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M6 Finally!! A personal essay of sorts.


vmo67

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As a commercial shooter and artist at heart I made a decision to purchase an black body M6 with an F2 50mm last week. Mid '78 German made masterpiece. My second Leica camera, R4 was my first. I justified the purchase with the investment factor up front but with the artistic factor running a close second. Not ever holding one before, at the store it felt like, well a firm paperweight. This small compact masterpiece cried for me to take it home. After asking the seller to run through it with me regarding film loading and the few options it contains, I was sure this was the camera I had waited for all my life. I panned around the store realizing this new focusing method was going to take awhile to get used to but I was ready. Everyone that I made lens-eye contact with made a double take. Even the guy next to me with boxes of new Nikon gear had a look like -Gee look at THAT. I must admit it was a special moment. A few rolls of Tri-X 400 and I was out of there!

 

You know, after the digital buzz wore off last year and my "workflow" was "optimized" with no room for error... I was left with a need for something genuine. BACK to basics I said. I got out the medium format cameras and gave those a shot but after lugging them around a few days I put those right back in their waterproof cases. I decided to scan all my slides from the past 20 years and I realizing how nice they really are. Those slides made me realize that there was a side to my shooting that had been mistakenly replaced by my assignment digital work and that those slow auto focus DSLRs were not the right tool for my creative work. As much as the instant gratification of digital feedback gave me, there was a lack of valor to the image on my computer that the color slide provided even on bad, underexposed shots. I am on # 17 of my first roll. No hurry, I want the first roll to contain that magic again. I will wear it like gold Olympic medal around my neck. A true prize for putting up with those little trashcan icons asking me if I want to delete.

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I must admit it was a special moment.

 

Welcome Mike, to the Forum!

 

Please join us now in a ritual, initiatory group hug!

 

grouphug.sml.gif

 

Your essay is terrific...expresses the sentiments of many, many Leica shooters the world over. Hooray for a company that still believes in film, and that offers digital alternatives as well. I did, however, move your post into the Customer Forum where more (hopefully) people will see it. You can still access it from the "Other" section of the Photo Forum as well.

 

Thanks for sharing!

 

Allan

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Welcome to the club of those that still think it's a necessity to shoot film.

My dslr is my fast workflow-cam but for the docu and free work it's the messsucher all the way.

Hope you enjoy the M6 like I do my MP.

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Welcome to the World of LEICA.

 

You have not seen a single photograph taken with your new buddy and you seem to be overwhelmed already. That´s dangerous.

 

Take care, not to to long too early after the newest goodies, like MP/ M7 and/ or aspherical ect. lenses. Things will turn out pretty expensive on this road.

 

You have to be strong ... Perhaps you have a chance to post here one of the first photos you took.

 

 

 

Enjoy

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Thanks all for the warm welcome! Well yea I am inspired! I will post a few B/W shots I scanned today from my son's mall choir gathering. Santa was there and so was the photo booth.

Welcome, dear visitor! As registered member you'd see an image here…

Simply register for free here – We are always happy to welcome new members!

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  • 2 weeks later...

well we been shooting a few last week. The camera is handling well and 80 is coming out good. Still slow at fully manual after being spoiled by auto metering and instant preview. Anyway here is a link to some I shot and scanned. Wife had knee surgery and family was shot as always on a weekly basis.

scanned with a Epson 4870 flatbed scanner T-Max 400 was over processed by 1-2 minutes so it go really dense on the negative.

I been trying to keep the speed to atleast 125 or 250 so my DOF is around f 5.6, and f8 indoors.

here is the link.

M6

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Simply register for free here – We are always happy to welcome new members!

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