Alte Zürcher Blog - leica

Watch this bid

Sun, 07 Oct 2007 19:55:00-0400

This ebay auction for a prototype M3 might make an interesting spectator sport. Bidding due to end in 8 hours or so (midnight 7th Oct UK time) This was brought to my attention by The Online Photographer

EOS 5D vs. M3 - Smackdown!

Thu, 22 Feb 2007 13:18:00-0400

Ok - we're going to put these two heavyweights in the ring and see who ends up on the bottom. We'll answer the questions they don't even dare ask on Dpreview. So, which of these cameras takes the best snaps?

Actually more to the point, which of these two buggers is heavier? Don't have my scales with me but it would not surpise me if it was the Leica, given that it's fashioned from a solid block of Thousand Year Reich steel, finished with brass counterweights. (woops sorry, the war finished 15 years before my Leica was made, but what the hell).

On a serious note the question is completely irrelevant of course. Here's my take on the digital vs. analogue debate.

1) Image quailty doesn't really figure in this if all you're interested in is sharp photos. For most photographic purposes the quality produced by 40 year old Leica glass, film, etc and 21st century computer/cameras is more than adequate.

2) Image character is different - I'm not going to get into the Leica-look debate, but there is something in it.

3) If you're taking photos at a football match, maybe leave the Leica at home

4) If you're taking candid shots in a quiet cafe, the Canon will make you look like someone with more camera than common sense, and might well arouse comments such as "don't point that fucking thing at me - asshole". With the M3 you are more likely to get "hey, is that a, you know, camera?"

Shucks - I've made my point - horses for courses. Of course I didn't talk about workflow.... maybe next time

Hardbrücke, Zürich

Fri, 02 Feb 2007 12:42:00-0400

Sometimes when you are out prowling the streets it seems as if there are no photo opportunities at all. Especially if you are treading familiar spots. You bring the camera up to your eye and scan around but everything looks boring. This of course isn't how street photography works. Sit down somewhere and watch the world go by for half an hour or so. I guarantee you will see photo opportunities without even looking for them. Most you wouldn't have been able to catch anyway. Point is that they are there.

A week or two back I wandered around Zürich for a morning and shot a single film, rather aimlessly. Shooting black and white it was a misty day and should have been good for the sort of images I like - but nothing. Finally on the way home I was coming up the steps to the railway platform and. voila, there was the shot.

Maybe not a Pulitzer Prize winner, but it snapped into view at the time, and I liked it as soon as the negative was scanned. A combination of the silhouette against the misty background and the strong composition provided by the perspective lines. Another thing that contributes is the low angle of view as I came up the steps.

Actually this wasn't the first shot - this was. Spot the difference?

As you can see from the clock it was taken three seconds earlier (Who needs EXIF with Swiss railway clocks around) However waiting these three seconds gave me the actual shot where one of the girls just flexed her leg. A small thing but for me it makes all the difference.

Now this is the shot as I saw it. I obviously liked the emptiness at the left side, concentrating the action in the intersection of the perspective lines. Compositionally speaking, it might be better to crop it as here.

Generally I don't like cropping if it's the "picture-within-a-picture" type. Every image provides opportunities for this. However sometimes cropping works and retains the idea of the original that you "saw". In this case a square crop is probably better aesthetically, but the tightness of the composition is at odds with the scene that I saw, which depended on the emptiness of the platform. So I like both versions, but my affections lie with the original.

Any morals? Well the obvious one is just keep your camera at the ready. The photos will come.

These images Leica M3, Summicron 50mm, TRI-X. I can't remember but I guess 1/250 at F8