red dawn

Hi

i'm just interested to know if Erwin is still the objective *cough* source of Leica info or is he now officially in the payroll of Leica Germany.....

Hi

and just in case anyone jumps on me, i have no problems with pictures of cats, dogs, friends, relatives' birthday parties :) And certainly no problem with using ur Leica M in anyway u see fit...... :P

Hi Michael,

As Mike (Dixon) has clearly pointed out, MY point is that the quality of the pictures does not depend on equipment - whether it's a SLR or rangefinder.

the fact is that Natchwey and Salgado regularly capture decisive moments in history with their supposedly shutter-lagging attention grabbing SLRs with the supposedly restricting tunnel vision viewfinders. And they do it for a living, in adverse situations.

why would pple like us need zero shutter lag Leicas with clear viewfinders for pictures of cats, dogs, friends, relatives' birthday parties?? :)

Hi guys...

a lot of theories and personal insights here..which is all fine and good....

but let's face it - we can use either tool if we really wanted to. it's a matter of getting used to it.

and i dun subscribe to the theory u can't get the same pics with an SLR compared to a rangefinder. At any rate, 2 of the world's best photojournalists / documentary photographers in the world today are SLR users - James Natchwey and Sebastio Salgado.

in the case of James, he doesn't even use his M anymore, preferring his autofocus Canons. Wat a heretical thought! but i dun think anyone of us can dispute the quality of his work. i dun think his shots would improve if he had used a rangefinder too....

Hi

Leicaesque is the sense the Xpan is a very quiet camera, and to my ears, softer than my M6TTL.......

Hi

actually, the quietest and most discreet cameras now are those little digicams we all like to slam :) - they make NO sound at all, and with some of 'em swivelling LCDs, you can shoot them like u shoot a TLR, or any other ways imaginable....

however, those pesky phone cameras / PDA cameras are fast gaining on the discreet front :)

Anyway my M6TTL is louder than my M3. My EOS 10D (a digital SLR for those uninitiated) sounds ALMOST as quiet as my M6TTL.

Yup, some of the Leica M advantages are being eroded already. That's a fact. Now of course we can choose to ignore that :)

Hi Jay,

i can tell you the Canon digital P&Ss are much easier to use than those that Nikon spews out.

Besides, being a Canon kind of guy, i never really like the Nikon user inferface either on their SLRs...

btw how good is the Contax TVS digital's b/w mode as mentioned by Marc and roger? any samples i can download to take a look?

Hi Travis,

I see that u have been to Borders :)

Just to let u know, i got the Migrations book from Amazon.com for less than the price Borders Singapore is selling for. But if you don't want to deal with the wait for shipping, i suppose u could get it from Borders...

Be sure to check out Workers - An Archaelogy of the Industrial Age by Salgado as well. Equally epic. In fact, I actually prefer Workers than Migrations.

You can borrow the HandBook by Elliot Erwitt from me if u want. yeah i'm a fan of him too! :)

Hi

From wat i understand, Steve McCurry has always been a Nikon user.....at least professionally......

the equipment doesn't really matter. A bad shot of your family member with an expensive Leica lens is still a bad shot, no matter how good the bokeh is!

Hi Michael,

Your E10 is not representative of the state of digital right now.

Digital has no bokeh? have u never used a REAL digital SLR? You don't know what u're missing out on.

forget the E10 - it's still that small noisy sensor every other digital Point and Shoot uses........

The problem with such discussions is that everytime someone will come along and recount their experiences with their consumer digital point and shoots, and conclude, in their own world, that digital isn't there yet.

Hi

i'll stick my neck out here by saying that it is pointless to disucss AF SLRs in this forum. Most of the posters here are completely unfamiliar with the capabilities of the latest AF SLRs and their proper usage, judging from the replies in the "Fast Focus" thread below.....

most have outdated impressions of how AF SLRs should perform etc etc, or talk about them without having actually used one for an extended period.

let's stick to bashing the MP :)

Hi

best done carefully in this day and age of SARS.... :)

Hi

hmm why does anybody bother to shoot 35mm rangefinders? why not go directly to 645 or 6x7 rangefinders? :)

Hi

haha Ray, u're right. But Voigtlander apparently knew it all along with their black paint lenses :)

Hi

i dun understand why pple are complaining about the lack of / minor improvements in the Xpan II over the original Xpan, when compared to the number of functional improvements (ie almost none?) of the MP over the M6TTL :)

boon hwee

Hi

u hate loading film? that's one of the easiest task with the M!

wait till u get to rewinding the film!!!!! :P

Hi Steve,

i know u have been defending the paint of the MP, but wat u said really does not correlate with wat Erwin Puts says. So who should i believe? maybe i need to get one to find out... :P

boon hwee

Hi Tony

but why do u need to rely on scientific facts when you can rely on your eye?

the film pple say digital can never reproduce the truest colors. So just compare 2 well made prints of the same definable scene, one from the top of the line digital system, one from a film system. See for yourself whether you can spot the many nuances like "the colors of the rainbow".

Make different sized prints from both systems and compare. Use only the finest quality loupe! Remember, it MUST BE A BLIND TEST so that u're not influenced by subjective emotional factors...

And if u can't see the difference, then the whole point of film "having 50 milliion crystals" is moot, no? ;)

And if you can indeed see the difference, then good for u! stick to film.....

trust your eyes, not scientific calculations...

boon hwee

Hi Brian

i have a M6TTL and a M3 and i prefer the feel of the M3. but i suspect it has nothing to do with the one piece wind on lever and everything to do with the gears beneath the camera.

Hi

hmm....K25 or K64 is no longer available where i live, and even if they are, the time it takes to send them for processing and get it back is likely to be far longer than the time it takes the US to overrrun Baghdad.....

i may be heretical here, but why bother with anything other than Fuji Frontier prints? :) Slide to prints using digital processes are far superior and hassle free. E6 slide processing is quick, fast and cheap. Archival? Scan to high resolution digital....and u're done....

Hi John,

while u have a point, the difficulty with fine focusing with long and fast lenses at close distances is hardly the 0.58x finder's fault me thinks, since it was never designed to be used that way!

The framelines at 90mm occupies so little space relative to the entire finder that framing becomes a huge problem, let alone focusing! the small effective rangefinder baselength does not help either. Simply put, the 0.58x finder is for wide angles.

Hi Ray,

that's surprising, cos the 0.58x is supposed to have the brightest and most contrasty viewfinder of all the different viewfinder variations.

anyway i used the 0.58x and never had a problem with focus. of course focus would be easier if u have a higher mag viewfinder, but the 0.58x is catered for pple like me who wear glasses and still want to see the 28mm framelines so for that purpose it is invaluable.

Hi Chip

i have no worries about the future availability of film, just the COST of sticking to it when it becomes a niche commodity :( not to mention when all my favourite films are discontinued and i'm forced to stick to the only ones that are available...

anyway i was referring to misconceptions about digital photography in general, rather than comparing it to film directly.

Hi

shucks, not again. clearly a lot of pple speaking about digital cameras here or pretending to know the industry have no actual user experience with digital cameras.

Hi

Gerald, that shot can easily be taken with a SLR without resorting to motordrives. I don't get what your point / bias is.

it seems to be a lot of pple are commenting on AF SLRs without any actual practical experience with them, just like we always lament there are pple who comment on our favourite Leica M / R system without actual experience.

come on guys, let us be more objective :)