Comments on: Ways of Working #3 (Know Your Gear)

By: Juliette

Juliette — Sat, 12 Mar 2011 13:35:13 +0000

Hi Michael, I just stumbled upon this post and wanted to thank you for it. I also wanted to ask you if you ever bring a digital camera on the street? When is it advantageous to do so?

For example, I’m shooting a parade today downtown. I’ve got my rangefinder (http://www.rokkorfiles.com/7SII.htm) loaded with some black and white film, I’ve got a Holga 35mmBC and my “back pocket-carry with me all the time” Olympus XA1. These are what I’ve been carrying with me. However, I am tempted to bring my big digital SLR for fear that something will “escape” the lens of my film cameras so to speak.

I’d be curious to know your thoughts on this… Thanks for the great post!

-Juliette

By: Graphicghreg

Graphicghreg — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 03:05:14 +0000

Interesting to see you posted the link to the Majoli article. I first read this about five years ago, awhile after I bought an Oly C5050. It was a great camera indeed but woefully slow. I got many wondeful shots with the camera, and many pics of the sidewalk as the shutter fired five seconds after I pressed the release. Newer cameras like the Canon G11 are much faster and a worthy successor to a Leica and a fraction of the price of the real thing. Plus it has a (limited) viewfinder for daylight shooting.

By: Matt

Matt — Sat, 01 Mar 2008 20:06:12 +0000

Great stuff, as always — thanks for sharing your knowledge and work with us.

I just bought a vintage Yaschica rangefinder, and I’m excited to shoot with it. One question: how do you handle focus? Do you pre-focus the camera at a certain distance from you, and then always try to take photos from that distance?

By: sean

sean — Wed, 11 Apr 2007 08:06:58 +0000

yes..i got a rangefinder camera…now all i gotta do is just practice.. : )

By: Michael David Murphy

Michael David Murphy — Tue, 10 Apr 2007 12:37:55 +0000

Sean - you have to do it with a rangefinder, and your rangefinder has to have a pretty bright viewfinder. Also helps if you’re in sunlight. It’s difficult, yeah.

By: sean

sean — Tue, 10 Apr 2007 07:31:38 +0000

wow! really good informations that i needed…i am still learning too shoot. My question is that how do you compose with a right eye when your left eye still opened? is there any good ways to practice and get use to it? (i tried it for several days…and it is really hard…)

By: nick

nick — Fri, 11 Aug 2006 00:33:56 +0000

Nice description. Simple and sweet.

One tiny note: most smaller p/s digicams have a maximum aperture of f8, so telling someone to shoot at f11 might not always work. Also, because of the smaller lenses and sensors in those cameras, a greater depth of field can be found at wider apertures. My suggestions is to check out the range of f-stops available in your camera, and choose one around the upper/middle of that range.

-n

By: Matt

Matt — Fri, 16 Sep 2005 04:16:02 +0000

Not much to add beyond stating the fact that I’m enjoying this so far and look forward to reading more. Letting pictures speak for themselves is great and all, but it would be nice if more people (including me) shared their thoughts like this.