T
tedwhite
Guest
Using my newly-acquired M6 is proving more difficult than expected. Coming from a lifetime of SLR's progressing from the early Pentax H1A and H3V (both meterless), to the metered Pentax Spotmatic line - SP, SF, etc. - and then on to the Minolta Maxxum 7000 (the first AF SLR as far as I know, introduced in about 1984) to the wonderful Maxxum 7, and finally ending up with the Pentax DSLR, moving to an M6 is a serious wake-up call for me.
I'd obviously gotten lazy, expecting a camera to focus and select the proper aperture/shutter speed in something like one second and mostly pictures taken with these cameras came out just fine. However, I find that, in a way, with the M6, I'm back to the old meterless Pentax H1A. Why? because with the H1A I would venture out on San Francisco's streets, take a meter reading with my old Sixtomat on the sunny side of the street, another reading on the shady side, memorize both, and then set out for a day of shooting.
With the M6 I'm constantly looking at those glowing, intrusive red arrows and missing shots while I fiddle to make both be on at the same time and the same shade of red. Further, trying to line up the "two faces" to be in focus also takes time - and again a shot is missed.
So today I tried the H1A way: took meter readings as described above, memorized them, then set the lens at an f:8 hyperfocal for shade and f:16 for sun (all at 125th of a second - ISO 100) and pretended that it was an elegant point-and shoot. Haven't seen the results yet.
It's sort of like going from a Lexus to an old Porsche type 356. The only thing the Lexus doesn't do is drive itself. Driving an old Porsche is a dramatically different experience. There's no auto tranny, there's a somewhat quirky manual shifter that demands attention. There's a clutch - remember them? There's no ABS, instead there's a pronounced tendency to oversteer and toss it's little tail out when you least expect it, causing your adrenal gland to arise from its slumber. Forget power steering and airconditioning, on and on. Forget GPS, get out the damned road map.
But once you figure it out - the Porsche that is - you've really got hold of something. With the Lexus, the most difficult thing to figure out is the owner's manual.
And thus my love/hate relationship with my M6. I expected that, lazy sloth that I am, it would be easy, a virtual walk in the park. A Sunday afternoon meander through Sonoma wine country in the effortless Lexus.
So here I am with a camera designed in the same decade as the Porsche 356. Except now it has a light meter and film loading is mildly improved.
Am I going to sell my M6? Hell no. I'm going to figure it out if it's the last thing I do (at my age, one hopes it's not quite the last thing one does).
So there it sits, on the passenger seat beside me as I drive my Passat to work each day; neck strap wrapped round the seat belt in case of a sudden vehicular misadventure; a small, black reminder that it's time to step up to the plate, to quit sniveling, to get off my lazy butt, and to re-learn what I so long ago forgot.
I'd obviously gotten lazy, expecting a camera to focus and select the proper aperture/shutter speed in something like one second and mostly pictures taken with these cameras came out just fine. However, I find that, in a way, with the M6, I'm back to the old meterless Pentax H1A. Why? because with the H1A I would venture out on San Francisco's streets, take a meter reading with my old Sixtomat on the sunny side of the street, another reading on the shady side, memorize both, and then set out for a day of shooting.
With the M6 I'm constantly looking at those glowing, intrusive red arrows and missing shots while I fiddle to make both be on at the same time and the same shade of red. Further, trying to line up the "two faces" to be in focus also takes time - and again a shot is missed.
So today I tried the H1A way: took meter readings as described above, memorized them, then set the lens at an f:8 hyperfocal for shade and f:16 for sun (all at 125th of a second - ISO 100) and pretended that it was an elegant point-and shoot. Haven't seen the results yet.
It's sort of like going from a Lexus to an old Porsche type 356. The only thing the Lexus doesn't do is drive itself. Driving an old Porsche is a dramatically different experience. There's no auto tranny, there's a somewhat quirky manual shifter that demands attention. There's a clutch - remember them? There's no ABS, instead there's a pronounced tendency to oversteer and toss it's little tail out when you least expect it, causing your adrenal gland to arise from its slumber. Forget power steering and airconditioning, on and on. Forget GPS, get out the damned road map.
But once you figure it out - the Porsche that is - you've really got hold of something. With the Lexus, the most difficult thing to figure out is the owner's manual.
And thus my love/hate relationship with my M6. I expected that, lazy sloth that I am, it would be easy, a virtual walk in the park. A Sunday afternoon meander through Sonoma wine country in the effortless Lexus.
So here I am with a camera designed in the same decade as the Porsche 356. Except now it has a light meter and film loading is mildly improved.
Am I going to sell my M6? Hell no. I'm going to figure it out if it's the last thing I do (at my age, one hopes it's not quite the last thing one does).
So there it sits, on the passenger seat beside me as I drive my Passat to work each day; neck strap wrapped round the seat belt in case of a sudden vehicular misadventure; a small, black reminder that it's time to step up to the plate, to quit sniveling, to get off my lazy butt, and to re-learn what I so long ago forgot.
