On Friday, February 14, 2003, at 01:19 PM, Skip Williams wrote:
I seem to have survived OK. But the overwhelming impression I have
from
viewing maybe 15 images is, as I discussed a couple of digests ago,
L***ca
users seem to involve people and their activities in their
photography much
more than we do.
My sentements exactly. When I bought and used my first Leica about 5
years ago, I was immediately struck by how my pictures changed. I
found myself not "hiding" behind the camera as much. Why? Well, A
Leica or similar rangefinder is best used with both eyes open and your
right eye looking through the finder. IMO, this way you stay more in
touch with your subject. With the Leica's capabilities for
ultra-short reaction time (~15 milliseconds between press and release
of the first curtain) you get expressions and moments that are very
difficult to capature with many other cameras (SLR's aren't really
bad, but most digitals are hopeless in this regard). It sounds hokey,
but for me, it's true. FYI, I'm a left-eye'd shooter with SLR's and
right-eye'd with RF's.
Skip
I am not much of a people photographer, but I would agree with the
connnectedness conclusion. When you can see outside the frame through
the viewfinder, framing is very different. It is comparable to framing
by moving a picture frame at arms length compared to looking through a
tube. You see things frequently at the edge that you decide to include
which you might have overlooked with an SLR.
What is often criticized as clutter and lack of a full sized image in
the viewfinder is frequently an advantage. It is true that you may not
see all the detail as in an SLR finder, what it forces you to do is
look at the overall composition more carefully. It has to be strong to
compete with the clutter. That is why, I think, a number of people on
the list have installed gridded screens in their OMs.
Range finders are not nearly as versatile as SLRs, but for what they
do, they do it very well.
Winsor Crosby
Long Beach, California, USA
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