Tag: Photography

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My New Olympus Pen

Advertising shot of the original Olympus F

I have always had a soft spot for the Olympus. Of their film cameras the OM4Ti was my favourite and it pioneered multi spot metering and high speed flash.

In the digital age Olympus has not been so popular with them choosing a smaller sensor size.

This actually gives them a number of advantages including class leading image stabilisation and a size and weight advantage over full frame 35mm, unless your comparing it to the small light, jewel like Leica M glass which has a price tag to match.

If your into wildlife photography and regularly get into the remote regions of the countryside having to carry long telephoto glass, the Olympus MicroFourThird’s system is hard to beat.

Winter colour. WIth autumn now upon us the leaves are turning red and gold and falling from the trees. He we can see yellow, gold and red leaves that have fallen from a tree and landed into a evergreen hedge.

So why have I picked the new Olympus or OM Pen. While it does not have the build quality of the orginal digital Olympus Pen F, its a small and well built camera. With a cheap 17mm f/2.8 lens bought secondhand, it makes a great little carry everywhere camera when I do not want to risk my Leica or carry my heavy full frame Nikons.

A typical suburban semidetached english house decorated for Halloween.

I had a quick walk around Boutham Park and the surrounding area yesterday after picking up my new Pen on Saturday.

I am still getting the hand of it and customising as I want but have already created a high contrast black and white custom profile I can quickly select.

So here are some of my first photographs with it.

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Leica M glass, there is quite a lot of choice

With all the new Chinese lens coming through at very affordable prices, Zeiss had a campaign on social media reminding us all they also produce M mount glass.

https://www.zeiss.com/photonics-and-optics/en/photography/products/lenses-for-rangefinder-cameras/zm-lenses.html

An old Zeiss Ikon Ikophot light meter

Zeiss light meter.

Leica M mount glass is very popular, the lens are small and jewel like, offer an interesting look and can be adapted to most modern mirrorless cameras.

Finding old classic lens and trying them out on your modern mirrorless camera can be a lot of fun, and the hunt for bargains in second hand shops and online is also part of the fun.

Railway Poplar that is a 160 years old, backlit by the sun in Boultham Park, Lincoln. Stong shadows can be seen cast forward towards the view with the sun peaking into the image through the trees.

Leica 24mm on a Nikon Zf.

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Walking around a different City

Old ships anchor on the sea front. The image is black and white and there is a dramatic sky behind.

A few weeks ago we had a holiday and visited a number of places in North Wales. We often pay a visit to Caernarfon. There is the amazing castle but also a number of interesting other building to photograph.

The weather was not looking good, so I had a Nikon Z7 and the Nikkor Z 35mm S f/1.8 lens with me. Towards the end of the day the weather started to clear and I got this great shot of the ships anchor on the front.

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Is there a Lecia Summaron-M 35mm f/2.8 Coming?

Young woman in blue corset which is undone. She is lying on a settee looking towards the camera.

Most people think of the 50mm as a standard lens, I think that for general use a 50mmm is slight too long, so I own far to many 35mm lens. The Summicron 35mm f/2, the classic Nikkor F mount 35mm f/2, and the Nikkor Z mount 35mm f/1.8 S.

The rumour sites are now talking about a new Leica Summaron-M 35mm f/2.8. Most Leica users like fast glass so this will be an interesting one, is it going for a more vintage classic rendering?

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Sunlite walk

Woman walking away, large hedge to the left and a wall on the right. High contrast black and white

Another one from my weekly trip into town for a coffee and to look round the local record stores. It was a bright sunny day but not a lot of light was getting between the hedge and the wall we were walking down.

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Leica M10 firmware jumps from v3 to v4

Topless redhead sat outdoors in an alcove. She has a pink skirt and her arms cover her breasts.
Leica M10, 50mm Summilux and Ivory Flame modeling

Since the orginal Leica M10 was released we have had the D version and the P and R version and now we are into the M11 varients.

The early M10’s have always used firmware v3.x and the more modern M’s version v4.x. The lastest Q is now on v5.

One think I like about Leica is their menus, over the years they have gotten simpler and less complicated unlike most of their competitors. Hasselblad is the exception to this and also has some of the best menus and user interface in the business.

The last V3 firmware for my Leica M10 was released in January and just added for the amazing new 35mm f/1.2 Noct.

Screen print of download page for the Leica M10 - Firmware 4.26.36.10, with the download button on the right of the image.
  • Leica M11/M11-P/M11-D/M11 Monochrom/M EV1 firmware update 2.6.4
  • Leica M10-P firmware update 5.26.35.51
  • Leica M10-D firmware update 3.25.50.34
  • Leica M10/M10 Monochrom/M10-P/M10-P ASC/M10-R – firmware update XX.26.35.51

So bringing some of the older v3 cameras up to v4 and v5 for some; and slowly standardising the firmware releases.

The only new thing in the firmware is support for the new Summicron-M 66 f/2

It was released last month, but I thought with it being a big jump I thought I would wait till after my holiday.

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Leica Collecting

Arched doorway leading to an old antiques shop in Lincoln. Two people are about to go in.
Shopping for Antiques

I see at an auction recently an early Leica 0 went for over €250,000. My Leica collection consists of only one film Leica, a M4 that was made the year I was born. The above shot was taken with it.

Its fun to use old cameras and shooting black and white and developing myself is fun.