LCSmith
Well-known
...would be to endow a school for Leica Rangefinder photography and supply the school with the collection of cameras and lenses. Let's dream a moment. Any other ideas for the school?
LC
LC
The coolest thing a collector could do...
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retinax
Well-known
I'm a little sad for all great cameras that have to stay in a cupboard somewhere. Putting them to use is good.
I'm afraid a Leica rangefinder photo school would be a gear-centric, elitist affair - why would one restrict a photo school to one brand or even just type of camera? Just lend them to photographers and photo students on a project basis. An academic, youth or art institution could handle it.
I'm afraid a Leica rangefinder photo school would be a gear-centric, elitist affair - why would one restrict a photo school to one brand or even just type of camera? Just lend them to photographers and photo students on a project basis. An academic, youth or art institution could handle it.
jbielikowski
Jan Bielikowski
There is a good reason Pentax K1000 is the most popular "students camera"- it's tough. Couple years ago I sourced nice kit of Nikon FM2s with lenses for art uni, most of them were broken after one semester, abused with brutal force and stupidity.
retinax
Well-known
Insurance with a hefty deductible to be paid by the borrower would have to be part of it.
css9450
Veteran
Its because GW and HCB used Leicas, don't you know.
C'mon, you know that post is coming.
LCSmith
Well-known
Quite right. It makes for a beautiful fiction, though, the thought of such a school under non-elitist terms, children otherwise unable to have access to such instruments being taught by masters (a kind of magnet school). Why not? They do it for violins. Are violins any more "practical" than cameras? Are cameras any less musical in their capabilities? Yes, I will dream this fiction. It is one where a collector of the finest rangefinder cameras founds a school for rangefinder photography. Why rangefinder? Because it demands so much of you while still being accessible. I could go on; but in my dream, they are rangefinders.
That gal/guy would be a legend.
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zuiko85
Veteran
For those type of ham fisted morons I have just one word, pinhole.
You can buy 8"X8" carboard cartons from the dollar store, 2 for $1.
Use 5X7 paper as a negative, tape it to one side of the box. Then place the .6 mm pinhole at the other end, that is a 200mm FL working at f333. Some 5X7 trays, HC-110 at 1:32 is a great cheap developer. A makeshift darkroom. Contact print for a positive. Image making at it's most basic.
Buy what you need, divide total $ by number of students, charge students that amount and add $10 per student on that amount.
If they want a film camera, well they can just go and buy their own. That will cause them to treat it with somewhat more respect.
LCSmith
Well-known
Unfortunately art departments at universities often can be very unserious operations run by unscrupulous and unsound acumens.
David Hughes
David Hughes
"The coolest thing a collector could do" is put film in the camera and go out and take pictures, surely?
And would it take that much to explain how cameras and film/digital work? I mean what would they do on Tuesday afternoon?
Regards, David
And would it take that much to explain how cameras and film/digital work? I mean what would they do on Tuesday afternoon?
Regards, David
Phil_F_NM
Camera hacker
The best thing any photo instructor could do is to have the student use a fully mechanical camera and a handheld light meter.
HCB, Capa, etc, all used rangefinders in their heyday not because they were better but because they were available, with the selection of lenses necessary to do the job. SLRs were available a bit later on, but the retrofocal lenses hadn't reached a level that matched what was available in the rangefinder camera lens selection. Yes, later on many used rangefinders but many amazing images have been made with cameras other than rangefinders, even "street" or "decisive moment" images.
The best thing a collector could do would probably be to sell that collection at top dollar then use that money to fund a real photo school. Or maybe just make a sizable donation to a public school arts program. You can buy 10 working K1000 bodies with fantastic lenses for every Leica body alone. Make this thing work, not just keep it limited to the most affluent and "entitled" like so many schools.
Phil Forrest
HCB, Capa, etc, all used rangefinders in their heyday not because they were better but because they were available, with the selection of lenses necessary to do the job. SLRs were available a bit later on, but the retrofocal lenses hadn't reached a level that matched what was available in the rangefinder camera lens selection. Yes, later on many used rangefinders but many amazing images have been made with cameras other than rangefinders, even "street" or "decisive moment" images.
The best thing a collector could do would probably be to sell that collection at top dollar then use that money to fund a real photo school. Or maybe just make a sizable donation to a public school arts program. You can buy 10 working K1000 bodies with fantastic lenses for every Leica body alone. Make this thing work, not just keep it limited to the most affluent and "entitled" like so many schools.
Phil Forrest
Huss
Veteran
Seeing that FM/FM2 kameras have been in places of conflict all over the world, they are plenty tough.
Irresponsible entitled idiots can break anything if they try hard enough.
LCSmith
Well-known
LCSmith
Well-known
Yes, yes. All very true.
But let's say it's a collector who is a particularly poor photographer. Let's also say (we are dreaming) that the collector is also an emotionally secure and self-aware person, and they know their photographs are poor. What a feeling of liberation it would be to unburden oneself of such a weight of mediocrity and failure, only to become a legend and a hero!
LCSmith
Well-known
Yes yes yes. Thank you, Phil. Agreed on all counts.
But let's just suppose that this would be a rangefinder school. Not because rangefinders are better (any more than violins are better than violas, or paint is better than graphite) but because it is a school for rangefinder photography. That is the instrument of the school (we are dreaming and this is a very special school).
Ko.Fe.
Lenses 35/21 Gears 46/20
Right... 😡
And Bruce Gulden, Joel Meyerowitz and others who still using Leica are just as elitists as rest of us, who are still using Leica. Including many people I know who has no dentist income, but still using Leica cameras.
Like Junku Nishimura or young cinematographer from Canada living/working it France and using Leica M I'm aware of. And many other.
We are just stupid elitists. No, clingy morons, including me. I have two Nkon F bodies, I used other SLRs on the street, but according to you I'm just an idiot for finding Leica LTM, M working best for me.
Winogrand and the rest could switch on F in seventies. But most of I know didn't.
Read this article from RFF member who entered Winogrand's classes with Nikon and Nikor Wide prime and went for Leica during those classes.
https://americansuburbx.com/2011/07/garry-winogrand-class-time-with-garry.html
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Why so many Leica threads are turning into pooping parade?
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retinax
Well-known
To clarify my thought, not only for the inevitable someone trying to pick a fight: I think lending out a camera collection to people to use would be wonderful, and Deardorffs would ideally be lent to photographers who want to work with Deardorffs, Nikons to photographers who want to work with Nikons and so, same with Leicas. What I do not understand is the idea of a Leica photo school, other than as a marketing tool for Leica. If the absurdity of that idea isn't apparent to you, think of something less close to your heart. A Mercedes driving school, a Wüsthof chopping and slicing school, a Lamy creative writing school. Artists, craftsmen, hobbyists ideally pick their tools after learning the basics of their craft, and what they have left to learn later on usually has nothing to do with the tool. So in none of the stages grouping by tool makes sense.
charjohncarter
Veteran
My friend (in his 80s) donated his complete darkroom equipment and 4x5 cameras to a local high school. And surprise they are using it and fill the class.
LCSmith
Well-known
I see you have misidentified me as some crochetty old bigotted maniac mired in the miasmal mist of greed or worse. No, it is only a dream we are discussing, friend. It is not a real thing. Imagine the story. Some very mediocre photographer surrounded by hundreds of beautiful cameras gives them away and founds a school of rangefinder photography. It need not be Leica (we are dreaming and when we dream we just let ourselves think; the "judgement" or "assessment" of the idea comes later -- that's what we are doing now!). Imagine the sheer liberation that person would feel. That person would be an instant legend.
Ko.Fe.
Lenses 35/21 Gears 46/20
Not just him on this thread and another ones.
In return to Leica poop and film wisdom.
The whole film Pentax thing and photo-school is bogus. I never learned simple thing with film. Only after getting digital DSLR I understood.
Film is waste, obstacle in learning. With DLSR I was able to learn ISO, shutter speed and aperture in real time and hundred times more effectively.
Even S16 is easy to learn on digital.
Rangefinder school has to be done after it. For those who are willing to understand why it is different.
Here is opening video for it:
https://youtu.be/Xumo7_JUeMo
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