IDEO, seen through a Leica M3
Santa was very kind this year, bringing me my grandfather's Leica M3 (OK -- not so much Santa as my dear mum). I've only had the chance to shoot a single roll of film so far, snapped quickly while wandering around the Palo Alto IDEO office, but already I'm in love.
Shooting film after digital cameras is a real experience. I feel the pain (cost) of every shot, which means I think a lot more before pushing the little shutter button.
The M3 has no built-in meter, but my grandfather had purchased the optional MC meter, which attaches to the top of the camera body. Measuring the light and adjusting aperture and shutter settings before looking through the viewfinder takes some real getting used to. The camera is certainly a step backwards in this regard. In the shot above I metered poorly, leaving me less dynamic range to work with.
People seem more willing to pose for a photo when they're staring back at an old camera. The charm works both ways.
There's something magical, too, to having to wait to see what the camera actually captured. In the moment it's an entirely different interaction with the device: with no little screen to look down at I stay more present in whatever I'm shooting. And of course there's the anticipation for what the camera actually captured -- a sort of delayed gratitude that makes every roll a little bit like Christmas.
Jerome, above, is a big Leica fan and let me play with a number of lenses before I bought one of my own -- a 50mm Dual Range lens from the 1950's with a nifty little hardware system for moving from regular to macro focus. This picture of him above is the first shot I took with this lens, and all the rest below are with the same lens as well... I think I'll keep it :)
People say Leica cameras create a rich sense of 3D from a 2D image. Certainly the subject in focus does seem to "pop", but in this case that may just be Angelique.
Just another day at IDEO... we're all about flexible workspace.
Interaction designers huddle to discuss notable products seen at CES.
I think there's a joke about 3 monkeys here somewhere...
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If you had asked me a year ago if I would ever actively use a film camera again I would have laughed at you. Certainly digital technology has made photography easier than I ever could have imagined. But there are certain intangible beauties that come from limited exposures, old hand-built hardware, and having to wait to see results. The M3 may not be the best choice for portraits of my finicky and fast-moving toddler, and the point-n-shoot on my iPhone will always be more handy, but for those times where I want to enjoy photography for its own sake, I think I've got a new favorite camera...
