Wow...you guys sure are going strong. I have been out of town lately and it has been hard to get away, but some great stuff being posted. Welcome new guys, too .
Gary - some excellent shots with the M8....glad to see you using it more.
Charles - great portraits
Joe - love your B/W series from 9/11....great use of light
Alexandre - great shots from Madagascar!
wingmac - welcome...and nice series you posted. I really like that second shot you posted
Don't remember where I left off posting...but here are some recent ones
AND...bonus round....shot with the 35 Nokton II. I shot the 35 Nokton and 35 C Biogon on the tripod at various apertures with the M9 and the 35 Nokton II is the big winner. Comparing the two (most shots at f/4 as that is probably close to the sweet spot of both lenses), the 35 Nokton has better corner sharpness, retains detail better and is slightly cooler. The 35 C Biogon has slightly better micro contrast but really, the two shots look identical until you zoom in 100% and then you can see that the Nokton is clearly better in the corners and center sharpness. I am really shocked at how good the new Nokton is....wasn't expecting it to be sharper than the C Biogon
Gary Clennan wrote:
Nice shot Ryan. Please tell me again how HUGE the Nokton is so I won't be tempted to buy one! I won't promise to listen though....
Gary, it's so huge that with the hood attached, it blocks up to the 135mm frame lines
However, I've found that if I keep my left eye open while shooting, I can see the subject matter blocked by the lens as seen through the viewfinder by my right eye. After a while I kind of stopped noticing the blockage.
Yep, I just got the CV 35mm f/1.2 II also. So far I've only shot part of a job with it, that was mostly strobed and stopped down around f/2.8-4, so at that range it's very sharp. I haven't yet shot it side by side with the ZM35C, but my feeling is the Nokton has perhaps a touch less pop/micro contrast. As Ryan demonstrated in his earlier photos, it's quite resistant to flare from bright light sources in the frame. I can confirm this based on my experience with 600 w/s strobes in the background at times, and sometimes in the frame, that it will not flare easily, and is similar, if perhaps slightly less flare resistant than the ZM35C. It's much better than the ZM50P in this respect.
I plan to keep the Zeiss though because it's so small and I usually shoot it stopped down a fair bit anyway, so it will be great for walk-around and travel purposes.
Nice photos everyone and welcome to the new contributors.
Charles - very nice portraits.
Joe - great continuation to the 9/11 series and really like the last one.
Great shots Joe! man, you make me wanna switch exclusively to B&W! Been taking colour mostly, lately.
Lovely portrait Charles! Stunning model and rendition!
Ryan, great shots - i got the AA Oskar bag, LOVE IT! tx for the tips and pics of the bag, they really helped with the decision. It's a MARVELLOUS bag, near perfect for me.
Ajay, nice shots!
Edwin, lovely warm pics of the event - must have been a challenge getting the pics at events like that - quite stressful the last time I took!
One for the road - here's my dad with the M2 and Ultron that I gave him. He is pleased as punch as it reminds him of his M3 days. Trouble is, he lost the take up spool after afew rolls! Does anyone have a spare i can buy off you guys?
I have since got my camera and lenses back - it's amazing how easy it is to focus now!!!!
Learnt a trick too - that my RF problems may have been due to the way I mount my lenses - i tend to mount them with the lens at infinity (easier to take out). Trouble is, everytime I do that, the lens would 'touch' the RF mechanism. The recommended way is to put the lens at MFD and this way, there's no contact with the RF mechanism when you mount the lens! I wish i knew that earlier!
I have seen the base plate - it is very well made. Not so sure about the grip though. Reason: was informed by Leica Singapre that a leather case promotes fungus growth!
Ryan, Ron and KL, thanks, much appreciated
Ryan, I love your portrait shots with the 90 Summarit! Of course very nice shots with the 50 Lux. I am glad to see, the 35/1.2 II is too large for me
Dierk, nice high key shots
KL, great shot of your dad!!! Excellent hint about removing lenses.
KL, that's interesting about the lenses. I think that technique should be pretty easy to achieve since to unmount a lens, if you do it by holding the focusing ring as you turn it, it will turn to minimum distance, then remove it from the bayonet. Then as you mount it, after inserting it into the bayonet, it will then turn to infinity. It should be a pretty smooth process. Just tried it, and it's easy.
Just wondering about fungus issues from you guys in Asia. Do any of you keep your equipment in a dry box/cabinet?
rscheffler wrote:
Do any of you keep your equipment in a dry box/cabinet?
I used to while living on a boat back in the day. The main board of my N90s corroded and needed replacement because of it, I believe. I think that unless you're rarely opening it, it basically holds the equipment in a more damp environment because moisture absorbers take too long to work (longer than over a night or two).
True about simple boxes with desiccants, but I was thinking more along the lines of the small cabinets that you plug in and actively maintain a certain level of moisture low enough to prevent fungus growth but not low enough to damage certain components. I was looking into getting one here, but they are hard to find unless you settle for laboratory grade equipment. It seemed that photographers in Asian countries were the most prominent users, which makes sense given the generally high humidity year round in many Asian countries.
Hope your daughter is ok now Edwin. lovely portraits
The mounting tip goes like this - (a) usually for me, when i unmount a lens, i usually have it at infinity (that's where i leave a lens by default when i put it back into the bag); (b) when i mount the lens, the focussing ring is therefore usually at infinity as well. (c) However, when the lens is at infinity, you'll notice that the topmost part of the lens barrel is not 'clear'; (d) so when I attach the lens to the camera, the lens barrel actually contacts the RF 'wheel' - this may have been the cause of my RF going out of alignment.
So now, the Leica Technician I spoke to told me to put the lens at MFD and in doing so, the topmost part of the lens barrel has a 'gap' that does not touch the RF wheel.
Hope that is making sense! I'll try to show some pics of what i mean.
picture-event: I love the first one, simple yet jaw droppingly good
Got a couple of rolls of film back from processing last week. Unfortunately my mac suffer from some sort of illness so I've not processed(sharp/levels etc) them yet.
But overall I'm pleased with the black and white shots while the neg color looks awful I suppose sunny 16 works better for b&w..
Malkovic, thanks Very nice film shot.
Ron, excellent set! Very different style of shots, very composed
Edwin, nice shots. Glad your daughter is better now
Boris, nice shot. Do love the 35 Lux FLE!!
Jeff, very nice examples with the CV 35/1.2 II.
Gary, Edwin, Charles & rsolti13, thank you for welcoming me in this thread.
You guys together with carstenw, d.topp, singletrack, rdsheffler, Malkovic, Bobu, jhapeman, and all other contributors in this thread, submit some of the most wonderful series of photographs that a newcomer like me can learn from! I hope to contribute more in this forum.
Another one from the same trip. Aperture does seem to cause shutdowns like photoshop do... At least not as frequent. To bad the spot/patch fixing tool is not very handy in Aperture.
joe88 wrote:
Ajay, nice set with the 28Cron. Lush looking files. Hope your new lens won't disappoint
Nice shot KL!
Very Nice set Edwin, colors and sharpness looks good to me.
Charles, are you trying to temp me into buying another 50Lux? Excellent portrait and great tonality.
Nice set Gary.
BTW, I called B&H and asked about the 3880 vs 4900. They told me that there is more depth and better color separation on the 4900 but only if you look very closely, else the 3880 is pretty good. I will probably go with the 3880 as the 4900 seems like a beast and won't let me print 4x6s. Will definitely have a tech come over to calibrate the setup for me. On another note, I ordered a NEC PA27 today. Looking forward to profiling and printing with this combination. ...Show more →
I´m using the 3880 together with imageprint from colobyte. They provide profiles from almost every paper on the market and their black and white profiles are awesome. With this combo you only need to get your monitor right. For your monitor I can recommend a new colorimeter from basiccolor called discus.
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