Category: Photography

With my day job in IT, I generally work from home but I’ll pop in Lincoln usually at least once a week as I have a client there.

I’ll often have my Leica with me and will snap photos of buildings and people. You never know when you might take a killer shot.

Leica have partnered with phone companies before, but this looks to be their most ambitious collaboration. Lens and interface by Lecia with some manual controls.

I do use my iPhone camera sometimes when nothing else is around, but personally I prefer a good compact or would cary my Leica M10.

The best thing about mirrorless is the ability to mount so many classic lens. Some people are very apprehensive about using manual focus lenses so a number of companies produce adapters that not only adapt the mount but offer additional functionality such as closer focusing ability or in the case of Megadap, they offer autofocus ability.

The Nikon version of this for the Z mount has been out for a while but now they finally announce the Canon RF version.

The way some of the classic lens render is not as clinical as some modern lens are some very beautiful images can be produced.

January saw snow, and I took a number of photographs testing out my Leica 24mm M lens on my Nikon Zf.

Then just a few weeks later we have temperatures over 10C and it feels lovely to see the sun again.

When Nikon came out with their first Z cameras, they release the traditional modern trinity to go with them. The Z 14-24mm, 24-70mm and the 70-200 f/2.8. There were essentially minor reworks of the latest F designs, better but not as good as they could have been given the advantages the new mount gave.

Recently we had the new 24-70mm and now they have announced the new 70-200mm f/2.8.

Smaller, lighter, faster in focus; and finally it comes with an Arc Swiss foot.

The best thing I like about it is the new control ring which can click or be de-clicked. So if your using it for aperture or exposure compensation or maybe ISO, your less likely to knock it to another setting.

This was a quick snap taken with an old Nikon S3 compact camera.

There are two ways that people take street photographs. Shove a camera in someones face and get the picture, or ask them first for permission.

I prefer the later and you can get much better shots I feel and most people do not mind at all.

Canon have a f/2 zoom a useful but short range. The 24-70mm and 70-200mm f/2.8 constant aperture zooms are the standard lens for most professional photographers.

Now Tamron announce this, a constant aperture zoom from 35mm to 100mm, this is an extremely useful range with most of the competition being either 24-105 f/4 or 25-120mm f/4.

This lens is going get a lot of attention.

Announced today for the Sony E mount and the Nikon Z mount.

If you’re a zoom user then this is an easy question. Wide angle zoom to 24mm if that’s your thing, then a 24-70mm, 24-105mm, or 24-120mm. If you’re not into ultra wide, then drop the wide angle zoom and add a 70-200mm. If the middle ground is not your think then a ultra wide zoom like the 12-24mm f/2.8 and the 70-200mm f/2.8.

But what if you are into primes and want to travel small and light. Well its down to what you photograph and what focal lengths you enjoy.

When travelling with just my Leica, I take three lens, 24mm, 35mm and 50mm but you can argue that a 35mm and 50 are too close together. A 24mm or 28mm and a 50mm make sense but not the 35mm. If you had the 35mm your more into thinking about a 75mm, 80mm or 90mm. Many wedding photographers who do not use zooms often have a 35mm on one body and a 75mm / 85mm on the other.

I think it if was general use I would favour a 28mm and a 50mm. If I was shooting fashion with a model in the city streets then likely a 35mm and a 85mm, I might if shooting Nikon go as far as the stunning 135mm f/1.8 S Plena. Though I do know of one top New York fashion photographer who now uses a Leica Q with its 28mm lens for everything.