I have returned from a week in Egypt and thought I'd post some pictures. I'll divide the images into three different sets, landscape shots, people shots and shots of historical sites. I'll then post a short trip report and my experience of Egypt from a photography point of view.
Finally, I'll give a short evaluation of the gear that I used and how well it worked.
Our base of operations was some 50 km south of Hurghada at the red sea. It was a huge resort hotel by the beach catering to large groups of tourists. If you imagine a combination of western and Arabic kitsch and vulgarity you'll get the idea of what those places look like. Everything is fake and has a 'disneyland' feel to it with the addition of being poorly executed. Having said that, the red sea is amazing for diving. It's totally worth going to Egypt just for diving. It's like being submerged in an aquarium.
Another big plus is the eastern desert, just around the corner. We went out one day to watch the sunset and to visit a Bedouin camp.
From our hotel at the red sea we took daytrips to Cairo and Luxor.
Cairo
Lots of smog and traffic. The Egyptian museum is fantastic, although very poorly maintained. There's a complete ban on photography unfortunately. We only had two hours in the museum and one would need a week to explore it. Before the trip I had listened to some 24 hours of lectures on Egyptology and it really paid off here.
The Pyramids in Giza are about as huge and impressive as you expect them to be. They were built about 2500 BC - that's over 4500 years ago and in that context they are truly remarkable. Until the Eiffel tower was built in 1889, Khufu's pyramid (Cheops) was the tallest building in the world.
We also went to a couple of Bazars but that's not really my thing. I was looking to buy an alabaster Anubis statuette but the things sold to the tourists are just junk made in China. It's a pity as I was willing to spend quite a bit of money on a good one.
Karnak temple is truly impressive, and as with the other places I wish we had more time. Hatchepsut's mortuary temple is wonderful - built some 1500 years before the Parthenon in Athens but still architecturally much more modern. Embedded in the cliffs on the other side of the Valley of the Kings, it's really a peaceful place. I could have without hesitation spent a whole day there.
Finally, the Valley of the Kings. The burial grounds of the rulers of Egypt for a period over 500 years. It was the highlight of the Egypt trip for me. It's a really amazing place. Essentially just a desert valley but in the mountain are the magnificent tombs. It was first here where I was truly awestruck and could appreciate what a power ancient Egypt was. Unfortunately no photography allowed at all. Not in the valley and not in the tombs. These are relatively new restrictions but they have been introduced because people kept using flashes.
General thoughts
Egypt like any other place has its good and bad sides. The historical sites are amazing. I could easily spend a week just going to the Cairo museum, not to mention how much there is to see at Luxor. The underwater flora and fauna of the red sea is remarkable. I know that I'll be making at least two trips more to Egypt - one to do a proper exploration of the historical sites and one for red sea diving. This time, and it was my first time ever, it was a charter trip. I won't be doing that again but I don't regret it. As a first trip it was very convenient as everything was organized. The down side of that is that you follow a schedule set by somebody else but it's ok for a first brief look - to get the lay of the land so to speak. Now I know what I want to see more of.
Street vendors that you'll encounter on all the historical sites are a major PITA. They won't leave you alone for a second. You just inevitably end up saying "no" a lot over and over again. Then there's the whole baksheesh thing. Charitably it could be translated into "tipping". In many cases it's just outright bribery. Museum officials, police officers, military personnel and a host of other people in official positions seem to think that their main task is to collect as many bribes as they can. A few examples: military personnel at a checkpoint in the eastern desert were offering us to test shoot their Maadi AK-47 assault rifles for 10 LE = ~1.7 USD. We saw a police officer standing guard in the Cairo museum opening a display case and letting two tourists touch papyrus scrolls in exchange for a little baksheesh. We were let into an otherwise closed side chamber in KV8 (tomb of Merneptah) in the Valley of the Kings where excavation was ongoing. On the floor there were a lot of small/medium sized stone fragments with hieroglyphs on them. The guard suggested we could take one or two for 20 LE ( ~€3). We refused of course. But that's how bad it is.
To understand the context of it you have to understand that Egypt is a very poor country. A mid level police officer makes 300 LE / month (~€40 = 52 USD). That's considered a decent salary. The people in the highest income bracket are professionals in the private sector and they can earn up to four or five times as much.
Finally, a word on security. Contrary to popular belief, Egypt is a very safe place. You won't get mugged, beaten up or get your stuff stolen. A western city is more dangerous in that respect. There is islamistic terrorism, but the chance of being at the wrong time at the wrong place is slight. The islamists are also currently for the most part ignoring westerners in favor of bombing Coptic churches. There was an attack on a church in Alexandria that killed 27 people while we were in Egypt. It's tragic but doesn't really affect tourist safety. You're statistically much more likely to be killed in a car accident at home than being killed as a tourist in Egypt. There are police officers and military everywhere. There are military checkpoints on all roads. When going into a museum or a hotel you have to pass metal detectors and have your bags X-rayed. The problem with that is the security measures are just for show. The guards completely ignore the beeping of the metal detectors and seldom bother to even look at the X-ray monitor. Still, as I said, it's all things considered safe.
So, to conclude - it was a great trip and I'm really looking forward to going back for more.
Finally, some technical comments. This was my first trip with the Leica M9 and I was curious about how it would work out. As it turns out, it worked out quite well. I had the M9 plus five lenses - Zeiss 18/4 Distagon, Zeiss 25/2.8 Distagon, Leica 35/1.4 Summilux ASPH, Zeiss 50/1.5 Sonnar & Leica 75/2 APO-Summicron ASPH. I ended up using three lenses for 95% of the shots and the usage was divided very evenly between the three lenses. I also had a Leica X1 as a backup and a Panasonic FM2 P&S for underwater photography.
The M9's compact size was really a blessing. In addition it was much better for street shots and shots of people than a huge DSLR would have been. Another benefit is in the RAW files. Egypt is a high contrast place, especially in direct sunlight. I had to lift the shadows in post quite often. This would have been a real problem with my 5DII but the M9 has loads of headroom in the shadows. Example:
It's pretty amazing how much information can be recovered from the shadows.
Anything negative with the M9? Sure. Dust. I wet cleaned the sensor three times during my stay and still most of the time in post was spent removing dust spots. The sensor is very shallow compared to the one on a DSLR and you don't have a mirror to shield it from dust. So if you get anything on the back element of a lens for instance it will end up on the sensor. I missed focus a couple of times when shooting moving targets. An AF camera would have been more convenient on occasion. The longest lens I had was 75mm and it was too short on occasion. Also, the aperture ring on my 75 Summicron broke, something I'm very displeased with. That lens has already been in for repair and I'm really not happy with Leica QC, especially given how much they charge for the damned things.
There is however more to the M9 than its isze. I could take my Canon kit to Egypt and get lovely professional looking shots suitable for a travel magazine or a postcard. The problem is that it has been done to death. How many shots do you suppose there are taken each day of the pyramids? Just google it. What's the point of taking the 50,000:th identical tele photo shot? I mean it's great to see that you can do it, but once you've established that you can, is there a point continuing with imitating a style that has been done to death? A rangefinder by its very nature will make you take different shots.
So by using a rangefinder instead of a DSLR I (for the most part) in part by necessity skipped the very obvious shots and tried to find other angles and compositions.
Luka, your pics are breathtaking. The first one dropped my jaw, and the others only increased the damage. My orthodontist and surgeon thanks you in advance. You have made my determination to go there soon grow, as it is one part of the world where I have never been, let alone with camera in hand.
Philippe, you should really go. A great thing is that it's close. Five hours by plane from Sweden - it should be just three hours for you in Paris. It's really a remarkable place. When in Rome or Greece people admire the ancient buildings while in Egypt if you encounter something from Ptolemaic times (i.e. same time as the Romans) you just dismiss it as uninteresting because it's so recent! The distance in time between the old kingdom, when the Pyramids were built and ancient Rome is the same as the distance in time between present day and ancient Rome.
Great shots and description, Luka! My favorite shots are landscape #1, people #3 and sites #4.
It is pretty disappointing that the 75 Cron's aperture ring broke. I wonder what Leica would tell you about that if you asked? I didn't even know that was a failure point.
So, what were the three most used lenses, 18/35/75? You could try the 90AA or 135/3.4 APO to see if one of them could be your longer lens. I know that you find the 90AA too heavy and large, but it is really a great lens and has just a little more reach then the 75AA.
As you know, I have already visited Egypt, but my photography has improved so much in the time since, and I also haven't been to the Red Sea, so I think another trip is in the cards for me.
When you go back, do visit Aswan, eat at the Nubian House and drink the "local juice". That is one of the greater pleasures of life!
Luka, this is a great series, and I love your analysis. One question: are you saying the raw files from the Leica have a lot more headroom than files from a 5D II? I'm not sure why this would be.
Thanks for sharing these -- they're tremendously inspiring.
Just looking at the pictures, I wondered whether you were tempting me to get the M9 & Zeiss or travel to Egypt - perhaps both
Regardless, the pictures and story are amazing and well analysis. I am travel a lot too with my Canon gears, and lately finding it is getting heavy to carry around. You said the M9 has more headroom than the 5DII, which the Pentax K-5 also claiming having the same/similar advantage, plus lighter and weather sealed. I couldn't hardly wait for Zeiss to come up with Pentax's mount lens like the 35mm f/2 they build for Canon & Nikon.
Thanks for sharing.
Sam
Sam, Zeiss have a line of Pentax-mount lenses similar to those made for Canon and Nikon. They are called ZK. Zeiss have decided to stop production, but there are still some in stock on the Zeiss e-shop. If you are really interested, grab them while they last!
carstenw wrote:
It is pretty disappointing that the 75 Cron's aperture ring broke. I wonder what Leica would tell you about that if you asked?
Probably that it will take 12 weeks to repair
So, what were the three most used lenses, 18/35/75? You could try the 90AA or 135/3.4 APO to see if one of them could be your longer lens. I know that you find the 90AA too heavy and large, but it is really a great lens and has just a little more reach then the 75AA.
Yepp, and the division between them was surprisingly even. ZM18 = 30%, 35Lux = 35%, 75Cron = 32%, ZM25=2% ZM50 = 1%. So I could have left the ZM25 & 50 at home. The ZM25 is problematic because I don't have an external viewfinder for it and the 50 Sonnar, while nice for portraits isn't very sharp unless stopped down to f/5.6 or thereabout.
I'm sure the 90AA is a great lens, but I find the 75 already tricky to focus. I don't think a longer lens would work for me without a viewfinder magnifier - and that in turn is IMO too much of a hassle. I'm guessing my next Leica lens - although I'm in no hurry - will be a 50 Lux ASPH. I know I've been critical of Leica rendering style but I'm slowly warming to it
When you go back, do visit Aswan, eat at the Nubian House and drink the "local juice". That is one of the greater pleasures of life!
Yes, next time, I'd like to go more south. I'm particularly interested in seeing Abu Simbel. The main thing for the next trip though is not to go on organized tours. The by far largest problem now was getting very limited time at the stops and in very unfavorable lighting. Getting one hour at mid day at Karnak isn't exactly ideal for photography. So next time I'll make sure to decide the schedule myself
dc_slim wrote:
One question: are you saying the raw files from the Leica have a lot more headroom than files from a 5D II? I'm not sure why this would be.
Yes, the M9 DNG files have loads more headroom. The 5DII starts to quickly produce noise banding in the shadows when you push exposure. The reason is simply that they use very different sensors. This varies greatly between cameras.
) and your experiences mirrored mine! 
