Reality and cameras - rangefinder vs. DSLR

[MikeMyers]

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I've notice a difference between how I use my Leica M10 and my Nikon DSLR cameras.  With the Leica, I'm always trying to "capture reality".  With my Nikon, especially my new D780, I aim the camera every which way, and shoot at strange angles, and create an image that I like, but which is not how anyone would have seen things.  I just did another one today with the Nikon, with the camera aimed almost straight upwards.

I never do that with my Leica.  Somehow I've accepted that the Leica is to document the world around me, "reality", but with the DSLR I have no such limitations.

With my Leica I want to do the best job I know how, of documenting the world as I see things.

With my DSLR I am usually in a more playful mood, trying to find new ways to show things.

I'm not complaining, just explaining.  I think it's because I look through the hole on the back of the Leica and see a real scene, but on my DSLR, especially if I bend out the viewing screen, I feel like I'm seeing something on canvas, and I'm free to twist and turn things, however I want.  

 

Something I would like on my M12 camera - a rear screen that folds out, and can be adjusted however I wish.....

[FrozenInTime]

Taking an example of 28mm, which I like far more on cameras other than the M series, through finding it easier to compose away from eye level.

Frequently the view from high, often as high as possible or outstretched, allows a better view or holds the key to keeping verticals straight; so I take a lot of vertical orientated 28mm shots, with the intention to crop the upper 2/3 as a square.

For these reasons, a tilting LCD that tilts up and down in both horizontal and vertical planes would be ideal.

However the M will never provide AF, so the tilt screen may be a better compliment for the Q3 or CL3, or through lack of lighter-weight options from Leica, the SL3 if you really work on your arm strength.

[Herr Barnack]

Quote

...With my Leica I want to do the best job I know how, of documenting the world as I see things.

With my DSLR I am usually in a more playful mood, trying to find new ways to show things...

Your M10 will let you be as playful as you want to be - IMHO it comes down to your thinking.  Try to think outside the box.

I did a project with my M-P 240 and either a 35mm or 28mm lens where I created light abstracts using 3-5 second exposures.  I would go to places in cities where there were a lot of neon lights, focus at infinity, set an f/stop of f/4 or 5.6 and a 5 second shutter speed.  Sometimes I would hand hold as steady as I could, which would result in light blurs; sometimes I would walk around as the exposure was being made.  Sometimes I would just wave the camera around to create light trails - just to see what I would get.

Give the above a try with your M10 or come up with another non-traditional for M cameras approach to image making.

[MikeMyers]

14 hours ago, Herr Barnack said:

Your M10 will let you be as playful as you want to be - IMHO it comes down to your thinking.  Try to think outside the box.

When I read that, I thought of three things immediately - composition, lighting, and lens choice.  Composition allows me to stand where I prefer, and to select what things I want, and do NOT want, included in my image.  To me, lighting means the option of using my M8.2 with a filter up front to block all but the infrared light from reaching the sensor.  Lens choice gives me two things, both to limit what is within the image frame, and to exaggerate the apparent distance of things in the image frame.  Another tool is shutter speed, to help control what I want sharp in the photo, and of course aperture, for the same reason.

With my M10, I usually do all of this in my head, but I can always use the rear screen or my Visoflex to get a better representation of what the image will look like.

 

Your ideas of "painting with light" doesn't appeal to me, but maybe it's something I have yet to learn.  It's interesting, but it's too far "out of the box" for me.  I guess technically "painting with light" is a perfectly reasonable thing to try.  My problem/limitation though is that since the 1960's, I've been using an M camera to capture what I see around me, and a DSLR type of shooting dulls the connection between my mind and what I see in front of me.  The M cameras get right down to the basics.  Even the idea of using a slow shutter speed to show "movement" seems fine to me.  I tried that in India using the choice of a first or second curtain shutter to capture a blurry scene showing movement, an a small amount of flash at the end to capture the final moment of that movement before the shutter closed.  I haven't done that in many years, and I don't know if I can still buy a small electronic flash to work with my M10.  That's the closest I've ever come to what I visualize as I read what you wrote.  My Fuji X100 made it easy but I'll have to figure out how to do it with my M10 and my old SB-800 Nikon flash, or buy a newer and better flash that is compatible with my camera.