Sony have really been pushing at the envelope of camera design in the last few years, with DSLR’s with EVF’s, the Sony NEX range with the great NEX-7 and NEX-6 and now the new A7 and A7-R.
One thing I have noticed about these cameras is that I see a lot of pro photographers who have them, using third party glass. While the good glass is slowly coming is been manufacturers like Leica who have made great sales from these cameras.
While shooting wider then 24mm can be troublesome using Leica glass on the Sony as the cameras lack the special micro lens that Leica have developed for the Leica M range, it still gives great results.
While releasing good cameras is one thing its the system that can make or break a camera.
Chris Bennett recent made an interesting blog post about DSLR ver Mirrorless cameras.
In the article he mentioned that I shoot with two Leica’s for my street photography. Since the introduction of the SLR in the sixties the Leica rangefinder and of course range finders in general (I also love the Nikon S) became very much a niche product.
Today Leica is again very popular, but not their cameras, it’s the lens that people love.
With the introduction of the Mirrorless camera many old lens have become popular again. Due to mount design and very small flange distance, just about any lens can be fitted.
But why are Leica lens so popular? Well there are a number of reasons, first the image quality is second to none. Second is the size, three high quality primes easily fit into a large coat pocket.
Leica M4 Film
Of course there are odd people like me who love not only Leica lens but Leica cameras as well. What is it about a Leica that causes people to still use them, effuse about them and generally love them, despite the price.
My M4 has no meter, no auto modes, its as basic as they come. The viewfinder of both the M4 and all Leica M’s for that matter does not show exactly what you will get it in fact shows a lot more depending on lens. I find that when out shooting with the M4 I really have to think hard about my photography. I have to regularly meter with an external light meter, and meter in different directions in Autumn, Winter and Spring. If shooting with the sun behind and then I see something to the side I may have to change the exposure by up to two stops. I have to be fully aware all the time what the light is doing around me.
What then about the M8. This is Leica’s first digital Leica. So it does have some automation. A built in light meter which is basic but functional. You still need to consider what the light is doing and how it may fool the meter.
So using the Leica’s makes me much more aware of what is going on around me and that can only be a good thing, I have to be prepared, have the camera pre-set and pre-focussed. No autofocus on any Leica M.
But what makes an M an M. Well if you know your German, you may know. Messsucher is the German would for Viewfinder and Rangefinder combined which is what a Leica M is and is all about.
If you have ever used a professional full frame Nikon like an D3, or a Medium Format Camera you will realise that since the we got digital viewfinders have been going down hill. The viewfinder in a Leica M is simply brilliant, and by that I mean bright and easy to use and focus. You can see clearly and in low light, more importantly with the frame lines you can see what is about to come into the picture and so pick the decisive moment. I makes capturing these moments even with the lack of automation easier.
The rangefinder is not an easy focusing method, it requires regularly practice, and I find if I have not used the Leica’s for a few weeks it takes me longer to focus then any other method, but once in practice is is surprisingly fast. You may be interested that in the last year of shooting with my M’s I have only one badly focussed picture.
So the Leica M, not a camera for everyone but one that rewards practice and the pictures I take with it, I know are the result of my hard work and not the computer in the camera.
With the house move as well as Caroline having her own sewing and craft room, I have my own office which I use as my digital darkroom. I am still in the process of getting everything set up the way I want but one of the new purchases to make editing easier is my new Wacom Intuos Pro Tablet.
When you talk about Tablets then Wacom are the market leader. Many people love tablets others prefer the mouse. If your thinking of trying one then you have to give it a good try. The analogy I heard was this “For the first week its likely trying to use a paint brush with your feet.”
I have to admit, the first few days were difficult, I could definitely use a mouse or tack pad a lot easier and get better results. I have now been practicing for just over a week, a mix of just messing about, plus some actual serious editing in Adobe Lightroom and Adobe Photoshop, but as well as that, I have been using it for just general web browsing and controlling the computer. I am now getting to the point where it is starting to get to feel natural.
This weekend I gave it a good try out in Adobe Illustrator, I made a scale plan of the bottom of the back garden so I could start to make a plan of where to site the chicken coup and bee hives to fit in with the current garden layout as I wanted to leave the main tree and statue that we have at the back. It was my first time using Adobe Illustrator and its a very odd program. Like its name sake Adobe Photoshop it has a very steep learning curve. I watched a few tutorial videos on the internet but it is still a very confusing program for a beginner like me to get the hang off. Still it allowed me to use use the tablet while I concentrated on the program.
The quick arctic blast came and went. It started with a minor frost in the morning so did not effect the commute into Lincoln. The evening was another matter, travelling home in -2.5C at night on country roads is no fun. Still it makes the photography interesting. The frosty lincoln west common with low sun through the trees looked very pretty.
I often see nice photo opportunities when stuck on my morning commute. They never seem quite as nice when I go back with some free time and a camera. Such is a photographers life.
It’s quite some time since I spent a day in the studio so I am going to plan a session in early December. So if your a model feel free to get in contact.
We love crafts of all sorts and local artisan food. Recently I got to know Scott who as well as being an IT geek is an expert in the dark arts of Microsoft Exchange; spends his spare time at the family pub, or to be more precise in the old stables at the back of the pub.
Here Scott has converted the stables and created the first new Brewery in Ingoldmells since 1898. Well on finding this out we had to find an excuse to make a visit, and so this Saturday we spend the morning visiting local furniture places trying to source a large dinning room table. Afterwards we headed east to Ingoldmells to drop in and visit Scott at his Leila Cottage Brewery. After a chat and a quick tour we headed into the pub where Scott kindly treated us to a free couple of beers. Of the three I think Ace Ale was our favourite and we will definitely be placing an order for Christmas.
With the local baker in our village and several Lincolnshire Breweries, a local coffee roaster its seems the old arts and crafts are doing well in the Lincoln area.
If you have any local crafts people, do please try and support them otherwise all we will have left will be chain stores and supermarkets.
I use a password manager on my phone and computer, I have a lot of passwords to remember for lots of different systems and as I change many of them every month keeping track of some of the more seldom used ones can be difficult.
My password manager of choice, SplashID stopped working after the last upgrade on the laptop, but still worked fine on the phone.
The other day I finally got round to searching the web for the answer to my problem as it would crash after I entered the password ironically!
A quick search of their support area soon found an answer.
Unfortunately the fix did loose me all the data but as I had the data still on my phone a quick sync remembering to set the phone as source soon had all my data back.
Always good to have more then one copy of your data!
The trick is to find the com.splashdata.splashidmac folder in ~/Library/Containers/ and rename it. Then relaunch the app and log in. It then works but has no data. Set your phone as the source, re-sync and your back in business. Once you are sure everything is working delete the renamed folder as there will now be a new one with your configuration that works.
Well its the end of the MotoGP season for 2013 and Marc Marquez becomes the youngest ever MotoGP Champion.
Its been a great season with good performances from the British Pair in the Tech 3 team. It is a shame that Cal Crutchlow has to move on but lets hope with Audi investment Ducati will become a force again in MotoGP.
It was also sad to find out that the BBC has lost the coverage of MotoGP, they did a good job and made MotoGP accessible for everyone.
What then about the M8. This is Leica’s first digital Leica. So it does have some automation. A built in light meter which is basic but functional. You still need to consider what the light is doing and how it may fool the meter.
