Hi all Leica-philes,

I managed to complete scanning the best pictures of my princess Sarah this weekend and hope to post the best looking ones by tomorrow at work where I have a fast connection. Last night I watched the movie Spy Game with Robert Redford and Brad Pitt and was pleased to see the Leica M6 in action which I have to admit was cool but the mis-use wasn't so cool.

For example, the movie uses a clicking effect for the shutter whenever Brad Pitt was shooting the Leica M6. Duh! I don't the director realized that the point of the Leica M6 is to be more sleathier not to heighten the drama... huh? Yeah. The other thing is that Brad Pitt shoots like crazy with the full outfit of the Leica M6 + motordrive in 1985 Beruit... it seems to me that what he didn't have in technique or understanding of how to focus a rangefinder, Brad Pitt made up in style. Sounds like he would be much better off sticking to the English chick there...

Apparently the Nikon I identified as the FM2n, the early model. For me, the Leica M6 would have to be the pre-TTL no doubt and of course at least the movie didn't screw up by sticking the 400 mm Nikkor lens at the end of the M6 hehehe.

Cool beans, will have pictures of princess posted by tomorrow... very exhausted and I have still one more flick to catch up on.

Leica-philely, Alfie

-- Alfie Wang (leica_phile@hotmail.com), December 02, 2001

Answers

I just saw the movie last night too. If memory serves me correctly, Brad Pitt was actually using one black and one chrome M4-P in ever ready cases with meters attached to the hot shoes. It was nice to spot the Leica's and the movie was great too.

Like to take this chance to congratulate you on your marriage Alfie.

-- Bill Lee (Bill_Lee@telus.net), December 02, 2001.

My bad. I didn't realize that the supposed camera was the M4-P with meter and motordrive. After all, a lot of the scenes were too fast- moving for me to catch (again my eyesight in dark settings isn't all that great). Of course it's rather fabulous/odd/unusual that the photographs/documentary of the Egyptian doctor turned out to be a cover for a CIA plot... after all, no one can excuse themselves for not using a Leica during the best adventures of your own lifetime.

Alfie

-- Albert Wang (leica_phile@hotmail.com), December 02, 2001.

I haven't seen the Brad Pitt film, but sound departments are not all that accurate in providing shutter sounds. Nowadays, they assume that all eye-level cameras sound like motor-drive Nikons. This sort of noise has become the cliche sound in movies and on TV indicating that a picture is being shot, whatever instrument is involved. I suppose automobile and firearms afficianados find fault with motor and weapons sounds, too.

Speaking of sound departments, I remember how surprised I was to learn that Hermes Pan, the movie choreographer, sat in front of a microphone with a plank in his lap and a pair of tap shoes on his hands and put Fred Astaire's taps into the soundtracks. I'm still not sure this is the way it was always done, but they danced to a click track or recording during filming; so no live sound was likely to be recorded.

-- Keith Nichols (knichols1@mindspring.com), December 02, 2001.

ull outfit of the Leica M6 + motordrive in 1985 Beruit

Just curious - did they use the old (bulky) M motordrives, or the new compact ones with the battery housing grip? Movies always get these things wrong!

Also, as for the sound of motordrives... in "The Omen" (the first one), when David Warner uses a MD-1 motorised Nikon F2, the sound they laid on is of the quietest motorised camera you have ever heard. Fell about laughing when I saw the video a month ago.

BTW, for the trivia inclined, I have a long list of movies where Leicas make a guest appearance in the FAQ

-- Andrew Nemeth (azn@nemeng.com), December 02, 2001.

He used the old bulky motor drives, and I actually found that he did focus correctly. He had lenses with tabs and held them the right way (most people that don't use M's don't know how to use tabs). Yes, the sound was off... but it had to be. you needed to hear he was taking pictures because 99% of the viewing audience wouldn't understand he was doing that without the sound.

-- Matthew Geddert (geddert@yahoo.com), December 02, 2001.

I saw Brad Pitt on some show on the Animal Planet cable network doing a photo safari somewhere. He was laden with a bevy of R series Leicas and big lenses. I guess he is a Leica nut with a bigger pool of money than most of us to use for "toys." I wonder how much mental stress he goes through when contemplating a new lens? All of that and Jennifer Anniston... I hate this guy!

I saw the movie also, and besides the typical movie posturing, he was doing many of the other less dynamic functions, like film rewinding, with an "eyes-off the gear" stance that indicates that he's held those cameras before that scene. But I agree, those sound guys wanted the audience to know he was shooting those cameras. A real "M" would have been in-audible in the surrounding explosions and gun fire happening while Pitt was doing the PJ thing.

-- Al Smith (smith58@msn.com), December 02, 2001.

(slightly off-topic)

Those camera/footstep/fistfight sounds in movies are created by the "Foley operators", in case you have seen that credit and wondered what it meant.

They use all kinds of weird stuff - e.g. for the sound of beefy punches landing they might wrap celery (for 'crunch') in meat (for 'squish') and put it on a leather cushion (for 'whump') and then hit it with a heavy stick next to the microphone. Instant Clint Eastwood.

Sometimes they get cameras right - sometimes wrong. Check out the opening credits of "The Two Jakes" for a long sequence with a Leica screw-mount that (if I remember correctly) had pretty realistic sound.

-- Andy Piper (apidens@denver.infi.net), December 02, 2001.

How DO I use the tabs? I'm new to the M lenses with tabs and keep trying new positions. Is there a good picture on the web which shows a good use of focusing tabs? My M6TTL instruction book isn't too clear on this point.

-- Tom Herbert (therbert@miami.edu), December 02, 2001.

Tom,

I use the thumb and middle finger of my left hand to form an "L", with the thumb on the side of the camera and the middle finger on the bottom. the then free left index finger curls up slightly to the tab, and is free to work independently. For vertical compositions, I simply rotate the camera to the vertical, with the shutter release down, transfer the support for the camera's weight to my right hand, but keeping my left hand the same as above. BTW... I am left eye dominate, so most of the images in various books are hard for me to adopt since they assume right eye viewing.

My 35mm and 50mm Summicrons work with the same effort using this position, but my 90mm lens gives me fits due to its lack of a tab.

-- Al Smith (smith58@msn.com), December 02, 2001.

Alfie,

If you think the actor misused the camera, just look at how they misuse and teach by example the wrong attitude and abuse of firearms. I for one get very angry at Hollywood's spectacular examples of how not to use a firearm safely and correctly, especially the pistols. Pistol shooting can be a very safe pastime when the firearms AND our fellow citizens are treated with respect and safety. Hollywood is only interested in dramatic flair. Accuracy of portrayal is usually disregarded completely. Excuse the outburst. LB

-- Luther Berry (lberrytx@aol.com), December 02, 2001.

Some of you must be really quick to have spotted all this. I barely had time to see that there was one chrome Leica and one black one. That there was a motor drive, I intuited rather than saw, based on the sound. By the time I tried to remember whether that sound belonged to the M-motor drive I tried out at Jefferson Camera one afternoon, the sequence was over.

How did Brad Pitt's character know to have his Nikon, rather than his Leicas, along and loaded with film, at the exact moment when he needed a Nikon with a telephoto, and not a Leica? I wish I could master that. What movie was it where Sean Connery says, "Isn't that just like a _______ , bringing a knife to a gunfight?" With me, it's isn't that just like Bob, bringing a Leica to a Nikon shot?

-- Bob Fleischman (RFXMAIL@prodigy.net), December 02, 2001.

And vice-versa.

-- Bob Fleischman (RFXMAIL@prodigy.net), December 02, 2001.

Bob,

That Connery movie would be the "Untouchables", a pretty good film.

-- Al Smith (smith58@msn.com), December 02, 2001.

I havenīt seen the film, but could any one tell me what shutter speed was he using?, just to be prepared.

-- r watson (al1231234@hotmail.com), December 02, 2001.

Well, Roberto, that motor drive was whirring along pretty fast, so I's say at least 1/60, and more likely 1/500 at f/11 with Tri-X.

-- Bob Fleischman (RFXMAIL@prodigy.net), December 02, 2001.

so was day time under some clouds... from the fires maybe.. or were he pushing..or pulling; ...canīt remember

-- al1231234@hotmail.com (al1231234@hotmail.com), December 03, 2001.

Hallo Alfie,

I didnīt see film so far, but look forward to it. It will be in Europe one day, I hope.

But one hint for your Princess Photoproject: please take your time, noboby will blame you if you need a few more days. Choose carefully.

Best wishes

-- K. G. Wolf (k.g.wolf@web.de), December 03, 2001.