The Decisive Moment

[jacemanuel]

35 years ago almost on the spot I was playing in a band, and we have got a new drummer. He was a nice guy and one of the best drummers I've ever heard. Well i paid him a visit to get to know him a little better and right there on a shelf in his room was lying a Pentax H1A. Curriously I stared at it and asked whether I could have a closer look. No problem.
I picked it up - looked into the finder - and the moment I changed the focus - well that's The Decisive Moment for me. Right there I knew to the bottom of my soul that I wanted a camera and it didn't last long till I had one - perhaps a month and I've been hooked since.
For a long period it was only SLR's, but unfortunately one day someone payed me a visit while I wasn't home - goodbye cameras, goodbye lenses. After I got the money from the insurance company I bought my first Leica - a M3 with a Summitar.
Sold it later - wish I hadn't.

Jacques Emanuel.

 

[Doug]

Re: The Decisive Moment

I picked it up - looked into the finder - and the moment I changed the focus - well that's The Decisive Moment for me. Right there I knew to the bottom of my soul that I wanted a camera and it didn't last long till I had one...[/B]

Ah, THAT kind of decisive moment! Just 40 years back I was serving overseas in the Air Force and had been forced by my dear 'ol Mom to take along a camera; a Kodak Brownie. There was a photo hobbyist working in the same building who talked me into getting a 35mm, I believe it was a Regula. Not sure if it had a rangefinder or just scale focus. He had access to the Base Photo Lab after hours to develop his film, and took me along. He developed film in Dektol in an open tray mostly by guess and brief inspection under safelight. When I saw the image form on my first roll of negs, I was hooked right there!

 

[jdos2]

^^^ Agreed.

I can't focus worth a darn with an SLR and ground glass unless I spend time doing it- either my vision is such that I see into the airy image, or some other such, I just take out of focus images unless I use decent focusing aids that don't depend on ground glass. One of those is a rangefinder, another is a simple distance scale (I have good depth perception).

My next moment was seeing prints from Medium Format negatives. 135 hasn't looked the same since.