Philippe, what you did - borrowing that M - is a dangerous thing. I have purchased four Leica cameras over the last 5-6 years, and unlike with other brands I have owned, I haven't been able to part with any of them. Will the Leica make you a better photographer? Probably not, but in my experience it causes me to want to go out and shoot more, which will make anyone a better photographer.
Ron, I enjoyed your shots of the ferns. Your shot with the CV15 III is especially nice, and thank you for your observations concerning the lens. I recently acquired the ZM 15, but have only been out shooting with it one time for some landscape shots, which can be very forgiving, but sometime this week, I will head out the door with it and no other lens and put it to the test with other subject matter.
Vince, I have had zero experience using flash with an M-series camera except for some experimentation using studio strobes with a transmitter mounted on an M-9. I will be anxious to read about your experience with the SF58.
Edward, I enjoyed seeing your B&Ws shot with the ZM 1.5/50. Very nice.
Werner, I have enjoyed your series of perspective shots with the M Monochrom.
Cuong, I feel your pain regarding focusing with the 90AA. I took a dozen or more shots on a quick outing with mine the day it arrived; I didn't have a single keeper. I found greater success when keeping the shutter speed at 1/250 or higher, but still it is a challenging lens, but when you get everything right it will reward you for your patience.
Werner, like the sky and the design of the facade. Interesting that at f/8 there are still a lot of areas out of focus.
Rene, nice play with colors and the kid's expression in #2 is lovely.
Joakim, agree there is some Zeiss 3D going on Nice framing!
Clmusic, congrats on the 90AA. That 1st shot has a very nice rendering.
Robert, excellent work on the bikers. It really takes some guts to approach them. I personally would be very intimidated. 1,4 and 5 are my favorites. It does happen to me occasionally to turn the aperture ring by mistake, so it's not only you
Ron, beautiful sky abstracts, especially the last 4 shots (4-7).
Something in color a simple shot with the M8 and it's unique color rendering (almost no pp)
The "Bahnstadt" is a very new quarter in Heidelberg, my daughter who just moved out was one of the first moving in 3 years ago, with hardly any building ready.
Edward: I was very close to the facade and the building is tall, F8 @35 not enough to give DOF allover the pic (i focused on close to the start of the facade and was not looking for full DOF)
Ron, no filters just a quick test morning of video and sound capabilities. I used a video monopod, it was just quick into the canyon and out. No preplanning or prep to set up the shots. The lighting was extremely harsh.
I did have one filter a 3 stop ND so I could get 1/60 sec.
I found the Leica microphone is suited to controlled environments, not outdoors with the birds I had to boost the recording level so high that hiss made it unusable though the slight wind added to the hiss.
But this was all just a quick test. Next time it will be planned with a tripod and some filters and someday I may upgrade my Vimeo so I can play videos in 1080p instead of the 780p.
Thanks guys, for the likes/comments!
René - very serene!
Charlie - great feel to the first one.
Werner - wow, that's quite a residential development. I guess things have changed. The last time I was in Heidelberg was at the end of my film shooting era, so somewhere around 1999-2001. Hopefully these buildings will look a lot better in 50 years than some of the early post war apartment buildings that now look quite dreary and depressing.
And speaking of dreary and depressing... so often I have returned to Toronto airport from a nice trip to be greeted by very gray, cold, bleak weather. The return from LA was similar. Some shots from the inter-terminal train.
M240 & 28 Cron
Another highlight of my return to Toronto at 6:30 am, was a guy in the train knocked over his XL Tim Horton's coffee, flooding the cabin both literally and with that 'lovely' fresh brewed coffee aroma (I'm not a coffee drinker).
In case anyone is coming to Toronto in the near future, the second and third images give a bit better view of the new UP Express (Union station in downtown Toronto to Pearson airport) train that began service this past weekend. Toronto finally has a dedicated rail link between downtown and the airport. I was a week too early to try it, but maybe in the future. It will avoid Toronto area street congestion, which can sometimes be bad, but comes at a rather stiff price for a government owned public transit service: $27.50 CAD one-way, though is reduced to $19.00 if one uses the Presto stored value card that can also be used on area transit systems. There is a fair amount of unhappiness about the cost of the service being potentially exclusionary, aimed more at business travelers in the downtown core. A group of 2-3 people could get a similar combined price taking a taxi door to door, so it may not significantly reduce vehicle trips to the airport... We'll see whether the ~$450M cost of the service will be justifiable (I guess that's all relative). Being to the west of Toronto, I'd love to see similar come our way, purely for the convenience of it and as another option relative to driving/parking.
edwardkaraa wrote:
Robert, excellent work on the bikers. It really takes some guts to approach them. I personally would be very intimidated. 1,4 and 5 are my favorites. It does happen to me occasionally to turn the aperture ring by mistake, so it's not only you
Thank you, Edward.
I was a little apprehensive at first, and perhaps that explains my issues with the aperture ring, but I found the bikers to be very approachable, and in some instances they seemed more than happy to have a picture taken, especially those who had their honeys tagging along for the ride. I was engaged in conversations, learned more than I wanted to know about some of them, found that a couple of them know a fair amount about photography, and found that all of them love their bikes and fellow-bikers. Many wore patches in memory of friends who had ridden on off into the sunset.
A couple of them asked me why I was there taking pictures, and I was completely honest with them, telling them that yesterday I was pursuing my favorite pastime - to find, and shoot interest subjects, which I occasionally posted to a website. No one said no, which was surprising. Upon further analysis, I believe the real key was that I arrived mid-afternoon, at which time most of them had consumed an adequate amount of beer to loosen any inhibitions they might have had earlier in the day. Sort of the right place, right time concept.
It was an interesting, and in many ways, rewarding afternoon. I commented to one fellow that they had quite a good turnout yesterday - were they having some sort of rally? No, he said, they do this every Saturday and Sunday, and yesterday's turnout wasn't that great. Well... okay, then. I will definitely go back there.
Robert - great to get some behind the scenes color. My guess is most of the time we talk ourselves out of approaching people because we expect (or convince ourselves) that our request will be rejected. Often it's not the case and just requires a bit of banter. Still, it's something I have difficulty with unless in a very motivated situation, like on an assignment facing a deadline!
Couple from the east side of LA Union Station with the CV15 vIII for Charlie :
relms wrote:
Vince, I have had zero experience using flash with an M-series camera except for some experimentation using studio strobes with a transmitter mounted on an M-9. I will be anxious to read about your experience with the SF58.
Robert,
Never thought I would say this but I really love the SF58 with my M 240. For the longest time, I always thought that using an M means never ever having the need for a flash. I lived without using a flash for all these years, why need one. But lately, with my subject being my kids (most of the time), and the sun not being in the right place, either you need a flash or some kind of reflector, or you get really dark face. So finally pulled the trigger and got the SF 58 after reading about HSS. Would have been nice if the SF24 is able to do HSS but I think for now, the 58 is the only game in town. So far, only one outing but I think I will be carrying regularly.
VINCENT - that Petzval has very interesting output!
Ron - Did you need to do any color cast correction with that new CV15? What code did you use? Looks way better than the previous version (which I owned).
Very nice Vincent, good to see some Petzval shots on the M240. According to the Nikon rumours site they are also planning on coming out with a 58mm version in December.
Ron I like that first shot combining the curves of the dome with the straight lines of the picture.
Rene your lake shots remind me of some of the National Parks in New Brunswick I went through two Octobers ago. Very nice.
Beautiful reflections Werner.
uhoh7 - i like the dog sht in the middle. Seems so happy to be in the snow.
Ty guys, great work up there. Ron I like that work in the city, excellent angles.
Vincet, I have been very curious about the Petzeval. I hope you post more shots with the lens.
Got my 50APO back today... Took 7 weeks to tighten 6 screws. That's a week per screw and a week for transit.
I think it's about time to buy some calibration tools and learn how to disassemble and reassemble lenses.
adamdewilde wrote:
Got my 50APO back today... Took 7 weeks to tighten 6 screws. That's a week per screw and a week for transit.
I think it's about time to buy some calibration tools and learn how to disassemble and reassemble lenses.
Glad to know that Adam. One screw per week isn't exaggerated knowing Leica's meticulousness. I would have expected two weeks per screw
adamdewilde wrote:
Got my 50APO back today... Took 7 weeks to tighten 6 screws. That's a week per screw and a week for transit.
I think it's about time to buy some calibration tools and learn how to disassemble and reassemble lenses.
I have one word: DAG
I've sent two lenses into him for looseness and both came back meticulously packaged and within a short time. Was not expensive. Both SEM 21 and 28 Cron remain tight after more than a year with lots of use. Those lenses loosen traveling with hood on and below lens. So it's important to carry them properly, and the little case bag does not help
