Author: Richard

Since the Canon 5D and Nikon’s D700, we have a growing number of full frame cameras coming on the scene.

Until recently if you wanted small and a mirrorless option then there was only the Leica M9 and the recent M.

Now we have Sony with their A7 and A7R, true full frame mirrorless options. Before that Sony even released a full frame compact the RX1.

It would seem everyone wants full frame now and it does have a number of advantages.

First it’s traditional and the original small format invented my Leica. When we say a 35mm lens with that field of view we all know what we mean. Even now when you use a 24mm on a DX camera they are often marked as 35mm as it has the same field of view on a DX camera.

It allows one to separate foreground from the background by using narrow depth of field.

Lastly there are image quality advantages to 35mm full frame. The large sensors allow for larger sensor pits allowing more photons to be collected improving sensor signal to noise ratios, as demonstrated by the stunning Nikon D3 when it was released.

So Full Frame Good and DX, MicroFourThirds, CX Bad?

For those of us who love rangefinder cameras then there are only a few options.  Especially when we want to use digital rangefinders.

Currently there are three in manufacture all by Leica, the ME, the MM and the M.  The ME is basically the old model M9 rebadged and a few tweaks made and is now the budget rangefinder.  This of course is Leica so budget is £4000.

I would love Leica rangefinders to be cheaper but Leica is a small company and the rangefinder mechanism is very costly to produce.  With the M people are reporting far better focus and it looks like Leica made major improvements to the rangefinder tolerances.  It is not unusual for rangefinder photographers to regularly send their lens and rangefinder camera’s back to Leica to be re-calibrated.

So if you want the real budget option then secondhand is the way to go so like me many rangefinder lovers use the M8 and M8.2.  Unfortunately while the M9 is still in production as the ME and parts are still being made, the M8 has been out of production quite some time.  Also the company that manufactured some of the key components has now gone into receivership and Leica have been informed that they will receive no more M8 parts.  A number of M8 users with failed M8’s have been told they cannot be repaired.

So this is a worry now to M8 users and has also meant that prices are slipping again for M8’s, I have seen them as low as £1000 and £1500 for an M8.2.  If your shutter fails there is still hope as the M8.2 has the M9 shutter assembly and this can be fitted into the M8 and M8.2, but for some of the major electronic components there is now no repair option.

It does make me wonder whether to start saving now for a second hand M9 or M or maybe order a Leica T to at least give me something else I can use my Leica glass on should my M8 fail.

Its such a shame that while digital has in many ways given us better cameras they have such short lives, my M4 is now many years old and with the occasional service will last much longer then I will.

 

I was visiting the RedDotForum and included with David Farkas excellent review was a video about using the touchscreen on the new Leica T.  If your interested please check out his review and find the time to watch the video.  Its a great in-depth review and while you may dismiss it as David Farkas is an admitted Leica lover it is a very fair review.

The above shot is straight from my Leica M8 with my standard Adobe Lightroom M8 People preset applied, I left the White Balance as the camera had set it.

One of the advantages of modern digital SLR’s from Canon and Nikon is that you can rely on them to get the technicalities of a photograph right.

White balance, exposure, and focus; all taken care of and generally done very well.

With Leica until the new Leica M 240 and the recent Vario X and Leica T; while the optic’s of the older cameras could never be faulted the electronics were always a little behind the times.  The Leica M8 which I use and even the M 240 when first released had a poor colour profile and decidedly iffy white balance.  Now with the latest updates both cameras are very good, though I do still carry a grey card for those tricky situations with my M8 as it can still get caught out more often then a Leica M9 or M 240.

Its an area that at least Leica and also a few other of the more minor camera manufactures are doing well at, continuing to release updates and improving there older camera.

With the dark of the Drill Hall and the overhead spotlights I suspected my little Leica would have a hard time getting the white balance right but it surprised me.  With the old CCD sensor I did not shoot higher then ISO640 and stopped my lens down half a stop to f/1.8 so depth of field was at a minimum, with moving subjects and manual focusing I am very pleased with the results.

Would a digital SLR been a better choice, well possibly, there were others there with SLR’s and they were also using flash, they would have gotten technically better images but people were noticing them and reacting to them.  People either did not notice me or ignored me.  The small rangefinder in these situations has an advantage and one that is shared by many of the latest compact system camera’s, though many of them would have struggled to focus in the low light and with there laggy EVF’s may have struggled to get the shot in those conditions.  If I had any choice of camera then I think a Leica M or Fuji X100s would have had the best chance of getting the shots.

Leica M8
Leica 50mm f/1.4 Summilux-M
50mm, 1/90 Sec at f/2, ISO640
Post Processed in Adobe Lightroom V5.4
On a MacBook Pro, OS-X 10.9.2

This weekend was my eldest brother’s, youngest son’s wedding.  It was held in Aberdeen and with half the wedding group being Scottish then it was everyone wearing their best kilts.

Bob my eldest brother could not be persuaded to show off his legs but the rest of the Brown’s on that side of the family were persuaded.

Altogether a great weekend.

 

With all this talk about the fantastic Fuji X-1T, the new unibody got to have it Leica T, and my absolute need for a carry anywhere has an optical viewfinder Fuji X100s lust; I now have a very bad case of GAS (Gear Acquisition Syndrome) .

For me some cameras are a must have. My large format Ebony and my medium format Hasselblad are not just cameras but objects I love owning and using, they bring a real pleasure to me in using them.

My Nikon digital SLR’s are working tools, real goto tools when I have to get the image. With macro gear, flash and lens ranging from 12mm to a fast 300mm f/2.8, there is no job I cannot do. Or feel I can tackle with confidence. But while the Nikon gear is very good it does not inspire me the way my Ebony, Hasselblad and Leica’s do.

This weekend I had the chance to overcome my GAS, with a very enjoyable family wedding in Aberdeen, Scotland.

Being a guest and not the photographer at a wedding for a change, it was nice to relax and enjoy. I wanted a camera to inspire me, that had great image quality but was small, light and would not get in the way.

It had to be the Leica M and I picked just two lens, a 35mm Summicron and a 50mm Summilux. Simple and light.

The professional photographers booked for the wedding all had Canon 5D’s an excellent choice for a wedding and a fantastic tool, they all came over to Ooh & Aahh over the Leica. The first photographer asked was it a Fuji then almost dropped his 5D when he saw the Red Dot.

My Leica’s always attract positive attention from other photographers yet are unnoticed by the general public.

Enjoying such a simple setup really makes me think do I need another camera, and if I did what do I want from it that my other cameras cannot do.

It would be a replacement for the Nikon V1, be a small grab and go camera when I don’t want to take a bigger camera with me, but in a number of ways that is what my current Leica already is. So do replace the Nikon V1 with a Fuji X100s or Leica T, or actual replace it and the Leica with a weather sealed Lecia M 240. The T is a budget Leica but can be a spare body to my current M8. I would have to add the EVF and adapter which would drive up the cost. The Fuji X100s does not seem to fit in here, it’s very like the Leica M, but has a fixed lens. It’s advantages are the viewfinder and it’s leaf shutter making daylight flash very simple.

So while this weekend has weakened my GAS it’s certainly not cured it.

Well its been announced and several photographers I trust have released reviews.

First a comment to the Leica Haters, get over it.  There are lots of cameras to choose from, for some of us; we shoot Landscape on our Large Format 4 x 5 inch film Ebony’s, for others they use their Smart Phones and both sets of users are happy.

The best hater comments I heard was that it was a rebadged about to be released $99 Samsung running Android or a re-badged Sony Nex-5.

For a German built Leica I throughout the price was very good, yes its expensive but this is built far better then the competition.  While I prefer direct controls like the Leica M and the recent Fuji X range, Leica should be applauded for trying a different control layout.  While we have had touch screens before, nothing quite like this has been seen on a camera.

First the good; image quality is up there with the very best and the build quality head and shoulders above the rest of the pack but then so is the price.

Down side, no bracketing no exposure lock, no built in viewfinder, no optical image stabilisation, Leica feel currently that in sensor or optical stablisaton impacts image quality too much.

I could go on but the best option is to check out the review sites.

luminous-landscape.com

stevehuffphoto.com

mingthein.com

Lens wise things are a little limiting so far but there are two other lens to follow early next year, the Leica Super-Vario-Elmar-T 11-23 /f3.5–4.5 ASPH, and the Leica APO-Vario-Elmar-T 55–135 /f3.5-5.6 ASPH. These are 17–35 mm and 80–200 mm equivalents in 135mm terms.

While we might make the same complaint about the current zoom as was made with the Lecia X Vario, that it is too slow, you cannot fault the quality.  Unfortunately due to the laws of physic that even Leica cannot get round you can have lens that are small/high-quality/fast – pick only two.

So the big question, would I buy one, honestly I do not know.  It would make a good replacement for my Nikon V1 and act as a spare body for my Leica glass.  The current limited lens range would not impact me as much as I have several Leica M lens I could use.  It would not though be my carry everywhere compact camera.  The lack of direct controls and a viewfinder would be too limiting for me.  I think for me the Fuji X100s is a better everyday choice but I have to admit I could find room in my Leica bag for one of these, the EVF, and mount adapter and I am sure many other Leica M users could as well.

With its modern controls it will be a camera that splits photographers, for those that can see beyond the price and remember that Leica are a tiny company without the scale of production to bring down prices like the Panasonic’s/Olympus/Fuji and Canon/Nikon’s of the world its worth considering.

One last interesting thing is the mount diameter, its very large and would cope with a full 35mm sensor, is there a Leica T Pro waiting in the wings!