it. cool.

the food is good still, but i don't like hipsters any better than i like gangbangers and meth addicts. i shoot there, i have friends there, if i could afford to, i'd live there. i get fewer bad vibes in SF than sacramento, where i'm from.

i've been mugged once, also in SF, this same M4 has been stolen twice now.

The last idiot mugged me across the street from the cops.

cheers, and don't let yours sit on a shelf. Tools break and get lost...

but are expensive to replace.

My leicas were boosted after a shoot last night in the Mission. Most expensive

cup of coffee I'll ever have.

M4 - 1229319

M2 - 940218

both chrome, beater cameras. M4 JUST cla'd; M2 is button rewind, modified with

quick load and MP rewind arm.

black voigtlander glass went with them:

35mm f/1.7 & 28/35 minifinder

28mm f/3.5 & metal 28 finder

and metal lens hoods.

send word if you see them.

much appreciated.

Soeren,

Struggling with this idea at the moment myself, but more for use as a portfolio.

My instinct would be to not mix the theme and tone too much. The four b/w at the top have very distinct feeling to them, and it doesn't jive with the other four.

Look at other retrospective-style books. The question I would ask myself in this case is, is the book about your life and the pictures along the way; or the pictures? That president will somewhat dictate what's in, what's out, and in what order.

The pictures are deeply affected by personality.

Where you choose to go, and what you observe are results of thought and instinct.

What you react to, and what makes you move the hand to fire proves the point.

Maybe you nailed the shot, maybe not, but what it is you've got is yourself lay before you, for good or ill.

Some people want to tell, some people want to learn, others want to tell what they've learned in the hope that you learn something too.

Rarely is it the same thing.

Once it's a picture, it's a new observation.

And it you are exposed to it by thought, instinct, and presence there at all.

I see a lot of frames where a person is seeing me, in whatever situation we're both experiencing. Maybe I saw them, and they were the shot. Seeing me was the shot. Maybe they were just there, and they were an integral aspect to the overall thing I reacted to shooting.

I walk a lot, I walk too fast.

I can't get as much in, versus everything going on around. Everything from weather and inactivity. Walking and shooting and observing is a cathartic necessity for me, for a reason I don't know.

My personality is that of an angry, frustrated, wronged and unsatisfied person, with boredom and anxiety thrown in.

But I'm interested, and very honest. Loner, chain-smoking, or drinking coffee, the camera is tied to the wrist whenever possible. I dress incongruously to my time and place. I'm scruffy becaus eI work on old cars and live in three cities and don't sleep well. And I can't seem to wag my tail socially, to convey to the other dogs out there how friendly I am.

These are aspects I have to consider, but don't feel are necessary to alter...

...because that's me, for good or ill; and if I changed because I didn't like that Chinese parents held their children a little closer, women avoided eye contact, and winos thought I was their new best Mark; then the pictures would be dishonest. And wouldn't have come from me, in that facet of living.

I rarely have the camera up to my eye. Maybe once out of 20. I think the picture, and respond. When there's eye contact in a shot, it's either me, or it's the camera they're looking at. Then it them, and me there, with a camera.

<img src="http://d6d2h4gfvy8t8.cloudfront.net/7125121-md.jpg/"img>

this is one of those instances.

My newly acquired norman box lasted all of one shoot before only the pwr light

comes on, without the ready light ever illuminating.

the box itself is silent, plugged in and powered on.

so... i'm guessing capacitors.

natually i'm poor, since i just bought lights.

but i'm mechanically inclined...

so, anyone have any experience repairing these themselves; sourcing parts?

thanks in andvance,

-SRC

Sacramento, CA

I'm afraid I don't know canon at all well, but i did just recently obtain an R-D1(+s). I don't feel it's a professional camera, in really any situation. But, it's a damn fine camera to even a leica veteran. 6mp + aspherical glass... I've been blown away by the rendering of light and sharpness from the R-D1. There is zero chromatic abberation with the 28/1.9 ulton i'm using as a prime lens. It does beautiful stuff.

the cons are worth notation:

seems to want to read a max of 1gb cards. i've heard variations on this. that's my experience.

my camera had 500+/- actuations on it, and the vert alignment of the rangefinder patch was out.

you get slightly over 100 shots (1x 1gb card in raw) per battery charge

the buffer is woefully inadequate. i can't stress this enough. 3 raw shots, then the camera is down for 10+ seconds. Raw+Jpeg, i haven't even tried once all the way through. 7 seconds went by and i watched the batterey meter drop.

the exposure settings are somewhat limited. iso 200-1600 in full stops. in auto, it will expose in 1/6th stops, but routnely underexposes by roughly 2/3's.

pros:

it really is a more substanial camera than the bessa r2. it's very nice.

iso 400-1600 look leaps and bounds better than my d200 used with c-coated fixed primes.

final verdict: we'll see. it's my new every-day grab-it camera. the magazine comes out tomorrow, and the first prints i get wednesday. how it holds up in professional applications for my needs is yet to be determined... but i really, really like this machine.

If you need a workhorse, this is not it by a longshot. But i might use it that way until it breaks just for the experience...