The Guardian's Sarah Lee extols the M-E

Interesting review by Sarah Lee.Excellent shots. The DSLR folk don't get it. A RF is so different.It needs input, eyes and a willingness to push the medium.Almost any person can make good photos with modern cameras. Put it on the "PRO" setting green thing and you are done.. Sure a Nikon/Canon/Sony are all quicker better. That's not the point. It is the special way one uses and "sees' with a Leica. I no longer CAN carry a large rig. The Leica with one maybe 2 lenses is perfect. A small digital point and shoot is my main daily camera. Special days and FILM are Leica days.
 
Thanks for the link nice Article and photos. I agree with leicapixie many of the commentators not only from the DSLR crowd but als from the liveview/monitor crowd don't get it.
 
Not everyone will ever get it.
We've grown into a culture of spec-comparing, review totting, 100 thousand cross-point phase detecting pixels over-kill to the nth degree for anyone who is "serious" about "photography" to care about.

Long lost is the whole act of photographing, now it's just about the IMAGE. Cause IMAGE is EVERYTHING right?
 
If there is anything to "get", then perhaps the DSLR crowd won't get "it", whatever that may be. But maybe they're over there with their DSLRs making equally condescending comments they we're all to busy ooh-ing and ahh-ing over our exotic cameras to concern ourselves with actual photo taking.

I don't think me lusting after a 6x9 folder, or someone with The Guardian talking about how Leica made them a better person (joke), is that much different to someone lusting after the latest bundle of electronics from Canikon.

For that matter, a ME or M 240 is every bit as much a modern consumer item as any other digital camera, so maybe I don't "get it" either. Maybe not one of us "gets it", and we've just got our own opinions, equally mired in our own brand of BS.
 
The idea that a rf is magical and mystical is really a myth.
Yes, there is the hcb aura just the same as wearing one glove makes us dance better (michael jackson).

I love RFs. But look at the market and you quickly realize that it has spoken. It has spoken so loudly 50 years ago!
RF shooters aren't better then slr shooters. That's magical thinking.

Look at Salgado's work: All shot on slrs.
Look at McCurry's work: All shot on slrs.
And so many more.

I agree with what I read elsewhere: her blog post about Leica sounds like a marketing stunt.
 
Clint Troy said:
The idea that a rf is magical and mystical is really a myth.
Yes, there is the hcb aura just the same as wearing one glove makes us dance better (michael jackson).

I love RFs. But look at the market and you quickly realize that it has spoken. It has spoken so loudly 50 years ago!
RF shooters aren't better then slr shooters. That's magical thinking.

Look at Salgado's work: All shot on slrs.
Look at McCurry's work: All shot on slrs.
And so many more.

I agree with what I read elsewhere: her blog post about Leica sounds like a marketing stunt.
Click to expand...

I love RFs too, by far my favourite type of camera, unless when using tripods, then it's a Hasselblad or Rollei or the like.

However, I don't think for a second they make me a better photographer or instill any sort of magic/soul. Maybe for some, the fact they are using a camera they love does make them better though, who knows.

For me though, my love of old/pretty cameras is distinct from the actual photo taking, and I know they are basically two distinct, different hobbies. Kind of like boats and fishing, you can like both or just one, combine the two, or consider one or the other to be the hobby, and the other simply a means to an end.
 
Salgado shot a lot on RF.
Now he shoots digital. Probably way more economical..
There are a few photographers who do use RF read "Leica".
Google and find.Some surprises..
 
There was a previous thread on this but try as I might with '' '' and site:rangefinderforum.com I just cannot find it. Anyway, I stick by what I said there. Good on her.
 
I liked the article, thanks for the link. Some promotion not only for Leica but "street photography" in general (nice selection of photos she presented) isn`t a bad thing at all. :)
 
cliched yes, but probably no more than a lot of the paens to Leica on our own site. I enjoyed it - I read it as the joy of a photographer discovering that there is indeed another way to see and capture the world.
 
I can certainly attest that rangefinder cameras changed my photography for the better after many years of SLR use.

However, if I had only owned RFs for 15 years and then switched to a quality 80s-90s SLR I'm sure I would experienced different but equally significant positive changes to my photography.

A similar improvement came withe the move the MF and the purchase of a TLR. If you take the time to explore, you can learn a lot from using different tools.
 
"Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else's opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation."


Oscar Wilde
 
I've also heard the emperor has new clothes. What a time we're living in!

I've used all sorts of cameras and I've enjoyed using all of them. Some have been better then others but mostly they have all been about the same. I.E. they take pictures. The quality of said pictures is up to me. No camera is going to fix that.

Whatever works for you is great. But don't start ascribing magical qualities to it. The "Leica thing" is very tiring.
 
First I am not a Leica camera shooter though I do use Leica lenses. Second the not getting it part was going in the direction of the blog comments by SLR users who could not accept her using a Leica RF camera because a DSLR is so much better. Third a RF camera is in no way better than a SLR, but some people prefer the user experience they get from the RF more and therefore make better photos with the RF. The choice of using/prefering or not using a RF camera is t individual choice of each photographer/camera user and should be accepted. It's her choice and she wrote about her experience with a from her viewpoint great camera/tool. End of rant.
 
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