Month: October 2016

If like me you shoot models a lot and frequent many of the common modelling forums you will be well aware of the tales of models complaining about photographers cancelling at the last moment, and also of photographers making same complaint about models.

I have been very lucky and only let down on the day once, and i was able to get another model to fill in at very (two hours) short notice.

This week I had another let down, but this time the model was professional about it and let me know in good time. This enabled me to get another model sorted and switch the dates at the studio so not one ended up being let down and now another shoot with the original model is already planned.

The top shot and the one below is the lovely Jessica Lee who filled in the first time I was let down at only two hours notice.  I have since shot with her a number of times and always enjoyed the shoot and her professionalism.

 

After the weekends camera show and thinking about some of the cameras I handled, its been a breath of fresh air to just use my Leica M8.

With my SLR I am used to having to study and learn, and practice.  With its highly programable focusing system and customisation options; its a very complicated camera, but then its a complicated tool, designed to be able to fulfil many rolls.  For what I use it for, I don’t mind this, but when shooting for pleasure its nice to get back to basics and cameras like the Leica M with just very basic settings available are great for this.

Wanting a simple mirrorless autofocus it seems that finding a simple camera like this would be straightforward but it seems they do not exist.

This week it was the London Camera Exchange – Lincoln Camera Show.

Organised by the Silver Street London Camera Exchange store, its always a good show, with stands from most of the big players.

• Olympus
• Panasonic
• Sony
• Nikon
• Canon
• Tamron
• Samyang
• Sigma
• Manfrotto/Lastolite

I would have loved for Leica to be there, as I really want to try out a Leica SL but I guess i’ll have to arrange a visit to a Leica dealer.

As in the last few years there was no secondhand stands.  This is a shame as Lincoln is a University town and has a well known audio and visual degree course and optical media courses.  Secondhand equipment is always popular with the students.

On the day there was also three seminars sponsored by Olympus, Sony and Canon.  The seminar area was very small and unfortunately the guest speakers were not given microphones, so it was difficult to hear them. Hopefully next year they could be given one of the upstairs rooms so more people could attend, and with a sound system, so all can hear.

One of the first stands I had a look at was Luxna.  If your a wedding photographer or producing pieces for corporate customers such as boardroom displays then Luxna with their visualite panels are well worth a look for there impressive visual impact.

My main interest in the show was to checkout the latest mirrorless cameras by Panasonic and Olympus.

I like the Panasonic GX-8 but its a little large for what I am looking for in a MicroFourThirds camera.

The Pen F from Olympus is a lovely and very well made camera, a little too focused on jpg shooters with its dedicated control to image styles on the front, but its a gorgeous looking little camera that feels great in the hand.

The two shots above were taken with it and while there is some noise (it was a dark room) there pleasing images which should the camera off well in its handling of difficult show conditions.  The problem with cameras at shows is your never quite sure what the previous user has set the camera to, so they rarely perform as well as then should or can.

I have to admit to being quite taken with the Pen F and if it was not for the fact I generally have a Leica M on my shoulder this would be a good choice.  Depending on what Leica do with the Leica T replacement I would say if I went for an autofocus mirrorless camera then this would be up there on my shortlist.

As well as Olympus the other camera I stuck a memory card into was the Fuji X-Pro2.  I do like cameras with optical viewfinders, and so have always had a soft spot for the Fuji X100 series and its X-Pro.

I was slightly disappointed with the optical viewfinder in the X100T, it showed far more edge distortion then I remembered, I suppose I am spoilt by the optical viewfinders in my Leica M4 and M8.  The Fuji X-Pro2 was better but still showed some edge performance issues in its optical viewfinder.  As these are viewing optics and not used for the actual picture taking then it does not affect picture performance but it is disappointing but at least you also have the option of the built in evf.

While I am not a fan of the X-Trans sensor, the Adobe Camera RAW engine does do a better job then it used to, and I was not surprised to see the shots I took with the Fuji to be the best and cleanest shots of the day.

With the optical viewfinder on the Fuji it is easier to miss focus like in the example above but I am sure with practice one would nail focus most of the time.

With the bigger sensor the Fuji files were noticeably cleaner and freer of noise then the Olympus camera, but looking back at my images taken at the show with my 2006 Leica M8 with its Kodak APS-H 10.3-megapixel KAF-10500 CCD image sensor; a sensor that its considered to be ‘noisy’ I was very pleased with the results.  I did cap the ISO on my Leica at 640 and shot at f/2 so that was an advantage, while I shot the Fuji at ISO 800 and the Olympus at 1000 to 1600 ISO so not a fair comparison between any of these.

I had a quick look at the latest Canon EOS M5 mirrorless solution and was very surprised at how well thought out it was, I particularly like how you could customise the rear touch screen and use it to select focus point while the camera was still at your eye.

The surprise of the show was the Manfrotto Digital Director, a small computer thats built into a iPad holder that enables tethering, not the only solution for tethering but it was a particular impressive demonstration and supported a RAW workflow, always important for me.

I was actually looking for information on the Lastolite knitted curtain backgrounds for my home studio but the brochures had all gone.  Also in the Manfrotto corner were surprisingly enough some Gitzo tripods, the smaller series 1 traveller was particularly impressive.

All in all a good show, it was a shame we had no secondhand stalls and it was too much to ask for Leica being there at such a small regional show, but it was fun to handle the latest gear.

 

This Sunday its the annual LCE show in Lincoln, there is a couple seminars I would like to attend and also look forward to trying out the latest Sony, Olympus and Panasonic mirrorless gear.

For more information check out LCE’s website here:  http://www.lcegroup.co.uk/EventOpen/?758

Its been rumored about for a while but this week Leica announced a real blast from the past, a remade 28mm Summaron from the 1950’s, at only 2 cm’s long this is a great little pancake lens, and as its main use is going to be for street shooting then the f/5.6 aperature will not concern most people.

Saturday was a foggy Autumn day; it was an early start as I had to take Timmy the Greyhound for his morning walk.  Predawn it was very foggy going across the fields but the weather forecast was more promising then Sunday.

I had arranged to meet Chris at Hartsholme for 08:00, but was running late.  It was misty and not a lot was going on, Chris was already setup and was trying out his new Fuji X-T2 and long zoom.

With the low light and high ISO the pictures were nothing special but it was good practice.  I decided to go with a more creative interpretation as in the top picture.

I see we now have lots of Leica special editions appearing.  Thats usually the sign Leica are trying to make as much money as possible out of the old platform before releasing the new M.

I am still waiting for the new M to be announced before I decide which M to get, either the new M or the old M at a budget price, likely the updated M type 262.  The downside of the M type 262 is no live view and for the odd occasion I use a Leica for intimate boudoir photography, live view has its uses.

To make the budgeting worse I am still looking for a small everyday, autofocus mirrorless solution.  I would love a Leica SL but its a little large, so currently Olympus are the top of my list followed by Panasonic, but I an still interested in what the Leica T replacement will be like as a DX crop factor will work better with my existing Leica glass.