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Some people are quick to pour scorn on the modern Leica M as a camera for posers, not to be used for anything more than snapping the pet cat. So hats off to this photographer featured prominently on today's Trump impeachment inquiry coverage, snapping away with a Leica M10 variant.

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Are you sure that this a Leica M10 (or any other Leica M)? I am missing the small rangefinder window and am somwhat irritated by the chrome lever on the lens. I am not so knowledgeable about Fuji cameras, but could that be some kind of Fuji product?

Cheers, Andy

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3 minutes ago, wizard said:

Are you sure that this a Leica M10 (or any other Leica M)? I am missing the small rangefinder window and am somwhat irritated by the chrome lever on the lens. I am not so knowledgeable about Fuji cameras, but could that be some kind of Fuji product?

Cheers, Andy

It is Impeachment Special Edition.

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The photographer was in the background for some time, and he was very busy with his camera. I assumed it was probably a Fuji X-Pro something, but soon realised it was a Leica M10 variant. The prominent chrome lens release button and surround were the giveaway.

I really do salute the guy. Back in 2011 I tried to cover a news story with my Leica M9, and was missing so many shots (and it was an important story), I quickly put the camera away and switched to my Canon 5D mk2. Hit rate with a Leica M, when you're under pressure, is not great, compared to modern DSLR/mirrorless cameras. 

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40 minutes ago, wizard said:

I am missing the small rangefinder window and am somwhat irritated by the chrome lever on the lens.

The small RF window is black-on-black if a photographer's eye is behind the eyepiece.

The silver dot beside the lens is the lens mounting button (as previously mentioned).

Not red dot, so either a tape-job, or an M-10P/D. Although really it could be a film MP - nothing rules that out. Pros occasionally still go back to film to document a particular historic story, as a "unique selling proposition" to differentiate their work.

https://pdnpulse.pdnonline.com/2019/11/why-photographer-david-burnett-shot-4x5-film-at-impeachment-hearing.html

As to the shooting angle - probably looking for a dramatic back-lit-by-TV lights image: https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/governor-bill-clinton-wife-hillary-texas-107412212

Edit: also probably explains why the photographer is crouching - to align the head with a particular light for rim-lighting (and to block some flare).

Again, being a professional who can earn their living from photography often means getting the different shot, not what everyone else is getting.

Remember your Robert Frost:

...Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.

Edited by adan
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In a photo-call, theres just no original shot any more. It's all been done. The tabloid photographer will need a straight-on head shot, showing the most dramatic expression. Nothing fancy, but still not always easy to do, because they're  competing with so many other photographers. The broadsheet/Sunday magazine photographer will need something 'different', i.e. a silhouette, a shot from the back, like this guy is doing, showing all the press cameras facing the subject. Or one of those arty shots where you can see the face of the subject in the eyepiece of a TV camera.

Was definitely not a film camera this guy was using, btw - he kept chimping at the screen on the back.

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I just like the dedication of this photographer. He's ploughing his own furrow, and not taking the superficially easy route. A fixed lens and manual focus, when everyone else is using zooms and autofocus, and trying to cover every angle. 

I bet he had an idea for a photograph, and perhaps had the luxury of just concentrating on that.

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40 minutes ago, colint544 said:

In a photo-call, theres just no original shot any more. It's all been done. The tabloid photographer will need a straight-on head shot, showing the most dramatic expression. Nothing fancy, but still not always easy to do, because they're  competing with so many other photographers. The broadsheet/Sunday magazine photographer will need something 'different', i.e. a silhouette, a shot from the back, like this guy is doing, showing all the press cameras facing the subject. Or one of those arty shots where you can see the face of the subject in the eyepiece of a TV camera.

Was definitely not a film camera this guy was using, btw - he kept chimping at the screen on the back.

I'm sure if you were there on that gig Colin you'd have found an unique angle/image...........Your images so featured on this forum underline that, I firmly believe that most of your shots aren't happenstance, you know what you're going for.

Also the expense account / per-diems on any such overseas gig would have been a nice boondoggle to squirrel away for the holidays.

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