Does anyone know which wide-angle Leica M lens did David Allen Harvey mainly use during his work in Cuba last year for National Geographic? I hear conflicting reports between a 28 and a 35. I like the composition of his portrait photos and the way that the environment is included in most of them. Also, I did not notice any distortion of faces along the edges of his pictures as exhibited by most wide-angle lens.

-- Ron Gregorio (gregorio@ksc.th.com), November 10, 2000

Answers

I had read that he used a 28. I doubt it though; too much of the viewfinder blocked out using the 28 frame lines on the M6. Anyway, his shots don't look wide enough for a 28. 'Course I could be dead wrong. Experts??

-- Steve Hoffman (shoffman2@socal.rr.com), November 10, 2000.

His main lens is a 35/1.4 Asph with no lens hood but why not listen to him describing his equipment and techniques:

http://dirckhalstead.org/issue9910/cubaintro.htm

-- John Collier (jbcollier@home.com), November 10, 2000.

Scroll down on this forum.There is article about DAH. I also see no distortion of 28mm.I guess it mostly is 35.He does also make use of a 50mm and a SLR with long lens?.

-- jason gold (jason1155234@webtv.net), November 10, 2000.

Great little video on DAH. Thanks for the tip, John. Thank God he uses a flash when he has to. I wondered how he shot so well in those dim little interiors. Now I see he's human like the rest of us!

-- Steve Hoffman (shoffman2@socal.rr.com), November 10, 2000.

Interesting topic on more interesting photographers work. Me too had the curiosity to examinate DAH NatGeo pictures since I knew he works with M leicas mainly, I even look in the book impresion work, since I tought it may be some scaning situation. What I´ve been looking in his Leica pictures (of course after apreciate them from a journalistic poin of view, wich I find in it a gret piece of work), quality of image, there are two or thre pictures that call my atention about flatness of field, for example the picture of the sailors with a man with a hat in first plane and the sea as foreground, if you look at the most distant sea on top of the image, on the left side you can see a boat far away and sea in perfect sharpness, on the rigth at the same higth you can see sea in a difuse way like not in focus or moved. Other picture, the one of the cowboys working with a wire, with a horse in the midle of the frame and blue sky at top and grass in the low part ofthe frame, you can see this grass in perfect focus in the middle of the frame and try to follow this grass shapnes to both sides of the frame, and I have check it in my Nat Geo Magazine and in the book of Cuba, again it is just a thecnical point of view, I am very interested in coments on this matter. R. Watson

-- R.Watson (mawago@prodigy.net.mx), December 08, 2000.

Interesting to compare this modern color work in Cuber with the B&W done so casually in 1935 by Walker Evans. I wonder how much of this will be around in 65 years?

-- Bill Mitchell (bmitch@home.com), December 09, 2000.