Evil DSLR does street

[szekiat]

I've always felt the DSLR especially my 1dmk2, to be way too big and conspicuous to use on the streets. Finally had the courage to bring it along with my M2 for a day out at the market. Turned out surprisingly well i thought. Attracted a few questions (mainly about the irony of shooting one of the latest gizmo alongside a classic like the M2) but that was about it really.

What do you guys think? (click on photo to see more)

 

[ChrisN]

Some nice images there. I generally prefer those converted to B&W, but there is one that doesn't seem to work for me ("world's best fudge") but some of the colour images work well for conveying the sense of the market.

How was the shooting experience, contrasted with the rangefinder? I assume you were using a zoom lens and auto-focus - was it any easier or faster than the M2? What about the shots you haven't shown us - the rejects . What caused the rejection - an aspect of the camera, or the operator?

Thanks for sharing.

 

[jky]

szekiat: Nice photos - enjoyed them very much

chris & szekiat: I know the question wasn't directed to me, but just to share a bit of my experience.... I've been shooting mainly with a DSLR the past 4 months and I find it much faster for street photog. With a 24mm prime attached (36mm fov), it's very easy to estimate distance, point, shoot. I treat that & my RF in a similar fashion, but what makes it faster is a) critical focusing (AF - heresy!) & b) metering (d300 meter is almost flawless). Downsides? Size, size, size... this took some getting used to.
Shutter noise? My dslr is about the same as my old R2... besides - a busy lunch hour pretty much drowns it out anyway...

 

[myoptic3]

Nice market shots. Strangely, I prefer the B&W ones too, and this is not usually the case w/ digital images. You're still limited by the narrow dynamic range though, and you can see that the range of the scene exceeded the sensor's capabilities in some of the shots. That's just digital.

There is a trade off when using an SLR compared to a RF camera on the streets. While the RF may be less visible to some people, it is amazing how fast I can pull off a shot w/ an AF camera in P mode. I am always missing shots w/ my M3 that could (and should?) have been captured w/ my SLR. But I like the look of the Leica glass, so that's the deal. I am thinking of going to the R system in the hope of combining the best of both worlds. Post some market shots from your RF sometime.

 

[bmattock]

I have never quite understood the situations where photographers claim that passers-by comment on their Leica-versus-anything-else situation. I have seldom met any non-photographer who would know an M2 from a box of soap flakes. They may have heard the name 'Leica' but they seldom know what one looks like. Where does one go to find these erudite pedestrians?

The last (and perhaps only, now that I think about it) time anyone commented on a camera I was using was when I was in Manhattan, using a Yashica Lynx 14, and a 'pro' photographer shooting Polaroids of tourists outside of the Oprah show asked me how I liked my Leica. I told him I liked it just fine. I commented to another photographer, who was amazingly enough doing paparazzi work with a Graflex Graphic with a Polaroid back alongside others using dSLRs and big white lenses, if that was a Speed Graphic or a Crown Graphic. He gave me a blank stare and said 'What?'

 

[xi123]

Not bad pics. There's always something to shoot at Borough Market.

 

[szekiat]

I have never quite understood the situations where photographers claim that passers-by comment on their Leica-versus-anything-else situation. I have seldom met any non-photographer who would know an M2 from a box of soap flakes. They may have heard the name 'Leica' but they seldom know what one looks like. Where does one go to find these erudite pedestrians?

The last (and perhaps only, now that I think about it) time anyone commented on a camera I was using was when I was in Manhattan, using a Yashica Lynx 14, and a 'pro' photographer shooting Polaroids of tourists outside of the Oprah show asked me how I liked my Leica. I told him I liked it just fine. I commented to another photographer, who was amazingly enough doing paparazzi work with a Graflex Graphic with a Polaroid back alongside others using dSLRs and big white lenses, if that was a Speed Graphic or a Crown Graphic. He gave me a blank stare and said 'What?'

i think u find them more amongst sort of the youngish crowds. A lot of market stall/weekends sales are manned by students doing part time work, some of whom have a keen interest in photography too. That and that its not hard to recognize the M2 being from a previous era (it definitely looks the part, with a MR meter mounted for effect) means that there's always a good chance of a conversation on the eqpt. Or perhaps this is just where i hang out.

 

[szekiat]

Nice market shots. Strangely, I prefer the B&W ones too, and this is not usually the case w/ digital images. You're still limited by the narrow dynamic range though, and you can see that the range of the scene exceeded the sensor's capabilities in some of the shots. That's just digital.

There is a trade off when using an SLR compared to a RF camera on the streets. While the RF may be less visible to some people, it is amazing how fast I can pull off a shot w/ an AF camera in P mode. I am always missing shots w/ my M3 that could (and should?) have been captured w/ my SLR. But I like the look of the Leica glass, so that's the deal. I am thinking of going to the R system in the hope of combining the best of both worlds. Post some market shots from your RF sometime.

I have posted lots of market shots with my M2/Hexar RF in the past and will try and dig some up. In general, i don't think it makes a world of a difference in terms of speed of operation as i normally shoot aperture priority mode on both my Hexar and 1Dmk2. AF does help a bit in lowering the shot time, and is definitely good for those over the head grab shots but its not prone to misfocusing when the subject's movement is unpredictable. I find the main difference to be the sort of shots i go for. With a RF, its hard for me to visualize the DOF of the chosen aperture and hence i tend to compose for what would be nice if everything was somewhat in focus (high DOF). I tend to be more willing to go for bigger apertures with the DOF preview of a DSLR. A lot has changed since i first started digital photography. At one point, a DSLR is synonymous with pro, today every other person seems to have one. As such, most people are more comfortable in the knowledge that they're faces are not likely to make the next evening standard and are hence more at ease with the camera. That was what i really liked about using an oldish looking camera (even a TLR or press cam), most people instantly associate that with being a hobbyist (again, that seems to be the case here, might not be the same elsewhere) and hence are more friendly to the cameraman (moi).

 

[szekiat]

Some nice images there. I generally prefer those converted to B&W, but there is one that doesn't seem to work for me ("world's best fudge") but some of the colour images work well for conveying the sense of the market.

How was the shooting experience, contrasted with the rangefinder? I assume you were using a zoom lens and auto-focus - was it any easier or faster than the M2? What about the shots you haven't shown us - the rejects . What caused the rejection - an aspect of the camera, or the operator?

Thanks for sharing.

Chris, the shots were a fair spread between a 50 1.8 and a 16-35 zoom. The main problem for me at the moment is that i seem unable to achieve the same critical sharpness on my 50mm at f2.8 as i would on my summicrons. This might just be my lens being the exception and i'm going to look into other 50mm lenses. The keep ratio was surprisingly high actually, of 48 shots taken, i kept 12 of them and in general, they were tossed because i was bracketing either exposure or slight differences in DOF and composition. All in all, not too different from when i'm shooting film. I'm not a top shot like some of u guys so for me, a keep ratio of 1:5 is a good day.

The shooting experience, as i mentioned above, was not too different from the Hexar RF. I use the 1dmk2 a lot for work so it fits my hand like a glove and i can rem all the settings etc without looking. Its also setup for exactly how i want it to. Its hard to say more except that with a RF i tend to frame a bit more loosely and then crop in the darkroom whereas on the digital, i find myself going for much tighter shots then i'd normally go for. Thats the big difference really.