Re: Realist vs Kodak

[LDAEnt@xxxxxxx]

One interesting thing that turned me off of the Realist camera is the total
unfriendliness of it's design towards using a normal angle flash bracket.  I
was ready to add the Realist to my stable of cameras (Kodak, Wirgin, Nimslo)
for wedding photography until I screwed it onto the bracket.  It was
impossible to operate the camera with the bracket.  I have never had this
problem with any other camera.  Since I need to use the bracket for raising
the flash higher and to the side to avoid red eye, the Realist fought me all
the way.  The bracket also lets me carry the camera and flash around at my
side , ready to whip into position to take the quick photo. A good flash
added to the Realist makes for a heavy combination, a bracket is very
helpful.  At weddings I very rarely fool with the focus on my Kodak or
Wirgin, I set f/8 or f/11 with a focus distance set at 15 feet.  For indoor
shots this covers about 90% of the situations.  Outdoors I just move it to
INF.   I can't remember ever losing a shot due to focus (certainly other
things, but not focus).  I certainly feel that rangefinder focusing is a good
thing, technically speaking, but practically speaking I have never regreted
not having it.   Even with a rangefinder focus ability, you still have to be
very aware of just what you are focusing on and the effect of depth of field.
 When I use my SLR's I find that often I will not focus directly on the point
of interest but rather some other point that I know will produce an
acceptable range of focus for all objects.  I will try different focus points
and then read the DOF scale on the lens to see the effect.  So in essence I
often use the split image finder to test DOF effects and choose the best one
rather than critically focusing on the point of interest.  Of course if you
don't have great depth range in your shot then the ability to critically
focus is beneficial, but not essential.  I just finished taking some pictures
inside of Texas Stadium at a football game and I was forced to use f/3.5 on
my Wirgin because of the film I was using.  I was really afraid that at this
aperture my DOF would really be a problem with closer objects but the results
were very good.  I couldn't even tell that I had the lens wide open, my DOF
was great for all shots.    


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