Leica M Glass on Nikon Z Cameras

Nikon Z 7 II

The advantage of mirrorless designed cameras is the flexibility it gives you in lens design. Its because of this that we have seen some amazing glass coming from Nikon for the Z range.

Cafe windows.  A black and white shot of a local Lincoln cafe.  There are chairs and tables outside leading to an old stone arch in the background.  This is the Lincoln Stonebow.

Its also because of the short flange design that means you can use other lens on mirrorless cameras. Techart have now released their TZM-01 adaptor that allows you to not only use M glass in your Nikon Z camera but it also allows autofocus.

When it comes to manual glass I use some of my old Nikkor AIS manual focus lens with the FTZ Mark 2 adapter, but I was also treated by my lovely wife at Christmas when she bought me the Voigtländer M to Z Adapter, so you will start to see a few pictures taken with my Nikon’s using my Leica glass.

Rumours of Leica being sold again

Fashion shot of model wearing a black dress against a grey background.  She is looking stage left with her left hand to her face.
Leica M8 with Summilux-M 50mm

Dr. Andreas Kaufmann bought and saved Leica, to help finance the expansion and conversion into a luxury brand as well as a camera manufacturer for many professional photographers, he sold about 45% to an investment company. Every few years rumours appear that the investment company are going to sell, and these rumours are about again. This time Zeiss they say is interested in buying.

We will see.

Outdoor shoots

Model stood in wheat field, she is topless and just wearing a skirt.  Her hands are covering her breasts.

Working outside is something I enjoy. Its not something I do often and its always a bit risky with the weather in the British Isles.

Now we are in the middle of winter my thoughts on these cold days do start to dream of warmer days and what I may want to do when the warmer weather does arrive.

Lincolnshire is a rural county and its not too hard to find a friendly farmer with a remove field to take photographers like the one above.

Ricoh GR IV Monochrome

Lincoln high street, a woman is walking towards the camera on her phone.

So I posted a while ago that Ricoh had made a development announcement of a Black and White GR compact. Well today the retailers started to accept pre-orders. Here in the UK its £1600 which for a dedicated black and white camera is the cheapest yet.

If your after a dedicated black and white camera, then its this, a Leica Q3 or Leica M, unless you have the budget for a medium format black and white digital back.

Snowy Week

Snow covered lane, with high hedges on each side.  There are trees in the distance and the sky is a bright blue.

This week has been cold and snowy at the beginning of the week and wet and cold towards the end.

The few times the sun came out I grabbed the camera and took a few snaps. Nothing special but you never know when a great scene may come your way.

A walk along the river, in Wales, a church can be seen in the background with the Welsh mountains behind.  There is a frost on the ground.

Black and White Deep tone

A black and white high contrast image of a village pub, its dark as night is falling. Pools of light are visible from the external lights of the pub and a woman is passing walking her dog.

Many people like Fuji because of their film presets, and while other cameras offer them, its been Fuji that have captured the imagination of photographers.

Nikon have custom picture controls and now with their cloud service its even easier to create and share your presets.

The shot above is a simple high contrast image with the preset Black and White Deep Tone applied. Great for dark and moody pictures like this.

Model Brook, simple strapless dress, hair up, low contrast black and white image.  Brook is holding her hair up and looking to camera right.

Of course shooting RAW you can take an image anyway you want. The above image had the contrast lowered and just enhanced for Brook’s hair.

Black and white image from the studio of Kimberly wearing a pair of briefs and stockings.

Of course in the studio lighting can be used to enhance or reduce contrast like in this image of Kimberly.