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In praise of Maglites (and the M 240)


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Given the recent flurry of bad news, I thought it timely to post something more positive.

 

I've just had to deal with a difficult location shoot for a forthcoming opera production in London. A cold, wet night, and they wanted "atmosphere" but had no budget for lighting. We found a good place outside floodlit tennis courts and I'd brought a 2 x D Cell LED Maglite with me as I had no wish to depend on flash. Don't worry too much about the director's vision (Purcell's Dido & Aeneas set in a US high school), I think the image shows that a bit of imagination with an improvised lighting source. The maglite (held by a production assistant) gave the fill + catchlights - the cool colour temperature was seen asn an advantage in this case.The M-240 with a 50 lux asph handled the rest (Auto WB, 1600 ISO, f3.4, 1/45th). The fact that it's a manual focus RF definitely made life easier.

 

With over a year's use and around 20000 exposures on each body, I have no complaints with my Ms. No freeze ups, no problems. The client was surprised to see me using such a small camera, but is delighted with the results.

 

Any other unusual light source stories?

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So much for the elegance of the inconspicuous Leica RF, not to mention the distortion and hideous colors.

 

Oh dear, I thought this might happen.

 

rebuttal #1 The colour values in the image were what the client was looking for - the LED output from the Maglite was perfect for the job in hand

rebuttal #2 Hold a 50mm lens close to someone's face and you're going to get a bit of distortion - again, the client loves it!

 

Otherwise, the manual focus and the ease of use in low light of the RF on the M240 made the job a great deal easier than it would have been with DSLR.

 

For the record, on the same day, but for another production, it was possible to get a result such as that below. The M is nothing if not versatile... and no, the heavy pan make-up wasn't my choice! :)

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Oh dear, I thought this might happen.

 

rebuttal #1 The colour values in the image were what the client was looking for - the LED output from the Maglite was perfect for the job in hand

rebuttal #2 Hold a 50mm lens close to someone's face and you're going to get a bit of distortion - again, the client loves it!

 

There are the rare occasions where the producer has low expectations. Not your fault. But to include a tennis court fence in Purcell's Dido & Aeneas is just too strange to me.

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Oh dear, I thought this might happen.

 

rebuttal #1 The colour values in the image were what the client was looking for - the LED output from the Maglite was perfect for the job in hand

rebuttal #2 Hold a 50mm lens close to someone's face and you're going to get a bit of distortion - again, the client loves it!

 

Otherwise, the manual focus and the ease of use in low light of the RF on the M240 made the job a great deal easier than it would have been with DSLR.

 

For the record, on the same day, but for another production, it was possible to get a result such as that below. The M is nothing if not versatile... and no, the heavy pan make-up wasn't my choice! :)

 

 

Chris, thanks for this interesting thread.

 

I am curious about 50LUX/FLE performance....... in this shot (the blonde with white gloves), can you advise what f-stop was used ?

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As it happens I was watching Silent Witness tonight and the use of colour in that series -they set the mood of each scene by colour casts and desaturated colours- made me think about the way we approach colours in digital photography. It seems we are still stuck in “correct” and “natural” colours and go to great lengths to obtain them. Yet we think nothing of using distortion, narrow DOF , motion blur and other unnatural effects to express ourselves in our images. Why not use “wrong” colours the same way?

I think your image does something like that. Colour and distortion set the mood. I actually like it, as did your client.

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I am curious about 50LUX/FLE performance....... in this shot (the blonde with white gloves), can you advise what f-stop was used ?

 

I was using f2.8 - just enough to hold the eyes sharp but to blur the background.

 

It seems we are still stuck in “correct” and “natural” colours and go to great lengths to obtain them. Yet we think nothing of using distortion, narrow DOF , motion blur and other unnatural effects to express ourselves in our images. Why not use “wrong” colours the same way?

I think your image does something like that. Colour and distortion set the mood. I actually like it, as did your client.

 

Jaap - thanks. This was very much the intention... I certainly can't imagine myself using the maglite at a wedding :)

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