[LRflex] Re: Friday flowers and fog - Nevin
- From: "Nevin B. Greninger" <greninnb@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <leicareflex@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 11 Feb 2009 20:38:18 -0500
Thanks, everyone for welcoming me to the Leica reflex user group world.
I appreciate your comments, Philippe. My first foray into collecting SLR
cameras was the Minolta series of manual focus cameras. With my Minota XE-7
and the 135 mm prime lense I found great satisfaction. My last foray into
collecting AF film cameras was the Nikon series. I have greatly enjoyed using
Nikon AF cameras.
One can look at things from many different perspectives.
To do some chores quickly, one often chooses a utilitarian route that some
would call cost-effective. For many the reasonably priced digital point and
shoot utilitarian cameras meet family picture, email attachment, and eBay
description needs. Certainly the rapidity at which one can get a picture into
the computer is amazing.
Some enjoy art and music. Some enjoy the study of how things evolve in science,
mathematics, technology, and the liberal arts. Some enjoy artistic photography.
Life for me was fortunate. I spent time in both the worlds of science and
technology pursuing research in both science and technology. In graduate school
I was amazed at the results obtained by physicists using a cloud chamber and
the camera. The cloud chamber gave an early understanding of particle physics.
Some of my friends in graduate school would take pictures of a shock wave
passing through a view port in their shock tubes using a drum camera. Those
who pursue rapid event photography find taking a picture of a moving bullet a
real challenge. Great pictures have been obtained of a bullet impacting a
pumpkin. We can thank the inventor of the Kerr Cell. He had facilitated the
taking of rapid event pictures.
In retirement I continue to love reading about the evolution of mathematics,
science, and technology. I also enjoy reading in art history and biology
something I only studied in high school. I find the pictures in the
undergraduate textbooks on molecular cell biology and biochemistry that were
taken with optical, electron, and atomic force field microscopes most
fascinating.
Thanks to digital cameras great progress has and is being made in medical
research and practice. The pill camera that passes through the small intestine
gives the surgeon a rare opportunity to see the condition of the small
intestine but Oh! - too many images (20,000) to go through.
It has been said that many students in technology if they were to later on
manage an orchestra would say that there were too many violins, too many French
horns, too many flutes, too many trumphets, etc. Being well trained in
engineering economics an engineering type manager might argue that he/she could
save the company money by only having one instrument of a kind or a back-up of
one instrument to get the customers to buy performance tickets to make a
profit. Such is life. This can of thinking is sometimes present in today's
consumer world of photography.
Great photographers used both large format film cameras and 35 mm rangefinder
cameras, often selecting the Leica camera and their great lenses. Leica at
times lived in an economic dream world especially when it came to SLR cameras.
The corporate management must of had had "horse-blinders" on when it came to
the development of many of their electronic film cameras. The Nikon SLR camera
did in the large format Press Camera. The amazing manual focus Olympus OM
cameras certainly gave the Nikon great competition.
Sometimes people look at things as an either/or world. Families with tight
budgets often cannot afford the luxury of living both in the film and digital
camera worlds. As long as film processing labs keep their doors open, I can
continue to enjoy the film world.
As a child my older sisters were the picture takers in the family. With the
folder and box type cameras, they would say "cheese" and snap the picture.
Afterwards, they would drop off the film at a drug store and a a week later
pick up the prints for us and others to enjoy and treasure.
It was not until the summer between my junior and senior years as a chemical
engineering student that I had the opportunity to begin the study of chemical
microscopy and photomicrography, using research grade microscopes. It was a
fascinating time for me. In the formal course in the chemistry of photography
we had extensive lab sessions dealing with general photography and
photomicrography. Getting an introduction to the Graflex 4 by 5 and 2.25 by
3.25 cameras opened up a new world for me. In the lab we would make gigantic
enlargements from 4 by 5 black and white negatives. Some made 16-inch by
20-inch prints. We even processed 35 mm color roll film. One year while
pursuing graduate studies in mathematics I was persuaded to take a teaching
assistantship in photomicrography. That created a great bond between me and
photography.
The role of the Leitz company in microscopy and in medical photomicrography was
long appreciated by those pursuing studies in biology and medicine. The first
35 mm rangefinder created by Oskar Barnack truly changed photography and for
the better. Studying the evolution of SLR camera from the early days of the
German Exacta and the Soviet Sport has given me great reward.
Along with the tiny format camera came great developments in fine grain film,
chemicals for film and paper processing, and great papers to record images.
I took a long break from photography and in retirement decided to go back and
study the evolution of the SLR camera. I also wanted to perfect my picture
taking skills, including composition. It has been great fun and exciting.
So I very much enjoy seeing the pictures posted by members of the Leica reflex
group. I greatly appreciated the two links on the machining of connectors for
coupling digital point and shoot cameras to the microscope. I'm leaning toward
purchasing both the Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX3 and the Canon PowerShot G10
cameras. Meanwhile I'm tinkering with the Lumix LX2 and looking into noise
reduction for pictures taken at higher ISO settings. One fellow in a store
oriented me towards Noise Ninja. Reading in a book on PhotoShop has led me to
NoiseWare.
One of my great loves has been collecting the early stamps of Great Britain,
France, and Russia. I also enjoy collecting coins. So with a digital camera
and a light tent, I will get to combine several of my great hobbies.
I have the Leica camera silver medallion commemorating Oskar Barnack which
shows the M4-P camera. I'm missing the one for the R-4 camera.
Oskar and Albert were both born in 1879. When March 14th (math day happens), we
can celebrate the birth of Albert Einstein. The chemistry of film photography
and the physics of both film and digital photography are fascinating areas for
some students of science.
The artistic rewards from capturing a scene or action in difficult or unusual
lighting often can justify one's investment in a good film or digital camera.
During mid April of 2008 the Christie's auction in New York of the nude Carla
Bruni picture realized $91,000. It had been estimated to bring $3,000 to
$4,000. So for some who master the art of taking great pictures there can be a
meaningful reward. Carla has launched a law suite against those who wanted to
put "her" $91,000 dollar (57,000 GBP) picture on a tote bag or something
equivalent. Before the mid-April auction, the Australians were selling a very
very large print of that famous picture for around $1,000. Even lawyers can
find artistic photography lucrative!
A few weeks back at a Borders Book and Music store I had the opportunity to
browse though a fascinating book - Annie Leibovitz at Work - by Annie. It is
an interesting read about and by a great photographer. It was published on
November 18, 2008 by Random House. At Amazon Dot Com there are 33 interesting
reviews on her book in which she discusses the tools of the trade and her
techniques.
Take care.
Nevin from near Pittsburgh, PA in the USA who was born on a chicken farm in
1936 the year Oskar Barnack expired.
----- Original Message -----
From: Philippe AMARD
To: leicareflex@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Wednesday, February 11, 2009 2:35 PM
Subject: [LRflex] Re: Friday flowers and fog - Nevin
Hi Nevin a belated welcome to you.
Owing to Leica's lack of interest in reflex users and their quasi current non
existant offer, I sometimes wonder if there is still a point of having a list
about Leica reflexes, but your interest wipes all my qualms out.
So welcome to the list.
Minolta : I was a happy user of the SRT 101 a (short?) while ago ;-)
R3 - I sold mine only recently, to a Fellow Lister - I hope they are happily
married.
R4; I still have one. Battered but faithful - that's what Leica is about.
I've never had a 135 on a Leica - used to on an OM2 and on a my Pentaxes. So
I'd be curious to know if you think they fare well when you get hold of your
functional gear.
Lumix: I currently own and use much an L1 - I'm always surprised at how good
digital can be sometimes compared to film - not always, but you often can
succeed in shots unthinkable with film.
Well, to cut a long story short Nevin,
Welcome and
Long live Leica reflexes and David's (our) list.
Bien cordialement from Metz (Fr)
Phili^^e
Nevin B. Greninger wrote:
Greetings from Nevin a retiree located near Pittsburgh who has been
enjoying the many nice pictures posted by Leicaflex members. Getting a good
picture in a fog must be a challange - at least the tree outline is distinct
and there was enough light getting through to illuminate the foreground.
Birds for most people (except Doug and a few others) are difficult to
capture on film. I enjoyed seeing the wild duck eyeing the cameraman.
Pictures of pets and domesticated farm animals appeal to many. I especially
enjoy seeing closeup pictures of flowers and live insects.
I found it interesting to see how the Leica SLR camera evolved. I just
acquired a Leicaflex Standard Mark I with a single-cam 135 mm lens but I need
to deal with the mercury battery problem. I understand that a chap from the
Nederlands has a socket that has been modified to accept a silver oxide 1.5
volt battery and give as output 1.35 volts. Paying to have the the camera's
internal circuit modified is rather expensive unless the camera merits a CLA
set of operations.
Eventually I should acquire a nice 3-cam 135 mm lens to use on my R-3 and
R-4 cameras. I enjoy using the cameras in Minolta XE series. Most of the XE
cameras have a maximum shutter speed of 1/1000 second. However, in looking in
my Minolta book that was published in Japanese on cameras and gear for
distribution in Japan I discovered that Minolta in 1976 released the XE b model
. In the Japanese special edition book they and gave the XE b's maximum speed
to be 1/2000 second. It is a very rare camera that seldom comes up for sale
these days.
When I was a college student back in the 1950's I took several courses in
chemical microscopy. In one course I took pictures through a microscope using
4--inch by 5-inch sheet film without the use of a light meter. One first had
to take exposures on a test sheet exposing zones to different amounts of light
in a geometric progression. Then one went into the dark room and processed the
film to yield the correct exposure time. After which one could take the
photomicrograph. When one used an oil immersion lens, one often had a long
exposure time. In my chemistry of photography course I received an orientation
to the 4 by 5 Graflex camera. Its a shame the processing of color 4 by 5 film
has been discontinued. A 4 by 5 inch digital sensor is just not feasible for
the common folk.
In graduate school I got to make effective use of a Polaroid camera
attached to a dual beam oscilloscope. The "great" Polaroid prints gave me the
times for the shock wave to pass various stations. I could then compute the
shock speed and from gas dynamic formulas get the temperature rise across the
shock front and dwell time for the chemical reaction. So the old Polaroid
camera of the 1960's really facilitated data collection and information
processing in the laboratory. I understand that Polaroid is now pursuing a
digital camera with a built-in picture printer. So maybe some useful things
other than Polaroid filters will come out of those using the Polaroid name.
I just acquired a brand new-in-the-box Panasonic digital rangefinder - the
Lumix DMC-LX2 for $265 including shipping so I'll get to tinker with a digital
toy. I visited Wikipedia and typed in Lumix. The article had some links that
led me to an unofficial LX3 site which showed a Lumix LX3 coupled to a
microscope. So I might go unpack my microscope and get a Lumix LX3 camera that
is about equivalent to the much more expensive Leica D-Lux 4 and enjoy once
again photomicrography. If I get good results, I might buy a trinocular
microscope with an excellent illumination system.
I have not pursued infrared film. If any of you have some nice infrared
shots to post, here is one viewer who would enjoy seeing them.
Take care.
Keep on posting great pictures. Comments and suggestions by viewers may
help many of us to improve are techniques.
Kind regards,
Nevin - a retired chemical engineer who will turn 73 on June 20th
----- Original Message -----
From: Aram Langhans
To: leicareflex@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Friday, February 06, 2009 2:40 PM
Subject: [LRflex] Friday flowers and fog
A trip to the cemetery in the fog.
These flowers are not real flowers, but looked cool.
<http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/Aram/Win08/fog-0668.jpg.html>
These were real.
<http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/Aram/Win08/fog-0675.jpg.html>
Rebel XTi and 35-70/4 Elmar
Comments welcome.
Aram
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