Coastal Traveler - Fall 2007 - (Page 20)

coastal shooter Leica M8 $4950 body only, $3295 for 28mm F2.0 lens, available from Camera West in Monterey and Mission Viejo. 831.643.9088 www.camerawest.com or for more information, www.leica-camera.us Photojournalists who dream of being accepted into the Magnum photo agency carry battered Leicas, loaded with black and white film – platonic cameras, made from steel and black lacquered brass. Leicas are hung from one shoulder as an acceptable form of male jewelry, or a secret signal between classical romantics. The wealthy wear them as an expression of aestheticism and the poor as a form of financial martyrdom, spending thousands of dollars per lens as they huddle in the corner of crack dens, bearing witness. The culture is cultish and devotional and has a distinct, almost chivalrous worldview. It is an ideology inseparable from Henri Cartier-Bresson and Robert Capa, founders of Magnum, who with Leicas in hand, created the 20th Century’s iconic images. They believed that western man lived in isolation from the world and if they were shown war and inequity they would rise from their chaise lounges and fight for justice. Despite all evidence, some persist in this quest, and wear Leicas and scarfs like banners tied around a lance as they charge into Burma and Darfur. This is what gives Leica such charm. What other camera makes you feel like a knight; like a sly, artistic revolutionary? Leica’s founder, Oskar Barnack, was an asthmatic German lensmaker who got sick of wheezing his view camera up the hills of Wetzlar. So he invented a small, portable camera, with a collapsible brass lens, using 35mm movie film. The reason there are 36 shots to a roll is because that is how many Barnak could hold between his outstretched hands. There was a slow, evolutionary development between the ur-Leica of 1913 and the MP, released in 2003. The light was still manually metered, the lens manually focused and the film manually wound. Some of the fastest lenses in the world permit photography in very low light that can drape across the subject like couture gauze. Leica owners rarely carry a flash, preferring to go unnoticed, the whisper-quiet shutter rarely alerting subjects to their exposure. Until very recently, Leica owners were uninterested in digital cameras of inferior picture quality. They did not want an autowinder, because that would eliminate the pleasure of stroking the exquisite metal lever. Auto-focus would eliminate the need for turning the beautifully damped focus ring. It is surprisingly heavy for such a slim camera. It is the weight of quality, of compact density, like a black bar of gold. But shooters grew increasingly frustrated with processing and scanning film and Leicas began to spend more time on the shelf then the shoulder. Leica needed a digital M. Leica decided to maintain the manual process, and simply change the storage medium from film to SD card. They released it this year and called it the Leica M8. They kept the classic M body, along with its brass lenses and manual focusing, but they eliminated the film advance lever along with its whisper quite shutter. In testing, the M8 produced picture quality better than all but full frame sensor digital SLRs. And it did so without all the bulk and plastic, without the robotic actuators and thick neck straps. I found excuses to take the Leica rather than excuses to leave it at home. For with a Leica, the pleasure is in its use, and the photographs that result show more care, more craft, then others. 20 coastaltraveler fall http://www.camerawest.com http://www.leica-camera.us

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Coastal Traveler - Fall 2007

Coastal Traveler - Fall 2007 Coastal Contents Coastal Connoisseur Coastal Picks Coastal Hotel Coastal Reader Coastal Rider Coastal Spa Santa Barbara Pismo & Avila San Luis Obispo Big Sur Carmel Monterey Santa Cruz San Francisco Sausalito Mill Valley Stinson Beach Bolinas Olema Point Reyes Station San Geronimo Fairfax Inverness Marshall, Tomales Sebastopol Petuluma Sonoma Coast Redwood Coast Napa Map

Coastal Traveler - Fall 2007

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