Thanks Charles, I think you should pick up a either a MP, M6 TTL or M7 to complement your M9s. You already have all the cool glass, might as well go the full distance with film M. It's fun.
charles.K wrote:
I am fascinated with the ressurgence to film and love the work that have been presented, but I don't think I could revert... not for now
Joe, excellent film shots! Love the colours
Charles, the best thing with film is you get great colors with very minimal pp.
My shots above are low res scans from the local drugstore.
shaunmlavery wrote:
With my film M, I have a lot more keepers, therefore, scanning a whole roll works for me. If I were to add a lightbox in my workflow, that would be one more piece of equipment to own, use, store, etc.
I think my lightbox was about $20. It's only about 1/2 inch thick and maybe 10"x12". It's pretty small. Out of all the 'extra' pieces of equipment that might complicate your workflow, if you shoot film, I would highly recommend getting a lightbox.
I find it pretty useful since I also print traditionally.
Luka, thanks for noticing I'm starting to get the timing down better with the 9's shutter release. Are you using the first gen, or current gen MacBook Air? I picked up the current 11" in October and love it. Perhaps in retaliation for the M9 purchase, my GF claimed it as her own last week and I'm back to lugging around a MacBook. Who knew 2 pounds would make such a difference.
MBA in its native environment - the airport:
Even though they might be shots of 'nothing' you seem to be putting the 35 Lux to good use.
Charles, should we get a separate Leica at airports thread going? haha... though I won't be able to contribute anything for a while, not knowing when I'll have the camera back and not having any travel planned for the near future...
Here's another one from Toronto back at the end of November:
The long march from the U.S. commuter plane subterminal to pass Canadian customs and immigration interrogation. To add to the tedium, there's me standing there on the other side of the glass photographing them... like animals in the zoo, haha. It felt a bit awkward, but I couldn't pass up the opportunity. It's part of what I've been dealing with while using the M9 - getting used to working in a normally uncomfortable distance from subjects while still maintaining some discretion.
I have to admit, I haven't entirely ruled out buying another used M9. I still feel it's too dear new, but used it's in line with what I would pay for a Canon DSLR like a Mark IV... and apparently the vendor I bought mine from has more used ones in the pipeline for January... something to think about.
More from Toronto:
All were with the ZM 35 f/2.8
Lightboxes - a laptop display showing a white screen should work pretty well if a page of negatives is held a bit of a distance from the screen so you don't also see the pixels with the loupe. Perhaps another use for the iPad? If anyone markets a $5 lightbox app, I want a cut!
Ron, yes a separate Leica thread for airports would be great
I would not think of weilding a 5DII in the airport, the same as I do freely with a M9. I am curious about the MacBook Air, as I have the MacBook Pro 17" both for business and photos while I am travelling. I do like the 17" screen with high resolution, and running W7 64bit. The convenience and size would be excellent!
Very nice shots Ron Shot #1 could be used directly for an ad for the MacBook Air
Joe, I am tempted with film, but do love the digital PP now!
The last time I wandered around the Toronto airport with my 1D while waiting for a flight, a police officer asked me what I was doing... haha... What is perhaps more interesting, in the years I've been doing that, it was the absolute very first time that ever happened, either in Canadian or US airports. In Germany I have also never had a problem. But it really shouldn't be a problem because it's in the secure zone and theoretically everyone in it has been checked...
Regarding the MBA, I like it a lot (I have a brief review posted on my blog). It's not as underpowered as the specs might indicate. Though it's not a powerhouse and I wouldn't want to edit video on it, for photos it's definitely usable. It's about as fast processing RAW files as my MacBook, and that's pitting a 1.4 GHz processor against a nearly 3 year old 2.2 GHz CPU. The big difference though in terms of how the MBA 'feels' performance-wise is probably due to the SSD. Apps pop open immediately. Boot is very fast. Personally, I could never travel with a 17" portable as I feel that's stretching the term laptop to the point where it's not really portable. The 17" MBP at least looks portable, whereas some of the PC brands are huge.
Ron, excellent blog about the MBA. Very nice shots though... I must admit I love the 17"" matt screen, even with the larger and heavier foot print! My previous laptop was the HP I7 15" which is larger and heavier than the MBPro17, and about 50% slower.
Empire wrote:
rscheffler, I cant see any of your images.
If i try opening them in an individual tab I get a 403: Forbidden message...
Hmm... is anyone else experiencing the same problems?
It could have been a momentary issue with my web host. Their servers seem to be unresponsive from time to time.
Or FM is being flaky, which might be more likely. It seems to happen from time to time, especially late at night east coast USA time. About an hour ago, possibly when you were having the problem, I was browsing the Zeiss thread and experienced similar issues viewing photos from others.
I just tried viewing the previous page in another browser that I didn't use today and it worked fine, so it shouldn't be seeing cached images.
The 403: Forbidden message is intentional. I've disabled hot linking of my images to non-allowed sites, which also disables viewing on their own outside the context of the page the link is on unless they're already in the browser's cache. Sorry for the inconvenience.
Charles, really nice shots with the 35 Lux II! I especially like #1 as it really shows off the drawing style of the lens.
Ron, nice airport shots! Airports are really good setting for photography - you have highly regular and symmetric architecture and a lot of people.
Regarding the MBA - I've got a second generation (i.e not the latest one) - 1.6 GHz, SSD. I run both OSX and Win7 but basically only use the latter. I don't use it a lot except for presentations now and then and when I travel. My regular workstation is a dual processor 8 core beast with 24 GB memory, so I find the MBA to be a real pain to use for image processing in comparison.
I envy you printing traditionally! I don't have the space to do that and I was never taught/nor developed the art of printing. It really is an amazing process. I do, however, develop some. I am waiting for some to come to me so I get knock out a few rolls.
joe
You are abolutely right. Shooting film gets you out of the whole PP part. Yout get the color you want from the roll you select and you get a nice big fat histogram.
ron
I have had a ssd in my mac for the past year or so and it is amazing. Like I mentioned previously, my mac is down and everything I get on is a dog! Click an app, its open. Click 10 apps.....they are all open. I have been making it with 80gb startup drive and 320gb drive in place of my superdrive for photos/music.
Shaunmlavery - I love working on BnW prints in the lab, but really really hate doing my own color prints. Just reading your comment to kidtexas makes me wanna setup a little darkroom in the corner of my studio
So I have a 50/1.5 ZM coming in the mail... I hope I get it before New Years Eve, but I doubt it.
Will play with it and the 50/2 ZM to see which (if any) is worth keeping..
Still waiting for a good deal on a 35 pre-asph lux, 50 asph-lux, 75 lux or cron-asph
I have given up on the idea of 28-50-90 as 28 is to wide for my taste (I never use the 28CV) and 90 is to tele for an M9 IMHO.
So eventually I'll have a tight little kit consisting of mainly a 50, but 35 when extra coverage is needed and 75 for portrait type shots and candids when a wee bit of reach is needed. Hopefully I find good deals on all these lenses before my wedding next Sept., since I'll want to have the M9 strapped around my neck for my whole wedding. I even managed to talk my fiance into letting me snap photos of her walking down the isle towards me
I taught myself printing (and photography) in just the past couple of years. I print in the bathroom. My enlarger, bought used, sits on a $30 microwave cart that I wheel into the bathroom when I print. Trays used to go in the bathtub, but I've graduated to a bigger bathroom and set them on the counter or a collapsible table.
The bar for entry is pretty low. The most expensive piece of darkroom equipment is my enlarger timer that I got new. You could definitely get a nice used one in for $50 or so, or even free with a craiglist enlarger, but I really wanted an f-stop timer.
Adam, I saw some 75 summiluxes for sale at classicconnection. Don't know if they are in your price range or if importing it is worth your time.
Ron, very nice airport shots and the pic of the Mac Air looks like an excellent one for an Apple ad. With all the recent TSA issues and heighten security, I tend to be very careful when taking pics inside airports, especially staying clear of security agents or the passport control area. Don't want to risk missing my flights.
nice family pic Charles, glad you like the 35Lux
kidtexas, good to see someone still printing in the darkroom and enjoying the process!
Lovely shot Charles. I expect that the Lux II isn't too different from the Lux I in terms of rendering style. It can take some time to get used to a lens though. It is not always love at first sight, so to say - some lenses grow on you instead.
He has the original 35 Lux ASPH, not version II (and not the Aspherical), same I do.
I am quite surprised how much you like this lens, Luka, and would be interested to hear more details about why, and why the Leica rendering isn't turning you off. Based on this, perhaps the 50 Lux pre-Asph might be another lens that you would enjoy. The version to get is the one with the built-in hood, the latest version before the ASPH. This one also has a soft rendering style, with a little funkiness here and there, but a very good lens, good enough to stay in Leica's lineup (in one form or another) for over 40 years. I know, I know, it will be used, but with Leica, you can always pay a little more and get an unused copy from a doctor or a dentist
