Family, Photography and other misc news
Well thats it.The holiday is over and we are back home and back to the routine of work. While I took my wildlife kit I did not manage to get any great shots this time unlike my week on the Shetlands in 2013 but it was a great holiday nevertheless with some fantastic live archaeology being done in front of our very eyes and new discoveries being made.
A while ago, Leica published some details about potential issues with the CCD sensors in their M series cameras. https://brown-family.org.uk/m9-ir-cover-glass-corrosion/
Until now if you had the issue Leica would replace the sensor with one from stock that potentially could have the same issue.
Well good news from Leica, they have announced they have developed a new generation CCD sensor for the M series and from now its these that will be fitted to Leica CCD rangefinders.
We are very pleased to inform you that we have successfully completed development on our new generation of CCD sensors and conducted subsequent quality assurance testing under practical conditions. As a result, Leica Camera AG can now begin replacing the sensors in the M9, M9-P and M-E models that were affected by corrosion with sensors from the new generation.
Sensor replacement for M Monochrom models will also begin shortly. We will inform you of the precise date of this as soon as possible.
On this note, we would like to remind our customers that we can only offer replacements for CCD sensors for cameras affected by this particular problem; prophylactic replacement is not possible.
We thank you for your patience and for your loyalty to the Leica brand.
Read more on LeicaRumors.com: http://leicarumors.com/2015/09/01/update-on-the-leica-ccd-sensor-issue-for-the-leica-m9m9-pm-em-monochrom-cameras-2.aspx/#ixzz3kxP5faRu
Leica M8.2
Leica Elmar-M 24mm f/3.8 ASPH
24mm, 1/2000 Sec at f/4, ISO160
Post Processed in Adobe Lightroom CC2015.1 V6
On a MacPro, OS-X 10.10.5
If your into archaeology, wildlife or even scuba diving, the Islands of Orkney are one of the best places in the world to visit.
For this this visit we concentrated on the archaeology and while we visited and entered the tombs of Maeshowe which was as spectacular as we remembered once I had managed to climb inside, and also the site of Skara Brae were the stone age (neolithic) homes are remarkably preserved.
But for us the highlight of the trip was the Ness of Brodgar, this site was discovered just after our last visit ten years ago when the local land owner went to plough this field for the first time. Immediately he hit stone and after the geo-physics had been done it was revealed that the whole site was covered with the remains of stone buildings.
For the last then years for the the eight weeks of summer they did at this site and discover more, its one of the great finds of prehistory in the world, a temple complex over five thousand years old.
Orkney is a fantastic place to explore, if your into walking, wildlife, arts or crafts and especially history then there is something to see.
The coastal scenery is just stunning, this shot is just a quick snapshot from my iPhone as we walked around one of the tiny uninhabited islands to visit an old viking settlement.
Everywhere you have everything from stunning beaches to stark cliff’s, while we did not see any puffins this time there were plenty of cormorants and other sea birds.
In the first few days we visited the main towns and then went off and found the famous tombs of pre-history that Orkney is famous for.
Some of them like the Tomb of the Eagles had a entrance only three feet high, lucky there a trolley which you could lie on and a rope to pull yourself along.
These early trips gave me lots of ideas for photographs and i’ll be revisiting them later on in the holiday with something a little better then an iPhone to photograph them better.
Every two to three years we visit some of the smaller islands that make up the British Isles. The term Great Britain is just the name used for the largest of the islands that make up the British Isles, but all the habitable islands and some of the uninhabited islands are well worth a visit.
We took a couple of days to get up here but finally arrived at the top northern coast of Scotland. From here we took the car ferry to the main and largest Orkney Island. Its here where we will be stopping for about a week, using it as a base to visit three or four of the other main islands including at least one uninhabited island.
As you can see from my snapshots the dogs and people had a good crossing over to the islands and so far the weather has been unusually fine for the Orkneys.
We are on our travels at the moment, our home, pets and chickens are being looked after by Caroline’s sister who is treating that as a holiday herself and from the sound of the chickens are keeping her entertained!
Are first major stop was Brora, a small village on the North East coast of Scotland, high-up above Inverness.
The village where we are stopping is having a Scarecrow festival and it seems the whole village has gotten involved. I had a quick walk up and down the high street and snapped a few photographs with my iPhone.
What film is a question now that many film photographers will argue over.
For colour I tend to shoot Fuji, with Velvia on large format being one of my favourites but tricky to use due to high contrast.
For Black & White i have generally stuck with Ilford and HP5+ rated at 400 ISO and have never used Kodak Tri X which many rave over.
So I have placed an order and got a pack of Tri X to have a go at. It might be sometime before I show any of my work with it as my film use is only occasional but I look forward to giving it a go.
The reviews are now starting to appear on the websites for the new Sony, its certainly got a killer spec and many are saying its a real D800 killer, though with the Sony habit of not using 14 bit none lossy RAW files unlike the Nikon D800 and Canon 5D I cannot see many people who do serious post production wanting to switch.
The big advantage is size, its only slightly bigger then a Leica M and being mirrorless you have the choice with adapters of lots of lens.
I keep wanting to like the Sony’s with there small size and high performance but the native high quality glass is significantly larger then micro four thirds or even Leica M glass, thus once you start to carry the glass you kind of have lost the advantage of the small body and might as well carry your D800/5D.
For now i’ll keep using my Leica M8 for my small format needs.
We have another photo trip coming up soon, off again to the Orkney Islands, so the thought again is what to pack
There is of course the general carry camera, which will be my iPhone and Leica. Then its gets a little more difficult. Standing stones and stone circles are on the island like the one above I photographed on Harris a few years ago with my Leica M8. I would like to use Large or Medium Format, then there is the wildlife on the islands, so digital SLR with long lens, but you really do not want to be carrying too much up there.
The D800 is close to medium format in performance so that will be used for wildlife and where I would want to use medium format, leaving room for me to take the large format gear.
So it looks like it will be: