I haven't posted anything here for several days. To be perfectly honest, I have been over to the dark side - checking out the A7rII. It's a great camera, and I have enjoyed shooting with it, but it falls far short of producing the level of satisfaction I get from shooting with my Leica gear. I don't want to delve too deeply into pros and cons here; that's a topic for another forum, and it has been done ad infinitum. Suffice it to say, you will not see either my M or MM on the Buy Sell forum any time soon.
We had an awesome thunderstorm here this afternoon, and so I grabbed the M and my VM15 III and headed over to the beach, which would normally have quite a few sunbathers on a Saturday afternoon, but not today due to the storm. Finding the beach deserted on Labor Day weekend was a pleasant surprise. As an old fishing buddy of mine would often say, "I would rather be lucky than good."
These were taken at the Grayton Beach State Park in South Walton County, Florida.
relms wrote:
To be perfectly honest, I have been over to the dark side - checking out the A7rII. It's a great camera, and I have enjoyed shooting with it, but it falls far short of producing the level of satisfaction I get from shooting with my Leica gear. I don't want to delve too deeply into pros and cons here; that's a topic for another forum, and it has been done ad infinitum. Suffice it to say, you will not see either my M or MM on the Buy Sell forum any time soon.
No lust for r2 here whatever. But I like what the guys are doing with it And I find Sony's manic camera design highly entertaining. BTW those are lovely, Reims.
@Chas. Wow I would not have guessed the cron was always WO in your night shots I'd suggest you explore the whole range of your lenses as the situations and your mood allows. Not because I think "there's something missing" in your shots. Not at all. But thin DOF, and the flavor of a straining lens design is just one thing. The lenses offer much much more, and really few peak till 5.6 or f/8. My last one is f/4 where the ZM 35/2 is on fire to a degree just not possible WO. One of the 28 crons great strengths is f/11 with a giant DOF to rival a UWA, yet still fantastic charm and clarity. In some of those streets this effect could be very interesting. F64 for a shot Not instead of those sweet high speed shots, but in addition to They all stop down a bit differently, which his part of the fun.
To continue with pics from the workshop.
Right after the first meeting Robert send us out to the' Leitz Park ' with the assignment to do everything different than usual. Though this sounded easy i had really problems with the task and was not satisfied with my contribution.
I was using the 21/1.4 on a M 240.
The 21/1.4 is, as you know, a big, heavy and costly lens. It performed perfect on the M, personally i would not buy it as the 1.4 at 21 mm is of doubtful use for me.
One word on the, for me new, M 240.
It is a very big progress from the CCD Leica's. I used the EVF quite often it was very good to get critical focus with wide open shots and high speed lenses. What's good is still not close to perfect: The EVF is not the best one, it fell off the cam some times and not to be able to move the magnified focus point is very restricting.
The cam itself (from Leica) crashed a few times during the workshop.
One of my contributions to the task (ervything different):
As you can see my whole 'different creativity' was to change the horizon....
PS: To answer the question of costs: The workshop was priced about 900 Euros. The price differs of course depending on the workshop
PS II: Relms: i was off here due to the same reason as you. Shooting with the new A7RII. I would not sell my MM of course either. But one has to admit and be pragmatic (and not religous) that the 7RII is extremely good. A real challenge for the new to come M
Werner_Utsch wrote:
PS II: Relms: i was off here due to the same reason as you. Shooting with the new A7RII. I would not sell my MM of course either. But one has to admit and be pragmatic (and not religous) that the 7RII is extremely good. A real challenge for the new to come M
Werner, I agree, the A7rII is an excellent camera, and Sony is leading the pack in innovation, which is interesting, because it is usually the smaller companies that bring us amazing products out of garages; think of Apple in the early days of Jobs/Wozniak. That Sony is responding to consumers with rapid-fire responses is mind-boggling. It is pretty obvious that Sony has developed an organizational structure that has empowered its engineers to design and develop products without having to move their ideas through layer upon layer of administrative bog.
I plan to keep the A7rII for what it is: another tool in my toolkit that can do things that are not possible with the other tools I own. Competition is good for everyone, especially for the consumer/user. Sony has raised the bar for capabilities and for expectations. Management at Leica, Canon and Nikon will either rethink or restructure, or they will become the next Kodak, a once great company that failed to innovate. (Hello, Wetzler, are you taking notes?)
relms wrote:
I haven't posted anything here for several days. To be perfectly honest, I have been over to the dark side - checking out the A7rII. It's a great camera, and I have enjoyed shooting with it, but it falls far short of producing the level of satisfaction I get from shooting with my Leica gear. I don't want to delve too deeply into pros and cons here; that's a topic for another forum, and it has been done ad infinitum. Suffice it to say, you will not see either my M or MM on the Buy Sell forum any time soon. ...Show more →
I tested out the A7II recently, and while I can find no objective fault with it (it is a terrific piece of gear with a load of good features) it only stayed with me for a week. I'll take the M9 with all its warts any day.
@chas - I prefer to think of the 90AA as 'perfect' rather than 'sterile'. I am the same as you with wanting to avoid doubling up at focal lengths though, so no 90 pre-AA for me either. 50/1 is quite an alternative!
@charlie - thanks, it's through a dealer, and probably destined for 6-bit coding/CLA down the track too but definitely duly noted.
that zm18 shot of hills - and Gary's lakeside one too - wow to both.
A few random moments from around work (90AA, 50 Lux x2)
Werner, TY so much for the cost info. Gorgeous shot of the art and floor. Awesome color in that one.
Rene, I like that desktop Inspires me to try and shoot some in my travels.
Joakim, I have that lens, but it's way off calibration. I should try to learn it, you remind me how it is excellent. I was shooting my elk with it just the other eve on the A7.mod. I have the 85/1.8 too. These are serious classic glass. Love your shots with it
Pingflood: it's crazy, for such similar sized objects shooting the same lenses, the A7 and M9 are chalk and cheese. I often am carrying both. Love that old snag.
Coogee: I like that dog For a proper CLA the 75 Lux is heated for days to soften the glue, or so I hear. If the blades are dry and glass looks good I would let no one open it. Much more risk involved than our other lenses.
Thanks Charlie, mine is also of calibration but I used it with the EVF all the time which is fine by me since it's not a focal length for fast shooting anyway. This was my first time out with the lens but I like what I've seen so far.
Not instead of those sweet high speed shots, but in addition to 
