Leica released a new firmware for the M10 on Wednesday, I have not yet upgraded but have downloaded and have started checking out the forums for any issues.
iOS 11 bugs – 2nd of December restarts
I am loving my iPhone X and iOS11 has up to now been great, especially on the iPad.
But on Saturday we hit the 2nd of December and every time my iPhone 6 Plus or iPhone X received a notification the spring board would crash. I ended up turning off notifications on my iPhone X in order to be able to use it.
A lot of users have been complaining about software issues with Apple products recently and I must have been lucky as I have been problem free up to now.
Noctilux-M 75mm
We have had quite a bit of news from Leica over the last few weeks.
On the camera front we have the new Leica CL (review here from Jonathan Slack), which is growing on me but I must keep saying no. For how I would use that camera an Olympus Pen-F would do just as well and for the price I could get a few nice Olympus lens as well. We also had a special edition Leica M240 in Red.
We had the second of Leica’s old classic lens released plus they have been releasing a few of the modern lens in the old classic look lens bodies.
We have been hearing rumours over the last couple of months of a new Noctilux and not a 50mm, but some have said it will be a wide angle others have been saying a short or long portrait lens either 75mm or 90mm. Well this week we finally had the official announcement.
The new Noctilux is a 75mm f/1.25 ASPH. In the sample photographs the images look absolutely stunning, the options available to you with depth of field and the stunning bokeh. The look you can achieve is outrageous but then so is the price.
Photo of the Month – November
Leica M10
Leica Summilux-M 50mm f/1.4 ASPH 6-Bit
50mm, 1/350 Sec at f/2, ISO100
Post Processed in Adobe Lightroom Mobile & CC
On an iPad Pro
Working with Adobe Lightroom Classic, CC and Mobile
I was not sure I would use Lightroom CC (the new cloud based solution not what they now call Classic), but this month I have been playing with it a little and decided there are some useful elements that I may be able to incorporate into my workflow.
In Lightroom Classic (what used to be called Lightroom or Lightroom CC), I generally have one large catalogue on my master desktop machine. This means when I am working away I need a separate catalogue on my laptop. This I usually keep in my Dropbox.
When shooting on holiday or when round town, i’ll sometimes take a break in a coffee shop. While enjoying my coffee i’ll import the photographs using the Leica iOS app into my iPhone or iPad, these get imported into Lightroom Mobile which means if I want to later do any more editing the photographs are on my desktop machine. The issue is; if I was away from home I could only then work on the images on the iPhone or iPad as the Cloud can only sync with one catalogue and I have it set to my master catalogue. My laptop would not get the images synced across.
But now we have some more options. If working on my laptop I use Lightroom CC and store the images in the cloud. If I have used my iPad or iPhone the images also appear and can be worked on in Lightroom CC. Once back to my desktop as the master catalogue syncs with my cloud the photographs are also there, so we have a way of working on the same images across multiple desktops and devices. Useful.
A new Vivarium for Oz the Snake
We took a trip out to a local garden centre in the south of the county as we knew as well as garden supplies and plants, they also specialised in pounds and had a pet centre. As well as the usual hamsters and rabbits they had a good selection of vivariums.
Oz our old corn snake has needed a new vivarium, the lighting was starting to fail and I was worried that the heating module would also start to fail soon. Also corn snakes appreciate a bit of height to climb, so a larger viv and bigger wooden branches so he could climb more would make a nice improvement for him.
We found a lovely nice viv, on display with more height and a little wider and deeper so we bought one. It came flat packed but was easy to put together, with a new lighting and heating system we were ready to go.
Another loss – Annabel the Hen
The other week we lost another hen, Annabel.
Our first batch of hens, the A-Girls (because we called all of them names beginning with A), have faithfully given us eggs of the last few years and in turn have been give the range of the garden at weekends and their enclosed run when we are not around to keep an eye on foxes.
We now have just two, but have taken the opportunity to refurbish the coop and run. We now have a concrete base to stop the rats tunnelling in and have covered it in a thick covering of hard wood Chipping’s, which they love digging in.
Our next big task is to get hold of a new vivarium for our pet snake Oz and redecorate for him.
In the spring we will get another batch of girls; the B-Girls to keep up are egg supply and to keep us entertained in the garden.
Leica CL Digital
The Leica CL was a cheaper Leica M and did well, the new Leica CL is a camera I have been waiting for Leica to produce for the last few years and it excites me greatly.
The Leica Vario was marketed as a mini Leica M, and because of this if failed. It was a good camera and fitted a niche well but because of the marketing people were expecting something it was not.
The Leica CL takes the best parts of the Leica X series, Leica Q and Leica TL and produces a real photographers mirrorless camera.
If your looking for a new camera then an Olympus, Sony or Panasonic mirrorless camera may be better but if you want a Leica and to be able to use Leica’s TL and SL glass plus all the old M glass and even R glass in a small modern mirrorless camera then its the one to pick.
I can imagine a lot of older photographers whose eyesight is now getting the better of them, trading their Leica M’s for this and still being able to use there favourite glass collected over the years.
For many photographers its what they expected the Leica TL2 to be.
Wildlife Photography with a Leica M
I was doing a bit of market stall photography at the Autumn Market, so was shooting with my Leica M10. We also took a stroll through the grounds of the local country house and came across the deer.
Now a Leica M with a 50mm lens is not the best choice for wildlife, but in situations like this you use what you have.
Sony’s Medium Format Sensor Roadmap
With all the interest currently being shown in high resolution sensors, its with great timing Sony have released their latest medium format sensor roadmap.
The Pentax, Fuji and new Hasselblad all use the more affordable 50 MP sensors but we have 100 MP version coming in or soon after 2018. More important then just higher resolution the new sensors deliver nearly 100% faster data read speeds so expect the next generation of mirrorless medium format cameras to be much faster. For the big boys, and were are talking high end PhaseOne and Hasselblad H series cameras we have a 150 MP sensor coming soon. Exciting times ahead.