If Cartier-Bresson's Leica had an EVF & AF . . .

[pico]

Advertisement (gone after registration)

[...]Do you use advocate no auto settings when aiming for speed? We maybe off topic.

 

My advice would not be pertinent because I do not shoot hectic situations as I did as a young news photographer, then PJ using fully manual cameras. Most in the field today are digital. The field changed. Editorial expectations changed. I just got old, slow.

[johnbuckley]

More than likely, it was staged.

 

I haven't had a look in Magnum Contacts, but I doubt there is anything more than the final image there. I've always suspected he destroyed his contact sheets to preserve the myths of his final images.

 

 

It's not in the epic Magnum "Contacts" book, because "Behind The Gare St. Lazare" was taken years before Magnum came into existence.

 

In the very useful "Scrapbook," you do learn that stories cited here about "Behind The Gare St. Lazare" are mostly true. H C-B shot it through a fence, which was on the left side of the camera held portrait style. It is one of only two images he ever allowed printed with a crop -- he cropped out the fence. In "Scrapbook," you can see the original version. I find it hard to believe he couldn't see the man walking, as he is exiting, not entering the frame.

 

And yes, it is true he destroyed thousands of negatives and contact sheets during the war. I've always suspected he didn't want the Nazis to see he was using an early EVF.

[andyedward]

Is leica adding an EVF for the next M because they have found the rangefinder to be inaccurate for a 30mp+ sensor?

[NZDavid]

I like the quote attributed to HCB: "Photography has not changed since its origin except in its technical aspects, which for me are not important."

 

I imagine today he would happily be snapping away with a Leica digital compact. I also read he refused to permit his pictures being cropped. Now, as then, artistic vision is paramount.

[Rolo]

I like the quote attributed to HCB: "Photography has not changed since its origin except in its technical aspects, which for me are not important."

 

I imagine today he would happily be snapping away with a Leica digital compact. I also read he refused to permit his pictures being cropped. Now, as then, artistic vision is paramount.

 

Bit mis-leading. He and his printer could crop them, but publishers couldn't cut their own interpretation.

 

I'm the same.

 

Assuming he would be a top flight photojournalist today ( in his 40's) I predict he'd be using what all the other top guys journo's use, even the Magnum guys - CaNikon !!

[NZDavid]

Actually, I doubt it. He'd be different. HCB didn't see himself as a conventional PJ. In Cartier Bresson Today (The Best of Popular Photography, May 1967), Bob Schwalberg writes: "He is not a photojournalist; he does not produce classical picture stories...He roams his world with a Leica. About 90 percent of his pictures are made with 50-mm normal-focus lenses. He never poses. He never arranges. If observed, he instantly breaks off action. He adds no photographic lighting, but uses light exactly as he finds it. He eschews every specialized optical effect, from limited depth of field to ultra-wide angle vision. In effect, he is the theoretically ideal photographer who sees without being seen, records without impinging upon his subjects.

"Despite his pretense of technical ignorance, Cartier-Bresson actually possesses complete technical mastery of his medium..."

 

Try that approach with a hulking DSLR. The Leica rangefinder was and is the perfect choice for the HCB approach. But I don't think he would have minded automation if it made capturing his vision faster and simpler. If not the M9 today, he might well choose an X2 (faster than an X1 for street photography), or even the D-Lux 5 which is fast and versatile -- but regardless, he'd still capture some amazing images.

[Guest Ming Rider]

Advertisement (gone after registration)

I don't know if you've all seen this but I discovered it last night. Couldn't believe my luck and gives amazing insight into the working practices of HCB and the man himself.

 

http://ishupatel.com/bresson.html

[algrove]

That is exceptional.

[MichaelRabern]

Actually, I doubt it. He'd be different. HCB didn't see himself as a conventional PJ. In Cartier Bresson Today (The Best of Popular Photography, May 1967), Bob Schwalberg writes: "He is not a photojournalist; he does not produce classical picture stories...He roams his world with a Leica. About 90 percent of his pictures are made with 50-mm normal-focus lenses. He never poses. He never arranges. If observed, he instantly breaks off action. He adds no photographic lighting, but uses light exactly as he finds it. He eschews every specialized optical effect, from limited depth of field to ultra-wide angle vision. In effect, he is the theoretically ideal photographer who sees without being seen, records without impinging upon his subjects.

"Despite his pretense of technical ignorance, Cartier-Bresson actually possesses complete technical mastery of his medium..."

 

Try that approach with a hulking DSLR. The Leica rangefinder was and is the perfect choice for the HCB approach. But I don't think he would have minded automation if it made capturing his vision faster and simpler. If not the M9 today, he might well choose an X2 (faster than an X1 for street photography), or even the D-Lux 5 which is fast and versatile -- but regardless, he'd still capture some amazing images.

 

I would think he would shoot excactly what he mastered. I think after a lifetime of criticism he was all things good and bad once or twice, he deserves praise regardless.

[lars_bergquist]

HCB seems to have nearly always zone focused. And he had that gift – rare but not unique – of knowing what would happen before it happened. He would never have been able to capture his decisive moments without that ability.

 

The minimum human reaction time is set by the slow speed of travel of impulses in our nerve paths. It is someting of the order of 1/10 second. Therefore, if HCB had to make the decision when he saw the action, he would have been unable to capture it.

 

A EVF is limited by the refresh rate of the camera sensor. This is on the order of 30 frames/second for ordinary compact cameras, and 60 or more in advanced live view cameras. So while we can see the lag, and occasionally be irritated by it, our own reactions are far slower. And do permit me to point out that if you must first set the exposure manually, and focus the camera, manually or not, you are introducing 'lags' that are several magnitudes larger than the EVF lag. Don't strain gnats while swallowing camels.

 

But HCB had set his exposure and his focus in advance. In spite of the adulatory excesses of some, he was not always successful in that. But among the frames that were in fact useably exposed and focused, some where indeed memorable. And that is enough.

 

The old man from the Tri-X Age

[Guest Ming Rider]

Is leica adding an EVF for the next M because they have found the rangefinder to be inaccurate for a 30mp+ sensor?

 

[lars_bergquist]

This is in continuation of my previous post. We once had a globe-roaming nature film maker by name of Jan Lindblad. (He did finally return home in a zinc casket, which was probably just what he preferred.) He had that rare gift that HCB had, of seeing the action before it happened.

 

You have all seen the shots of lions resting. You have all seen the shots of lions moving around. But have you ever seen a shot of a lion deciding to get to his feet, and rising – starting with an immobile lion? Lindblad could do that. Whatever the creature was, Lindblad knew what it would do, and had his camera running in advance when it did. Likewise, HCB and some other photogs, Winogrand among them, had their cameras ready at their eye when the things happened that they knew would happen.

 

He had other talents too. He was one of the few who gave us an intelligent and pertinent speaker's comment with the pictures, because he was responsible for both. So I met him near the end of his career, when a body I was a member of awarded him a prize for verbovisual communication. He was also an accomplished juggler, which often broke the ice in his dealings with the locals, some of which had the option of sticking a spear into him.

 

The old man from the Age of Photography

[Guest Ming Rider]

For sale on eBay, the origin of the Cartier- Bresson family fortune.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/190692334227?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1438.l2649#ht_832wt_922

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!