Family, Photography and other misc news
If you have shot with a film camera with manual film wind on with good ergonomics you will know that the film handle really makes it easier and more secure to hold the camera. For a number of years now the Thumbs Up company has been producing a range of add-ons to simulate the handling and improve your grip.
The new titanium model for the Leica M is certainly a piece of work and should I buy a Leica M it would be high on the list together with a wrist strap.
If the rumour sites are true then at the end of this month you can finally get your hands on the latest Leica S Medium Format Camera the model 007.
With its large buffer you can shoot 32 consecutive images, a real performance camera for Medium Format.
I got the chance a couple of years ago to have a go with the original S. If you can shoot an SLR you can shoot this, not much larger then a pro Nikon or Canon with great handling. Its not cheap but if you shoot medium format fashion its got to be at the top of your list.
You also have the choice of two lens ranges, the more expensive range has built in leaf shutter ‘s allowing you to disable the built in shutter and sync the flash to even higher speeds.
Friday I had a little time to spare so popped into the High Street location of London Camera Exchange.
The Fuji X-Pro1 is now a real bargain, and they are even throwing in a couple of lens. I was more interested to look at the compacts in my never ending search for the perfect compact.
The most interesting cameras as usual are the Fuji and Sony, The X100T makes a great compact but possibly the best Sony RX1 (and the RX1R). These while great cameras do lack a little flexibility and if your willing to allow a small drop in quality then cameras like the RX100 IV with its Nikon Series 1 like one inch sensor offer much more flexilibity.
Am I any closer to deciding, well not yet. At the moment camera funds are being put towards a new Leica M, likely the M-P (240), I am expecting prices to drop soon as we approach the release date of the new M likely to be announced either just before or after Christmas.
Some interesting announcements from Nikon this week, and if your into long lens the most interesting was the new Nikkor 200-500mm f/5.6E ED VR Zoom. Now f/5.6 may not sound fast and at 200mm its not but its typically what a consumer zoom reaches, but at 500mm its another ball game. f/5.6 is only a stop slower then a serious fast 500mm telephoto.
A very flexible lens and one I am sure will attract a lot of interest.
When it comes to cameras, Special Editions generally run into two camps. Colourful with Leppard print designs or generally interesting, useful, and new but limit appeal features.
Last year we had the Nikon D810A a camera targeting astronomical uses. Yesterday the new Fuji X-T1 IR was announced. A camera sensitive to a wider spectrum then the human eye. Lots of useful scientific uses for cameras like these but I am sure in the hands of Artists we will lots of exciting images.
Its been expected but now Adobe have announced that the latest update for Adobe CS6 is the last, if your a Photoshop user and need camera RAW updates your either going to have bite the bulet and buy an Adobe Creative Cloud subscription or use Lightroom to render the RAW’s to another format and then open in Photoshop.
Leica M8.2
Leica Elmar-M 24mm f/3.8 ASPH
24mm, 1/20 Sec at f/4, ISO640
Post Processed in Adobe Lightroom CC2015.1 V6
On a MacPro, OS-X 10.10.4
Our spare end room over the last few months has been stripped down to bare walls and concrete floor. We have plastered painted and decorated. Including painting the roof and open roof beams.
This weekend we finally laid the new floor.
We just have the beading left to put round the edge and its finished.
Then its new book cases and we can unbox the books and also finally setup my hifi. Then we have a smart new space which we can use as a reading room, music room and when necessary a studio space and even somewhere to layout quilts.
When one hears about people developing their own film one imagines that for most people this is just not an option. Who has the space to create a darkroom, or as used to be common black out the bathroom.
Well it’s traditional printing you need a darkroom for not developing. I taught Caroline how to develop 35mm film in the kitchen using Patterson developing tanks.
We have all the gear for 35mm developing and I want to start again but the driver is large format. The picture above is an insert for Patterson three reel tanks, I have been waiting for a number of months for them to come back in stock, well now they are, so together with my scanner I hope to do a lot more large format Black & White as well as giving my Leica M4 a workout.
The question next is what film?
When the GX7 was released I was very excited, up to that point cameras with viewfinders were few and far between. Now of course there much more common, from the Olympus OM micro four thirds range right up to high end compacts like the new Leica Q.
A few weekends I spent a day with the OM-D M10 a very accomplished little camera, now that the Panasonic GX8 has been announced i’ll be looking at that put also revisiting the GX7, how does it stand up to the modern opposition, if it will do what I want and I can put up with any issues it might have then it might be an option now that prices are sure to drop.