M or R?

Always Nikons (film) and now Canon (digital). Always an M on me with Tri-X, even when shooting digital. I just picked up a Leica D-Lux3 which is wonderful for a “have-it-all-the-time” digital. You should check out an R9 with a 90mm f2.0 Summicron. Wonderful, wonderful combination. I understand the macro lens (60mm?) is fantastic, too. The R’s have always just been too expensive for me to consider. Same with new Porsches. Oh well.

i use r because are cheeper than m series (especially now with the digital) and because personally i feel more confortable with the r system. i have 28 f2.8 and 35 f2.0 with r5 and r6. r5 and 28mm is my favourite combination

On a tangential note: I belive Salgado used the R system for much of his latter work.

One and counting…..

R’s were ill conceived and problematic, especially the R8 and R9. I wanted an R3 Safari many years ago. Instead I kept my Minolta SRT.

To add to Omar’s reply:

I believe Sebastiao Salgado used an R6.2 with 28mm and 60mm macro during his ‘Workers’ days. I once read he carried no less than 3 of those R’s around during reportages – maybe because they weren’t very reliable? :-)

Thomas—he always had a camera loaded with Tri-X and another with T-Max3200 (or similar). So, he had a fast and a slow. I think he mixed M’x with the R’s, too.

John, that’s correct. He used an M6 classic for his 35mm. These days he’s experimenting with medium format for the Genesis project, I believe.
On a personal note, I think he should have stuck with shooting people, rather than nature and animals – you just can’t be great at both…
But that’s a different story.

Thomas—I hate to bring up the “D” word, but I would guess he’s not shooting any digital? (I don’t know why he’d need to.)

John – I have absolutely no idea, but I would guess Salgado doesn’t NEED to shoot digital: he has the privilege of spending a lot of time on his work, and works with some of the finest BW (darkroom)printers around. He’s also sponsored by Kodak and Leica – he’d be a fool to go digital ! ;-)

Plus Salgado has his work on coffee cups Hahhaahhaa.

Salgado shoots medium format film for Genesis. In July I went to the Nature Photo Festival at La Gacilly (France)where a dozen of his Genesis pictures were hanging outdoors in the village (two by one meters or even bigger). Quite impressive.

About the initial question: I use both systems R and M with a range of lenses. I use the M system (15, 28/35/50, 35, 50) more for taking pictures in a discrete way,when the light will be poor and when I want to travel light. I use the R system (21-35, 24, 50, 35-70, 180, 75-200)when I can work in a more leasury way and if I need longer lenses. I really enjoy working with each system for different reasons.

My limited 2 cents.

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