Author: Richard

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3rd Party Lens – Voigtlander

Picture of a selection of Voigtlander lens, this is a link to their website.

Many people by a camera and then stick to that manufactures lens, and with good reason. They do tend to be slightly better. Often for cost saving reasons people will go for 3rd party lens.

As many who use MicroFourThirds cameras have discovered, having a mirrorless system opens up options to many different lens, both new and old.

Voigtlander are now making quite a name for themselves with a range of older classic designs and newer manual focus lens. Some APO designs are cutting edge, others give an older shall we say flawed but more pleasing image rendering. Some even combine to give a more old fashioned image when wide open but then a couple of stops closed down give a sharp modern image.

Being a Leica users, adding one to my kit is tempting, and with a M to Z adapter the lens can do dual duty on multiple Nikon Z bodies.

But buying native Z mount version does give me electronic lens coupling, focus confirmation and aperture meta data in my images.

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Ink Cartridges – larger are cheaper

Product photo of the Epson Printer 3880

I like my prints; to truly appreciate a photography it needs to be printed and sometimes quite big. I have a Epson large wide carriage, the 3880.

Most consumer printers have small ink cartridges and the cost of ink is high. The bigger printers have larger ink cartridges and work out a lot cheaper.

Black and white studio photograph of a blonde model in a strapless wedding dress.

Still today I was doing some test prints and my printer ran out of five ink cartridges all at once. Its been an expensive day.

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Remembrance Day

Some home made poppy flowers hanging from a gate post in a cemetery with a cross in the background.

Last week was Remembrance Day.

On the Sunday before we had a church service in the village; unfortunately I was working. The grave yard was decorated with poppies as has become a tradition.

On the 11th of November we all stop for a two minute silence. We remember the dead from all sides for all the conflicts.

The poppy was blooming in the fields of death that marked the first world war. Many died for their countries. England still had an empire at that point and many nations; from the home countries of England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland all died for freedom, but also from further a field, thousands of Muslims from India came to Europe to die for their king, the old colonies sent men from Canada and Australia.

It was the First World War, the war to end all wars they said. Unfortunately not true, but on the 11th of November we fall silent and think of those who died for us in all the wars.

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f/8 and be there

“f/8 and be there” is an expression popularly used by photographers to indicate the importance of taking the opportunity for a picture rather than being too concerned about using the best technique. Often attributed to the noir-style New York City photographer Weegee, it has come to represent a philosophy in which, on occasion, action is more important than reflection.” – Quote Wikipedia

Trees on the bank, the sun coming through trees and the church in the background.

The photos in the post are not good, just snaps while walking the dog early one morning in a nearby village.

Zone focusing is something that is a bit of hit and miss for me. So I set myself a challenge this Sunday morning. I set the camera to f/11 with the depth of field scale keeping everything in focus from about 5 meters to infinity.

Cream painted house with a red roof, two small trees loosing their leaves in the foreground.

So instead of focusing I just snapped away.

Village lane with modern houses on one side. Line of trees by the road, turning orange in the autumn light.

A circuit of the village capturing the light.

Slightly blurred image of a tree. Orange and green leaves with a blue sky showing through.

Definitely something I need to practice, a bit hit and miss, but worth having a few more attempts.

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Nikon ZF Firmware 3.0

Webpage showing the Nikon Zf camera and the alternative colours its available in.

Seems all the Nikon Z series cameras with the new Exspeed 7 get an update at least once a year, and this week it was the turn of the ZF. Not only did we get the newly released silver model but new firmware too.

Nikon Zf firmware page

Great to see Nikon continue to rollout new features.

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Ricoh GR – Black & White

Street photography is often still shot in black and white. For black and white enthusiasts the thought of a dedicated black and white sensor is genuinely exciting. For most of photographers this has to now been unaffordable. There’s been a medium format digital back from PhaseOne available and Leica have a range of cameras.

Mall coffee shop with people round a table.
Leica M8 sample – Coffee shop talk

Ricoh have now announced development of a dedicated black and white Ricoh GR compact. This will please a lot of street shooters, and I may just have to have a look at the Ricoh GR again.

Ricoh GR V – Large sensor goodness in a Compact
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Hell has frozen over: A Leica M with out the ‘M’ the EV1

Leica M. The last of the rangefinders. Able to compose and see things coming into the frame, capturing that decisive moment. M stands for Messsucher, which is German for rangefinder. This has always been what has defined the Leica M cameras until today.

There are advantages to modern EVF’s, focusing modern fast glass is hard to focus, parallax issues are gone, you can see your exposure in the viewfinder, preview focus and depth of field, plus your not limited to the supported frame lines so can use wider and longer lens.

Is it an M, well it’s not a rangefinder, but is rangefinder styled and for users of M glass maybe a good option.

Lincoln high street. Old ladies with shopping bags on a wet street.
Leica M8 50mm Summilux

Check out out the reviews:

https://www.slack.co.uk/articles/elsie-the-leica-m-ev1.html

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UK On line Safety Act – Age verification data hacked

So the UK on line safety act has only been active a few months. Meant to close the door on unsuitable material but already one of the companies doing the age verification has been hacked.

As was warned now adults have had there details stollen and are now at risk of identify theft.

We are seeing vital health knowledge now blocked to minors who need it.

Its not looking good, but its looks like UK government are looking to expand and increase censorship online for the UK.