Manual stealth

[stephen.w]

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Lars, I usually enjoy reading your posts when I stumble upon them, but your labelling the X1 a 'toy camera' is unfair. Even though the camera doesn't have a precise distance scale, when shooting a camera zone focused, it is depth of field which counts. Whether the actual distance at which the lens is focused is 2.9m or 3.1m is of no consequence. I agree however that it is frustrating that the camera resets this distance when it goes into standby mode. Both of these niggles can however be corrected with a future firmware update.

 

I also agree with you that one should, as far as possible, pick the best tool for the job, but unfortunately not everyone can afford an M9. As a street shooter, the X1 excels in two respects. 1 form factor. An M may still have a size advantage over any SLR, but it can no longer be described as a 'small camera'. 2 near silent operation.

 

These two things taken together makes the X1 an extremely unobtrusive camera. I took the photograph below at the Hamburg Fish market a couple of Sundays ago. The man in picture was busking with a wind-up music box. When he saw my camera he gruffly requested 50c for my having taken his photo (or so I thought). I hastily and sheepishly handed over the money, but he continued posing, waiting for me to take the damned photo. He didn't realise that the photo I wanted had already been taken. For form's sake, I took a second posed photo.

 

The X1 may be overpriced for a fixed prime lens compact camera, but those of us who bought it reconciled ourselves to that fact. Can the M9 in any way be described as 'value for money'? I think not.

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[tommm]

Lars, don't you think I'd love an M9? Just not possible for me at the moment mate. Sure, ring focus would be great, better distance scale etc... anything to improve the manual focus. But some of us simply don't have £7K plus to get an M9 and a couple of decent lenses.

 

Still, not bad for a toy...

 

(no PP, ISO 3200, F2.8, 1/30 sec, manual focus)

[lars_bergquist]

Stephen, I do not demand a focusing control with gradations finer than I can judge by eye. But nothing between two meters and infinity -- that's ridiculous. My dear old v.4 35mm Summicron is marked 2--3--5--10m--infinity. This is enough.

 

We seem to agree that Sudden Sleep Syndrome is a p.i.t.a. Yes, a firmware patch could remedy problem 1, and just possibly problem 2, but I would not count on that. Still, it would be a patch. The Leica boffins, I hear, did at first intend to give the camera a regular focusing ring, but decided that it would take up too much space. I beg to disagree. Functionality is more important than a couple of cubic centimeters. Leica decided otherwise, which is why I regard the X1 as a toy camera, and I will not stand corrected.

 

The ideal compacts in many ways were the old Canon QL rangefinder cameras. They offered all that a M6 offered, except interchangeable lenses -- and Leica build quality. Even so, they were lovely and utterly practical. I note that Sean Reid used them in environments where Sudden Leica Loss was a clear and present danger. Another lovely camera was the better versions of the Rollei 35 -- scale focusing only, but the focusing ring of the collapsible Tessar was well marked. And the whole thing was really no larger than a pack of cigarettes. Neither of these cameras was a toy. They were serious photographic tools. I would still use the Rollei if I was still using film.

 

The old man from the Age of the Box Camera

[lct]

DoF markings of the Rollei 35 were almost useless at wide aperture but i agree with Lars here. How modern digicams cannot reach the level of 30 y/o cheap rangefinders is beyond me.