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Leica Film Odyssey for a beginner

Guest NEIL-D-WILLIAMS

By Guest NEIL-D-WILLIAMS
in Film Forum

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Wiesbaden_Er

Wiesbaden_Er

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Hold your hand about 4 inches from the side of your face, palm inwards, arm upright, then rapidly bring your hand inwards towards your face, pivoting at your elbow but being careful to keep the hand and the forearm rigid.

Use significant force whilst retaining the flat of your hand in the inward position for maximum effect.

I would believe this fits well... But however .. If you are not shure .. Ask a friend to make a picture and post it. You will get feedback, I am shure

 

 

By the way... You can not download experience

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Guest NEIL-D-WILLIAMS

Guest NEIL-D-WILLIAMS

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Damn Neil.... You can get your hand 2 metres away without detaching it from your arm?

 

I'm impressed!:D :D :D

it was my turn bill
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Guest NEIL-D-WILLIAMS

Guest NEIL-D-WILLIAMS

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Oh my Buddha.

Wow frigging wow. I love my new M6. Picked it up tonight with a like new 35mm f1.4 ASPH.

Something amazing happened. When I tried the rangefinder it was same as my old M240. It was okay but not 100%. I then tried it without my glasses and it was the same so I first tried a 0.5 Diopter and it looked the same. My mate Raymond said it's impossible if it's the same, so he said don't look at the focus patch look at everything in the frame. So we took the diopter off and started again. Without it was shite. So we put the 0.5 on and it was definitely better, we then tried a 1.0 and it was great. He didn't have a 1.5 so he got me to hold the 0.5 in my fingers and then looked. It was fantastic everything was sharp sharp

So to cut a story short I left the shop with a 1.0 Diopter and Raymond is going to order me a 1.5 and swap them out when he gets it.

Happy camper [emoji3][emoji3][emoji3][emoji3][emoji3][emoji482][emoji482][emoji482][emoji482][emoji482][emoji3][emoji3][emoji3][emoji3]

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rpavich

rpavich

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Oh my Buddha.

Wow frigging wow. I love my new M6. Picked it up tonight with a like new 35mm f1.4 ASPH.

Something amazing happened. When I tried the rangefinder it was same as my old M240. It was okay but not 100%. I then tried it without my glasses and it was the same so I first tried a 0.5 Diopter and it looked the same. My mate Raymond said it's impossible if it's the same, so he said don't look at the focus patch look at everything in the frame. So we took the diopter off and started again. Without it was shite. So we put the 0.5 on and it was definitely better, we then tried a 1.0 and it was great. He didn't have a 1.5 so he got me to hold the 0.5 in my fingers and then looked. It was fantastic everything was sharp sharp

So to cut a story short I left the shop with a 1.0 Diopter and Raymond is going to order me a 1.5 and swap them out when he gets it.

Happy camper [emoji3][emoji3][emoji3][emoji3][emoji3][emoji482][emoji482][emoji482][emoji482][emoji482][emoji3][emoji3][emoji3][emoji3]

Nice!

 

I know how you feel and it's been months for me!

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Tom R

Tom R

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Neil, I'm a little late to the party here.  I've read your whole thread.  Just as a VERY brief CV,  I've been shooting film since 1970 and both digital and film since 1999.  I still have my b&w darkroom.  I've shot Leica off and on since 1974.  

 

I get it that you're a "toys" guy, and that you like to get close to folks on the street, and that's great...  but you've never definitively said why you want to begin shooting film.  And you seem to be approaching this like shooting film  will revolutionize the way you shoot.  And it won't.  You don't mention what, exactly, it was about the other fellow's images that were "fantastic" and why you're attributing that "fantastic" quality to that they were shot on film.    

 

You mention that you're not new to photography, yet you're going about this like film photography and digital photography are wholly and completely different.   They're not.  As a matter of fact, what happens with the camera in your hands is identical.  The only difference is how the images are stored, and that making a crazy number of frames with film gets expensive.

 

I tell a lot of folks who were raised with digital that it takes self-discipline to be a photographer, and the medium and format are irrelevant.  There is no reason for your shooting style to change when shooting with either film or digital.  When I shoot a wedding, I shoot around 200 frames, whether it's digital or film.  I know photographers who shoot 3,000 frames for a wedding on digital.  I don't understand how you can possibly find 3,000 "somethings" to shoot at a wedding and reception... yet that's becoming the norm because photographers lack the discipline to find the shot, wait for the shot and capture it at the height of its action.  They just machine-gun the shutter hoping to catch something good.

 

Frankly, I suspect that folks today who shoot film possess that self-disciplined approach more than those who shoot digital and have never shot film.  I suspect that your Leica friend's "fantastic" shots may be "fantastic" because of that kind of self-discipline in exposing frames as much or more than just because the capture medium is film.  And, as I said, that kind of self-discipline in shooting is independent of format or medium.   My guess is that you'd probably find his digital work to be "fantastic" as well.

 

Quality in photography is about how the photographer goes about making an image.  Equipment only plays a role in that it's competent to do what the photographer asks of it under the circumstances he finds himself.  We are fortunate as we  have a broad selection of brands, types, and style of cameras to choose from; not a one of them makes the photographer.  Everything you read to the contrary is advertising hype or someone's self-delusion.

 

So, my advice to you is to begin finding some good books on photography from the '50s and '60s.  Learn about emulsions, learn about exposing film, learn about processing...  understand how silver halide crystals respond to light.  In other words pay your dues and learn the craft if you want to be successful with film.   The very same techniques will work nicely for digital as well.  Oh digital has some cool tools like histograms and so forth, but the basics are the same and you'd do well to learn them.  Folks are kind to offer advice here, and the advice you've gotten is good... but its piecemeal and needs a greater context to be understood...   the ISO/ASA/DIN/GOST thing, for example.  Oh, and using film there ISN'T a "shoot to the left" because there isn't a histogram.  There ARE, however, density and base plus fog, densitometers, and the Zone System which you'd do well to master.

 

Good luck, and I hope you find that "fantastic" thing you're looking for. 

 

Nice post. One thing that I might add, if the original poster is interested, is that several good texts on the zone system, film, and photographic thinking, in general, should be available at a good public library (assuming that people still read paper books). When I was a pretty new photographer, I read Ansel Adams volumes on developing and printing. Mind you, I didn't care so much for large format work (having done some, however, definitely gave me a deeper feel for the medium), but having someone provide you with a "framework" within which I could envision my own images made photographing something I began to do as a means of expression as opposed to paying the rent. I also studied a variety (and still do) of work from Atget and earlier to the more "modern" photographers (i.e., 20th century stuff). I still do this because I still learn. Maybe it's like Robert Frank said "I'm looking for the truth."

 

So, photography became a constant companion---something with which I spend my time ... and Leica equipment was just an accident---my first experiences were with a trade-shop (one that didn't deal with the public), and they recommended an M3 and a relatively fast (back then) 50mm lens for what I was doing. Later, I moved to 35, picked up an M2, and stayed with those two cameras/lenses for quite a while. (Only took lenses off of a camera when I had to have the body CLA'd.) 

 

Now, well, I use an M8.2 along with some older film bodies. I remain uncomfortable with the Digital thing; not for compositional or photographic reasons, mind you. Rather it's the withering sense of the transitory nature of these devices ---they are quickly obsolete and I don't get the sense that Leica "cares about them," once they sell them, which is non characteristic of the company that I knew in the last century.

 

Maybe this thought has occurred to the original poster?

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Guest NEIL-D-WILLIAMS

Guest NEIL-D-WILLIAMS

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Got everything ready for our two nights in the Eastern Oriental Hotel Penang. Going to stop off and shoot Kellies Castle on the way and the charcoal factory on the way home

62c689b57d129140d57c4d480389e1ca.jpg

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Doc Henry

Doc Henry

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Got everything ready for our two nights in the Eastern Oriental Hotel Penang. Going to stop off and shoot Kellies Castle on the way and the charcoal factory on the way home

62c689b57d129140d57c4d480389e1ca.jpg

Great camera at right  :) , great bag , great film 

Congratulations Neil

Please post your pictures here :

http://www.l-camera-forum.com/topic/205842-i-like-filmopen-thread/page-666

Good photos and have a nice week end

Best

Henry

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MarkP

MarkP

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Nice post. One thing that I might add, if the original poster is interested, is that several good texts on the zone system, film, and photographic thinking, in general, should be available at a good public library (assuming that people still read paper books). When I was a pretty new photographer, I read Ansel Adams volumes on developing and printing. Mind you, I didn't care so much for large format work (having done some, however, definitely gave me a deeper feel for the medium), but having someone provide you with a "framework" within which I could envision my own images made photographing something I began to do as a means of expression as opposed to paying the rent. I also studied a variety (and still do) of work from Atget and earlier to the more "modern" photographers (i.e., 20th century stuff). I still do this because I still learn. Maybe it's like Robert Frank said "I'm looking for the truth."

 

So, photography became a constant companion---something with which I spend my time ... and Leica equipment was just an accident---my first experiences were with a trade-shop (one that didn't deal with the public), and they recommended an M3 and a relatively fast (back then) 50mm lens for what I was doing. Later, I moved to 35, picked up an M2, and stayed with those two cameras/lenses for quite a while. (Only took lenses off of a camera when I had to have the body CLA'd.) 

 

Now, well, I use an M8.2 along with some older film bodies. I remain uncomfortable with the Digital thing; not for compositional or photographic reasons, mind you. Rather it's the withering sense of the transitory nature of these devices ---they are quickly obsolete and I don't get the sense that Leica "cares about them," once they sell them, which is non characteristic of the company that I knew in the last century.

 

Maybe this thought has occurred to the original poster?

 

 

Welcome to the forum Tom.

You are indeed correct about reading and studying the great photography texts.

Neil is a regular who  changes Leica platforms not infrequently and as you see has now come to film.  

However, he has categorically stated that he will not pick up a book to read up on the topic.

So we all have the delightful task of being his technical advisors and teachers, and helping him spend his money ;-).

 

 

 

Neil,

nice kit.

POST YOUR PHOTOS ASAP

 

Regards,

Mark

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Guest NEIL-D-WILLIAMS

Guest NEIL-D-WILLIAMS

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Sorry, forgot!  I've edited my post accordingly.  

 

No problem mate will have one in September whenever the new M comes out :)

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Guest NEIL-D-WILLIAMS

Guest NEIL-D-WILLIAMS

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It will be interesting to see how the couple of shots I took of my old lady standing in the window back lit with my profoto B1 head........... Makes me want to fast forward the film and run to the shop to get them developed.

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