Need your help

[nicole]

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Thank you all so much for your help. This topic really caused me some stomach-ache overnight because I have an appointment at 10.00 o'clock this morning with my local dealer and he already wants me to decide.

From all your very helpful answers I think I will go with an Autofocus for now and probably take the excellent recommendation of buying an M6 used and start really getting serious about learning how to use a Rangefinder. I will keep you posted and again thank you so much.

[rick_dykstra]

Nicole, your idea there is a good one. No need to launch straight into Leica rangefinder photography at the deep and expensive end. An M6 and 50mm f2 or 35mm f2 lens would be an ideal way to try genuinely manual photography. Ask here for hints on which lenses to try and how to get the most out of them - you'll get no end of help. Good luck and well done with the baby - the greatest achievement of your life.

 

Rick.

[Tenor1]

Here is a useful tip when shooting children. Set the camera to take a burst of pictures. Kids move around so much this feature allows you select the best of the shots in each burst. I'm not sure what the feature is called on the Canon. You cannot use a flash with this feature since it takes the pictures in rapid succession.

 

Regards,

Carlos Marques

[RaySwan]

Here is a useful tip when shooting children. Set the camera to take a burst of pictures. Kids move around so much this feature allows you select the best of the shots in each burst. I'm not sure what the feature is called on the Canon. You cannot use a flash with this feature since it takes the pictures in rapid succession.

 

Regards,

Carlos Marques

 

Carlos has a great idea, just don't make your family and friends look at all 10 shots in the burst !! "Lock" the good picture that you like and throw away the others. It hurts to look at 10 pictures in a row of the same topic.

 

Would be nice if you could post some of your early results !!

[abrewer]

 

Would be nice if you could post some of your early results !!

 

Please recall the rules regarding photographs here: Leica shots or shots of high relevance to Leica.

 

If you want to share photos taken with other manufacturers' gear, please link us to them offsite in your message.

 

Another reason to buy Leica to practice your skills!

 

 

Thanks.

 

Allan

[nicole]

Nicole,

 

A few questions if I may.

 

What is it about Leica that has interested you?

What will you do with the images you take, will you e mail them to family/friends, will you print them, and if so what is the maximum size you are likely to want?

How much time do you intend to spend on your photography, i.e. are you really interested in learning the nuts and bolts of it, happy to learn about post processing, colour profiling, etc., or do you just want excellent results as easily as possible?

 

I fear you may be thinking along the lines of "I want to take better pictures so if I spend X more on a camera my pictures will be X times better".

 

You say you are a beginner. An M8 isn't a beginners camera, neither is a 5D. It's rather akin to buying a Ferrari to learn to drive in.

 

Making some assumptions I would also suggest a compact such as a CM. It might look like a typical P&S but it has a fabulous lens. Have your film processed and scanned at the same time. Many years from now you will still have those negs as the best kind of archive.

 

If you must have digital, a C lux or D Lux, or if you want something that you can do a bit more with in terms of adding new lenses then look at one of the DSLR's already mentioned.

 

Once you've mastered one of these cameras, and feel limited by them in some way, then it will be time to move up.

Dear James and all of you who helped me get to a decision

First I try to answer your questions. My motivation for thinking about Leica was first to look at the company. I mean a company that has been around for such a long time and still does not belong to a huge concern and has been sold every two years to another huge megacompany is impressive to me. I also like that when they launch a new product it is still compatible with older objectives, etc. which is very consumer friendly.

Then of course I love the design of an M-camera. As a compact camera I already own the new Leica D-Lux 3 so I covered the practical part. Then my son got born two years ago and I suddenly realized when I looked at my old baby photos, that they were taken so badly and they look already faded to me and usually I am so far away I do not recognise myself on these pictures and can not even they if my son resembles me on these photos or not, I realized I had to do something better if not for me for him.

So what I did was ordering a professional photographer to our home about 3 times since his birth. The photos are great but it was also very exhausting as I had to be like a professional entertainer during that time to get him laughing, etc. and also quite expensive. We were charged every time about 800 US$.

So today, taking all the advice from you guys in consideration, I went into the store and tried out the M8. I was not able to take a single steady shot and realised very soon, that this camera is still way out of my league. So in the end I ended up buying the EOS 5 with which I felt instantly comfortable. Maybe you think I am totally nuts and probably it is still to high-market for me, but hey, at least now I have a very strong target and maybe I will someday be able to use a M8 or not, but at least I tried.

So Leica, please be not sad for me choosing the EOS 5, I already have one foot in the door with my D-Lux 3 and I will continue to come to your forum and read your interesting discussion.

Kind regards,

Nicole

Zurich-Switzerland

[rick_dykstra]

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Nicole, your story is similar to mine from a number of years ago. I also bought a Canon EOS because it had 'good' features (though a film camera of course) and a few lenses, including one of the first image stabilising lenses. Unfortunately I found that many of the shots were not pleasing and I didn't know why. So I started recording the details with each shot, but still wasn't getting better shots. I bought Leica binoculars at the time and was blown away by the quality and thought "I think I would enjoy a camera from these guys." And with an R6.2 and R8 I was shooting on manual mode with every pic, just as I was when my dad taught me photography as a kid with his Olympus OMs. I knew what the camera was doing, because I was telling it what to do. M cameras followed and now I wouldn't go back to auto features.

 

A suggestion - shoot in manual mode a lot of the time and this will help to understand the camera and shooting conditions. Stepping into a Leica will be enjoyable with this experience in hand. You might make the step earlier than you thought! :-)

[carstenw]

Nicole, I presume you mean the Canon EOS 5D, ie. the digital camera? There is (was) also an EOS 5 film camera.

 

I own the same two cameras, and they are both wonderful. I will be selling my 5D shortly, as I find it too large and heavy to carry around with 3-4 lenses all the time, and I do mean all the time. I don't think I have left it at home a single time since I bought it in February. However, if you are staying at home most of the time, or travelling with a stroller or baby-carriage, then you don't have my problem, and the camera is wonderful and takes beautiful pictures. About lenses, what did you end up getting? The 24-105L IS is a really nice zoom, which might obviate the need for other lenses. If you want something with less depth of field for nicer subject-isolation, I would recommend either the 85mm f/1.8 or the 85mm f/1.2L, if you really want to push that angle. If eventually you decide to try a manual lens for portraits (focus manually, stop down manually), then the Leica 80mm f/1.4 Summilux-R is absolutely fantastic! I cannot recommend it more highly for portraits. I simply love mine, and this lens has made it so much more difficult for me to move to the M8.

 

Anyway, have fun with your camera; it is one of the 5 best cameras in the world right now.

[rvaubel]

A thought. We might be able to help Nicole by posting some pics of kids taken with M cameras.

 

These are taken on slow slide film with a Leica MP camera and a Noctilux f1 lens, the first without flash to show how dim ambient light can look with a fast lens. The second uses a flash to freeze fast moving kids. The Noctilux was at f2 I think and I used a good bit of flash at only a 50th of a second. We doan need no autofocus-zoom-bombs 'round here!

 

For 99% of people buying a first "real" camera for taking kid pictures, I would say get the 5D. But the tone of your question indicates that you may be interested in learning photography as well. Modern DSLR's are actually a hinderence to learning photography as they do a pretty good job without requiring any skill on behalf of the person behind the camera.

 

The M8, on the other hand, while a very simple camera, requires more skill to get good results, especially with moving children. But its not really that hard to learn manual focus. If you are serious about learning the basics of photography, try the M8.

Exploring the limits of a rangefinder is half the fun. If you master the M8 and want to get into macro, extreme telephoto, etc, the foundation that you learned with the M8 will be much appreciated when (and if) you get the maximum versatility of a SLR

 

Rex

[nicole]

Dear Carsten

Thanks for all your helpful hints. I'm using the 24-105L IS (well I bought it yesterday) and I will certainly look into the Leica 80mm f/1.4 Summilux-R as you sound so thrilled about it. The weight of the camera is not such a problem at the moment as I am still using the stroller.

Kind regards,

Nicole

[Jamie Roberts]

Dear Carsten

Thanks for all your helpful hints. I'm using the 24-105L IS (well I bought it yesterday) and I will certainly look into the Leica 80mm f/1.4 Summilux-R as you sound so thrilled about it. The weight of the camera is not such a problem at the moment as I am still using the stroller.

Kind regards,

Nicole

 

Nicole--you made just the right choice, I think. The 5D (I own one too, and an M8) and the 24-105L IS will teach you how to shoot a camera.

 

Congratulate yourself--you can put that thing on P and autofocus and not miss any shots of your son! For an amateur, that's got to be the most important consideration.

 

Now from time to time, I want to suggest you put that 5d on M and adjust the aperture and shutter , using the light meter in the camera as guidance. If you're really brave, turn off the AutoFocus too.

 

Once you're comfortable doing that, well, then go pick up an M camera. You'll have it focused in no time at all, and when you're comfortable thinking about light in terms of shutter speeds, ISOs and apertures, the M will be a perfect companion to you.

 

Good luck!

 

BTW--if you want to start experimenting with very interesting, fast, beautiful lenses on the 5d, don't overlook Canon's new 50 1.2L--the shots I've seen from that so far are very interesting indeed! And if you like that look--then look into adapting Leica manual lenses to your 5D.... we can help with that when you're ready!