The old Hive, Ilford HP5 Plus, Leica M4, 35mm Summlicron
Leica M4
Leica Summicron 35mm f/2 ASPH 6-Bit
35mm, 1/250 Sec at f/5.6, Ilford HP5 Plus ISO400
Processed in Kodak X-Tol developer
Post Processed in Adobe Lightroom CC2015.2.1
On a MacPro, OS-X 10.11.1
I was after trying out some Kodak Tri-X film that I had just bought and the Leica M4 had only three frames left of Ilford HP5 Plus, my current favourite film, so I went for a quick walk round the village where I live in the hope of using it up.
Many of us in the village keep chickens and several of us either keep bee’s, have kept bees or are about to keep bees so this view from the high street attracted me. While personally for bee keeping I prefer a national hive with 14 x 12 brood box, an old english WBC hive as seen above is the prettiest and with the double skin practical for colder climates, but with the small brood chamber its not the most practical, thus many sit disused and used as ornaments in gardens.
While I love the Fuji X100 range, I hate the Trans-X sensor and propriety RAW formats, though I have to admit that the sensor does produce nice Black & Whites; but the one thing I love about Fuji is their continued support of old cameras with continued firmware updates that increase the functionality and the life of their cameras.
Now I know I have written a lot of Leica posts recently, but I have to apologies to my readers, that despite the start of this post talking about Fuji this is, as you can guess from the title another Leica post.
Today Leica announced a new firmware update for the Leica T, once that many T users will be glad to see. The new 1.4 firmware update offers significantly faster focusing, X2 if the press release can be believed and a X3 increase in general responsiveness of the camera.
For the last three months there have been many rumours that Leica are ending the T camera and its TL mount, but in the last week we have seen new lens announced and now a new firmware which hopefully will address the few issues that T users have been having.
Also due soon is a firmware update for the range finder M range of cameras and the old Leica X2. We had an update to the old M8 in the last year so its great to see companies like Leica and Fuji supporting their old models.
There is also a rumour of at least two new Leica cameras being announced soon, a Leica X-U and the new M rangefinder. Its the M I am interested in and I am likely to put my money down for either a M-P 240 or the new version if its significantly better as soon as its announced. The rumoured X-U is a mystery, its either an X series camera with a built in EVF and if based on the current X 113 would make it the perfect compact and a great 35mm field of view version of the Leica Q, or an interchangeable lens version of the X capable of taking the TL and SL lens.
Its going to be an interesting next twelve months. We also have rumours of Nikon and Canon introducing their full frame versions of the mirrorless Leica SL, so that will be three professional full frame mirrorless EVF based cameras. In many regards both Canon and Nikon have advantages over Leica, as its likely that the Nikon will use the F mounts and the Canon the EOS mount thus be fully compatible with their existing lens ranges, while Leica has to slowly build its SL system over the coming years.
Lets also not forget Olympus with their pro OM-D E-M1 and growing range of f/2.8 lens and the Fuji X-T1 and there should soon be a new X-Pro1 for those users who want a rangefinder styled body with autofocus.
It hit the business news sites on Saturday that Toshiba may be selling their sensor business to Sony.
If you read the blogs you will hear that Sony design and manufacture sensors for Nikon and others. Well maybe the lower end cameras use Sony designs but the higher end models are Nikon designs manufactured by a number of different contracting fabs.
The majority of Nikon sensors are made by Sony but Toshiba also manufacture sensors for Nikon. This will certainly strengthen Sony’s position and weaken Nikon’s.
It has been a busy weekend, Saturday had us rained out, so all the plans for the garden went on hold. The evening was spent up at A&E with Caroline’s dad. He was kept overnight but released on Sunday afternoon.
That gave us Sunday morning to dig up the winter potatoes. We were not expecting much but was pleasantly surprised. To test them out we did a nice salad for lunch with potato salad as the star.
In the now free plot we dug in some compost from our well manured compost heap, another benefit of keeping chickens; and planted next years onion crop and two varieties of garlic, which will be a first for us.
While all the news has been with Leica’s new SL camera, they quietly released two new TL lens for the Leica T. The two new primes a 35mm f/1.4 Summilux and a 60mm f/2.8 macro.
While these lens will work on the new SL, they are built for the DX sized image circle thus on a SL would produce a 10 MP image so there are better matched to the Leica T.
I usually try and avoid the forums after a camera launch but fail then get very angry when people do not understand a camera or judge its output based on a tiny sRGB 8-bit jpg on a webpage.
Well apart from the above, whats winding me up at the moment is all the negative press about the size of the Leica SL. Yes for a mirrorless camera its big, your talking DSLR Nikon D750 size and the 90-280mm f/2.8-f/4 is a sizeable beast (note thats why it comes with a tripod collar).
But we have seen some very misleading photographs showing off the new Leica SL. The top one camera and grip with the large pro standard zoom in the hands of a small model, then the next less showing a professional photographer who has one on loan from Leica with a small prime lens fitted.
Unless someone told you, you would not know they are the same camera.
Anyway rant over. If you don’t want a mirrorless camera with the best EVF, best lens and according to pros who have used it and processed the images, quality that is up there with Medium format cameras then fine, but don’t lie about it and critic it honestly, e.g. the ergonomics do not match up to the Leica S or any of the pro body Canon or Nikons, and yes i’ll agree its pricey.
Today we had the Leica press conference. I was hoping that it would share the Leica T mount and that is correct, I was also hoping that they would release two bodies, one cropped DX and one full frame, but no, just one body, and for now just one lens, but lots more coming. With it being compatible with the current T lens you already have a choice of lens and adapters will be available to use your ‘M’ glass, ‘S’ glass and ‘R’ glass.
Leica are marketing this, not as a small mirrorless camera, but more like their Medium format camera the S, or in this case an mini S, the SL is a S Lite; full frame sensor with no compromises, more a Nikon/Canon Pro camera competitor and not a Sony A7, and while they state is has the best autofocus of any mirrorless camera I doubt it would keep up with a Nikon D4s or Canon 1D.
With no compromises being taken the lens are large and formidable. The mount shared by the Leica T and the SL which was the ‘T’ mount is now called the ‘L’ mount. Lens that are designed to offer full frame coverage will be called SL lens, while lens designed to over APS-C (DX) coverage will be called TL lens.
The spec of the camera is current but not outstanding. While large it slightly smaller then a Nikon D810 and slightly lighter, the first lens the 24-90mm is about a 100 grams heavy then the equivalent 24-70mm Nikon lens but then this goes to 90mm.
Viewfinder is EVF and the best in class; 60 fps and a resolution of 4.4 megapixels, this is quite ground breaking. I cannot believe I am saying this but the sensor at 24 MP is good but on paper not as good as Nikon’s 36 MP in the D810 or Canon’s 5DS R at 50.6 MP, but we have seen lower megapixel sensors trounce higher counts before and the Nikon still out resolves the Canon when using the right Zeiss Otus glass. ISO is interesting as the base is 50 to 50000 so this could make a good studio camera.
Twin SD card slots and a built in 2 GB RAM, it also features wifi as most cameras do now and a GPS receiver.
While on paper it ticks all the boxes a lot of people are going to unhappy for two reasons; the price, but then its a German made Leica, and second its size and weight make it more like a D800 sized camera then a typical mirrorless.
I can see a lot of Leica R shooters loving this camera, its very like an updated R, but with its large size if your after a high quality image possibly the Leica S maybe a better option.
Still it shows that Leica are really developing as a modern camera company; with the T and Q both showing different approaches and the traditional M and the outstanding S we now have a whole range of stunning cameras.
We had this Monday free so I spoke to my local BMW dealer and asked to borrow a BMW R1200RT. This is a boxer twin cylinder, my favourite BMW engine with lots of character as denoted by the first R in the name, so a more recent and more powerful version of the boxer twin in my current R1200GS. The last two letters denote tourer.
The loan bike in question was a special addition RT with all the toys, including different engine profiles, handling and suspension profiles as well as the ability to ignore the clutch when riding in a spirited manner and cruise control.
This is the second time we have tried out the RT, as a tourer its hard to beat, but we need more than that from a bike.
The primary use for us for a motorcycle is commuting, which is a mix of minor country roads, dual carriageways and city roads and traffic with extra potholes thrown in for free.
The secondary use is for holidaying. Being able to cover big distances in comfort for the two of us, plus carry luggage. But once at the destination we tend to leave the comforts of the main roads and head out of very minor roads to remote locations around the British Isles and Europe.
Lastly I want a bike we can both easily ride.
Our current GS is great for commuting, is OK for long distances and luggage and brilliant at minor roads; it is a poor bike for Caroline, its sheer size and height makes it a challenging ride in some situations.
Crossing the Ford
This ride was to test out some of the more challenging Lincolnshire roads but first we set the seat from high to low and Caroline gave it a quick try.
It felt light and very well balanced with the weight being low, easy to handle. The big plus was the seat was plush and very comfortable.
We then loaded our day sack into the left pannier after first learning how to use the central locking for the luggage and off we went.
The first section was fast dual carriageway, the front screen was electrically adjustable as we rode, so I put it all the way down then slowly brought it back up until the buffeting and wind noise disappeared, Caroline immediately commented on the extra comfort this brought.
We took a scenic route through Lincolnshire testing out the bike on fast to medium slow roads a first, playing with the cruise control and other toys. In this situation the bike was outstanding and very good, the GS is just as good but possibly not quite as comfortable. I would say the GS was quicker but then I have been riding GS’s for over seven years now and RT’s for a total of about two days so not a fair comparison. I could certainly see the RT at being great at covering the miles getting us to the remote holiday destinations we love.
We arrived at the little seaside resort of Sutton on Sea and stopped for lunch. It was an easy matter to pull the bike up onto the bike parking area (possibly meant for bicycles) but it meant we were not using up a car space thus did not need a ticket ;).
Next surprise was when we tried to store the helmets. Caroline’s crash helmet does fit in my GS top box but mine is a struggle. Both our helmets easily fitted into the panniers, the luggage capacity of the RT is simply immense.
Being at the seaside and despite us both being on diets at the moment we indulged in a lovely fish and chip lunch. Once refreshed we headed up the coast road picking more challenging and twisty routes to take us back to the BMW garage.
As a bit of an experiment I took a number of corners in a gear too high. Many bikes run wide but the GS is unusual in that it can be pulled round corners no matter how tight, extremely quickly and easily. While the RT was no GS I was happily surprised at how well it handled, you noticed its a bigger bike and while slower through the tight bends it could handle them well, it certainly would not put you off tackling some of the more tricky rural roads the UK has to offer.
Before heading back we took in a local town to see what the RT was like in slow town traffic and as expected, no issues; the low centre of gravity and easy riding position made it all quite easy. While the view ahead was not in the GS league that was less of an issue. If I was to do a lot of commuting on an RT then I think the side panniers would get left at home and I would manage with just the top box and a tank bag.
While in town I had a quick fiddle with some of the information screen options. The instantaneous fuel reading was very interesting. On average during the ride so far I had managed 57 mpg, not bad for such a big bike, in town with a mostly closed throttle the instantaneous reading was hitting 80 mpg and only dropping to 60 mpg when I opened up to pull out and hit the gaps in the traffic.
Back at the garage it was with a certain degree of sadness I handed over the keys, but while there I took the opportunity to pick up another pair of BMW gloves, my last set lasted me over five years before needing slight repair and considering I ride over 250 days a year in all weathers that is very good.
We certainly will not be buying a new bike this year but the RT has given me a lot to think about.
Thanks to Marshall BMW at Grimsby for the loan.
Oh and on a photography note, I spotted a number of possible landscape scenes on the trip and also the RT has a locking glove compartment, next time I’ll have to check if something like a Ricoh GR or Leica Q can fit in there.
Sony are really the pushing the envelope with their cameras. Olympus, Fuji and Sony are coming up with some of the most interesting cameras of late.
For people who do a lot of post production there are good reasons why Canon and Nikon digital SLR’s or Medium Format; or dare I suggest as a Leica fan, a Leica, are the cameras to go for.
Better dynamic range and more importantly 14-bit RAW files are the key. Try editing a 8 bit jpg and you will soon end up with a posterised image if you go to far.
Olympus are not too bad, but Fuji has issues with its X-Trans sensor and Sony have only had 12 bit RAW files, not good enough for many professional photographers.
Well its now all change, the latest Sony is being released with 14 bit RAW and a firmware update is coming to give this ability to some of their older cameras.
Sports Photography, needs an SLR, Fashion Photography, Medium Format, Landscape Photography a Large Format Camera.
These used to be the rules, but then digital happened and the rules changed. Modern digital SLR’s surpass in resolution the old film Medium Format cameras and come close to rivalling current digital Medium Format cameras.
Today it can be more about choosing a camera you enjoy shooting with then choosing the ‘right’ camera.
But somethings are easier with the appropriate camera, and you would never consider using a Black & White only rangefinder like the Leica Monochrom for sports photography. In the link above that is just what somebody has done and a great result to. The top photograph of mine was taken by a Leica, also not a choice for wildlife photography.
It is surprising sometimes when a shot comes up, you use what you have with you.
