Family, Photography and other misc news
Leica M10
Leica Summicron-M 35mm f/2 ASPH
35mm, 1/90 Sec at f/5.6, ISO200
Post Processed in Adobe Lightroom Classic V15.5.1
St Mary’s Church in Horncastle, Lincolnshire.
I should have taken a wider lens, but only had my walk about Leica 35mm Summicron with me so this is a stitch of several images put together in Adobe Lightroom Classic.
As I may have mentioned I love music, whether its playing it badly, or listening to it.
When out and about while I have my phone and Apple Airpods for listening to music I actually tend to use either an old Apple iPod or my Fiio Digital Music Player which holds my music on an SD card. That way I cannot get disturbed from my phone.
All my songs either Hi-Res downloads or ripped CD’s to flac are on there. One thing I have noticed is that sometimes the built in media players of modern DAPs can get confused and mix up media. I have a CD of Mary Spender Song Book ripped to flac which my iPod and DAP are fine with but Mary also sent out the high resolution wav files to her fans. My main home system Roon has no issues with these but the built in media player from Fiio splits the tracks into separate albums’s even if I re-tag them.
I downloaded the trial of PowerAmp which many music lovers claim is the best for Android based music players and it had no issue at all. The general user experience seems better to so as its under £10 direct from their website I may just buy it.
Most people think of the 50mm as a standard lens, I think that for general use a 50mmm is slight too long, so I own far to many 35mm lens. The Summicron 35mm f/2, the classic Nikkor F mount 35mm f/2, and the Nikkor Z mount 35mm f/1.8 S.
The rumour sites are now talking about a new Leica Summaron-M 35mm f/2.8. Most Leica users like fast glass so this will be an interesting one, is it going for a more vintage classic rendering?
Another one from my weekly trip into town for a coffee and to look round the local record stores. It was a bright sunny day but not a lot of light was getting between the hedge and the wall we were walking down.
Since the orginal Leica M10 was released we have had the D version and the P and R version and now we are into the M11 varients.
The early M10’s have always used firmware v3.x and the more modern M’s version v4.x. The lastest Q is now on v5.
One think I like about Leica is their menus, over the years they have gotten simpler and less complicated unlike most of their competitors. Hasselblad is the exception to this and also has some of the best menus and user interface in the business.
The last V3 firmware for my Leica M10 was released in January and just added for the amazing new 35mm f/1.2 Noct.
So bringing some of the older v3 cameras up to v4 and v5 for some; and slowly standardising the firmware releases.
The only new thing in the firmware is support for the new Summicron-M 66 f/2
It was released last month, but I thought with it being a big jump I thought I would wait till after my holiday.
I see at an auction recently an early Leica 0 went for over €250,000. My Leica collection consists of only one film Leica, a M4 that was made the year I was born. The above shot was taken with it.
Its fun to use old cameras and shooting black and white and developing myself is fun.
A quick grap shot from my Leica M and a 50mm Summilux, at f/2.8 it lacks some depth of field but as a once famous photographer once said, “focus is a bourgeois concept”.
As you read this we would likely have just returned from our holiday in North Wales. This was a family holiday and not a photography trip, but I had filters, the tripod and a couple of cameras with me just in case a scene like the one above on a previous Welsh tip should occure.
When the Nikon Zf was released a Small Rig grip was available right from the start. More and more camera companies are working with companies like Small Rig so that accessories are available to photographers right from the start. I can image the cage system being very popular to turn this into a really good b roll video tool, or if like me your new to video a primary tool to get your started on your video journey.
In the studio getting the colour right is fairly straightforward.
Once the lighting and exposure is all correct it’s a simple step of selecting a grey card or colour checker card and setting the white balance but what about mixed light or outdoors.
Here at the image on the top of this page we have balanced for the outdoor light and we are also using a little bit of fill in flash also at a daylight colour balance. These leaves the lamp giving a warm glow.
Outdoors things get far harder.
Now here in this image we have the golden hue of the light from the wheat and a slightly blue tinted over cast sky. The colour can be balanced a lot easier then some out door pictures.
It’s when you start to get green hues in the picture where it gets difficult. Sometimes you just have to correct as best as you can and accept that if you correct for one thing then something else will not look correct.
Sometimes I visit a place to look for future picture taking options. In this situation, maybe a phone camera will do, but I prefer a real camera. Often its my Leica or Nikon Zf that serve me in this as a note taking camera.
For quite a while I used the Nikon V1, a small sensored and small bodied camera that would always fit in a jacket pocket with ease or not be noticed when hung over the shoulder. I the the picture above with it while scouting for a location to shoot the abbey with using my large format camera gear.
I recently came across a youtube video that really well encapsulated my thoughts on this subject of scouting a location really well. Check out Courtney Victoria’s YouTube channel.