Why It Has To Be a Leica

[johnastovall]

Mike Johnson has a fine follow up to his essay "Leica as Teacher" with "Why It Has To Be a Leica."

"I honestly didn't mean this to be a big thing on the blog this week, but I guess, by popular demand, I have to elaborate. But please see the note at the very end of this post.First of all, what I'm suggesting is an exercise. Young people think a year is a very long time. All us older people know it isn't. A year spent learning several important aspects of photography at once, in a concerted way, will pay off for many years after that, regardless of where you take it later. That's assuming you really want to be a photographer in the first place, of course..."


Full essay.....

[JohnT]

I was wondering about the "why." I'm glad he followed up with the explanation. Thanks for posting it.

[Murph]

Pure snobbery, from the "street shooting" crowd. Sorry, but a good TLR/Mamiya 7 will do the same or better than any small format camera. Leica's are not as good for landscape photographers, I disagree with him that you can only learn with a Leica. Take ANY camera, stick with one lens/one body/one film combination for a year, and you can learn. Large format is so much more demanding and less forgiving than miniature format. Again pure street shooting snobbery. That doofus in NY who runs up and sticks a Leica and flash in peoples faces, would probably get knocked on his @ss if he did that to me. I understand his point and if you remove Leica and replace it with any camera then I would agree. Learn your tools.

[JohnT]

It's just an exercise suggestion, Murph. Take it or leave it. That's my philosophy.

[Murph]

True.

Originally Posted by JohnT

It's just an exercise suggestion, Murph. Take it or leave it. That's my philosophy.

[jeffkohn]

It may just be an exercise suggestion, but I still think it's silly for anybody but an aspiring street shooter.

I've never understood why people think it's a good exercise to limit yourself to a single focal-length. It's just going to limit the way you see things, how is that a good thing? And don't tell me to "zoom with your feet", people who think zooming with your feet is a valid alternative to selecting the appropriate focal length don't know the first thing about perspective.

[JohnT]

Originally Posted by jeffkohn

It may just be an exercise suggestion, but I still think it's silly for anybody but an aspiring street shooter.

I've never understood why people think it's a good exercise to limit yourself to a single focal-length. It's just going to limit the way you see things, how is that a good thing? And don't tell me to "zoom with your feet", people who think zooming with your feet is a valid alternative to selecting the appropriate focal length don't know the first thing about perspective.

I understand what you're saying. I'm not saying that I'm going to do the exercise; street photography isn't my primary thing although I do dabble in it occasionally. I just find the challenge to be interesting, and I know that I'll never know what I'm missing unless/until I do it. It'll stay on the back burner for now.

[Jim Victory]

Originally Posted by jeffkohn

It may just be an exercise suggestion, but I still think it's silly for anybody but an aspiring street shooter.

I've never understood why people think it's a good exercise to limit yourself to a single focal-length. It's just going to limit the way you see things, how is that a good thing? And don't tell me to "zoom with your feet", people who think zooming with your feet is a valid alternative to selecting the appropriate focal length don't know the first thing about perspective.

+1

I shot with a 50mm lens for several years and "zoomed with my feet" but it was because I couldn't afford to buy another lens.

When I was able to purchase some more lenses I would use whatever lens provided me the perspective I was after in the shot with minimal "zooming with my feet".

Now this was 40years ago and with the IQ of zooms today and the use of multiple bodies focal length perspective should be the driving force in what lens you use not "zooming with your feet".

[JohnT]

Same here. Love my zooms.

[johnastovall]

Actually the are 2 "zooms" for Leica M body rangerfinders.

Leica Tri-Elmar-M 16-21mm ASPH lens

28mm-35mm-50mm f/4 ASPH Tri-Elmar-M