Coffee Shop

I love good coffee.  The major brand shops offer consistent coffee but for great coffee its often better to seek out the independents.   Those that buy in coffee from independent coffee roasters with relationships with small coffee growers.  Coffee at its peak, roasted to perfection.  Many towns now have small independent coffee shops and the better ones do source there coffee from the better suppliers.  We in Lincoln are lucky enough to have several independent coffee shops and one in particular is excellent.

I try to at least twice a week get out into Lincoln with my Leica and shoot a little street photography but to also occasionally take a few snaps in the coffee shop

 

Medium Format Mirrorless

I have had the joy of using film Hasselblads with film backs and digital backs.  The V series is a great classic camera, better suited for film rather then digital but does work well with my PhaseOne back.

We had the near joint announcement from both Hasselblad and from Fuji of there upcoming medium format mirrorless cameras.  We now have three medium format cameras with cropped sensors designed round ease of use, the Leica S, the Hasselblad and the Fuji.

I have had the opportunity to handle the Leica S and the Fuji but I have not yet managed to try the Hasselblad, but Steve Huff now has one of his reviews published on this camera.  Of the three the Hasselblad and Leica are my top two options but the Fuji is a winner on price.

Leica Q and more Colours

If your after a fixed lens, 35mm full frame digital compact the Sony RX and the Leica Q are where its at.

The Sony has the more practical 35mm focal length but the 28mm focal length Leica has a fantastic EVF.

Its now appearing in more colours with rumours of more to come.  Leica have some fantastic cameras and some rather overpriced and over hyped cameras, but its the over priced special editions that have for a long time kept Leica afloat.

Saturday Walk


Saturday Caroline had a few jobs to do in Lincoln, so I had Caroline drop me and Timmy the Greyhound off in the centre to have a good walk round.


With Timmy’s lead in one hand and a Leica M in the other critical photography is not easy and I would probably have been better of with a small autofocus camera like my Nikon V1, but I enjoy a challenge.

iPad Starts to come of age with iOS11

iOS11 has really made some great improvements to the iPad.  With the dock available when you want it, better multiscreen support its getting close to replacing a laptop for light work.

Adobe recently made some great improvements to Lightroom Mobile.  If your an iPad Pro user and have the Apple pencil you now have pressure support when editing, so that with iOS11 is really moving the mobile photo editing space forward.

Nikon and Mirrorless

I like my Nikon V1; I also hate somethings about it, but it was a great start to get Nikon into mirrorless. The problem was Nikon do not seem to know what they want to do with it.

Its likely now that the Series 1 system is dead, which is a shame as it did not need much to fix the issues. Now the rumours are that Nikon are going to release a new mirrorless system, likely based on the DX sensor but once again with a new lens mount.

I feel they should re-introduce the Series 1 range but with a more enthusiast body. The rumoured DX model should have the F mount and can replace the bottom SLR models and also could handle a pro mirrorless option.

From what we had with the V1 its likely that Nikon are going to aim low and please no one.

iOS Test, process photo and blog all from my phone

Today’s post is a bit on an experiment.  Apples iOS and the apps are getting better all the time but you need to push yourself sometimes to see what you can do.


I had a work around the city and came across this interesting character.  I took a quick snap and then had a chat with him about photography and film.

Afterwards I popped into my favourite coffee shop to have a break. While there I decided to do this test.

I switched the Leica M10 into wireless hotspot mode; connected to it and downloaded a few RAW DNG files to my camera roll on my iPhone 6Plus.

I then launched Adobe Lightroom Mobile and edited the above image, boosting the contrast and a slight crop. Then saved it back onto my camera roll.

I then launched my website editing software. Wrote this post and uploaded the image.

So there you have it. All done on an old iPhone 6Plus.

Lens of Character

In the early years of photography, post production was limited, while darkroom skills did become very advanced, at the start you had to get it right in camera.

All lens had a degree of character, today we are used to lens that together with software lens profiles give us a view close to real life, correct verticals and aberrations removed. We now choose lens based on there size, speed, and range of zoom.  Any affects we had later in software.

Because some defect in lens design was always visible, lens designers began to make a feature of it. Lens with sharp centre and dreamy edges, romantic vignette etc.

The Lomography company has over the last few years been making a name for itself by reintroducing some of these old classic lens.

Leica joined in back in 2016, by reintroducing the 28mm Summaron-M. Now there are very strong rumours that Leica have a new camera and another lens, this lens is going to be one of Leica’s portrait lens with a distinctive software focus affect. I look forward to seeing if the rumours are true.