Snow Fatigue

leica m8 cosina super wide heliar voigtlander 15mm lens
Originally uploaded by soundimageplus

Too much snow!

Its now gone dull and miserable with the snow turning to slush.

Felt the urge to edit some images from last summer and autumn. Reminded us that warm weather does exist.

Not long to Spring!

Panasonic Lumix G1 14-45 zoom lens panoramic stitch

Nikon D3X

Panasonic Lumix G1 14-45 zoom lens panoramic stitch

Panasonic Lumix G1 14-45 zoom lens panoramic stitch

Leica M8 Zeiss 28mm f2.8 Biogon lens

Leica M8 Cosina Super Wide Heliar Voigtlander 15mm lens

Leica M8 Cosina Super Wide Heliar Voigtlander 15mm lens

Nikon D3X Panoramic stitch 28-200mm zoom lens

Nikon D3X Panoramic stitch 55-200mm zoom lens

D & A

Editing, Editing, Editing!!!

Finally getting round to sorting out the huge backlog of images we have - to get them ready to upload to library websites.

Still with the freezing weather set to continue,

a nice glimpse of warmer days on the screen.

D & A

More M9 shots

Some more M9 shots. I love winter and the light it produces, what I don't like is the problems of blue fringing on branches against a sky.

I've never yet had a camera or lens that doesn't show it. That includes Nikon, Canon, Leica, m4/3 - everything. Worst of all was my original Canon 5D, closely followed by the Nikon D3X. Full frame sensors do seem more prone to this. The Leica is reasonably good, especially for a sensor with no AA filter. Its fixable, but it takes time.
The curse of the winter landscape photographer.

Magic Hour with Leica M9 - First Use

Last hour of the sun with newly arrived M9. A chance for a quick tryout of camera and lenses.

First Impressions. (Usually no different from 2nd, 3rd, 9999th really.)

There are a few little design improvements from the M8, though some are on the M8.2, such as the quieter shutter. There's a better info display with battery life + images remaining on card. There are menu options for Leica lenses plus a few other bits and pieces. It remains however a very simple camera. Manual Focus, Aperture Priority and Manual & thats about it.

On the cosmetic front - the steel grey finish is nice. It does look good with both silver and black lenses.

However big change with the sensor - 18MP full-frame. Still no AA filter (great!) but added IR filter (also great!)

The first thing that you notice when looking at a file on the screen is the colour. Its digital Fuji Velvia. Gorgeous rich colours, strong contrast - real impact stuff. The colours are MUCH improved from the M8, more accurate, more punchy. I did like the M8 colour though & learned to work with it, but this is dead on straight out of the camera. Big surprise is the M9 jpgs. They are really good. I just ignored them on the M8 and never even bothered shooting them, but these are spot on.

Sharpness is excellent. Why more camera makers don't remove the AA filter, or at least give you the option, mystifies me. If you've never seen a non-AA filtered digital image, then try to somehow get a raw file & see the difference. I used the Kodak pro 14/n & slr/n cameras a few years ago & while the images had artefact and noise problems they were sharp. The sharpest images I had ever taken, until now.

In terms of my hopes for this camera - thats about it for me. Gorgeous colour, very sharp - theres not much else I need. It is EXACTLY what I hoped I'd get & for the bulk of my library work this is the camera I will use.

A few other comments.

Are the images sharper than those from my D3X? - yes.

Are the images sharper than those from my 5D Mk II? - yes.

Are the images sharper than those from my M8 - no, but they are bigger and with better colour.

I was very impressed by the D3X and thought it capable of great results, but the M9 really takes digital imaging up a notch. I know its useless at higher ISO's. ISO 2500 really is a joke - images taken at this setting are a noisy blotchy mess, but thats not what its for. For 95% of the images I take with this camera I will use ISO 160 - the base ISO. If you do low-light or action work then you wouldn't buy this camera anyway. Magnum photographers built their reputation using Leicas, but they were film cameras. If you shoot in good light, at low ISO's, with time to compose & with relatively limited movement in your frame - then this camera is the best you can get before you enter medium format territory.

The M9 is the same weight as the M8. Going out with the body & three lenses is a pleasurable experience for me, my back is grateful.

Lenses - I was concerned about how my Voigtlander 15mm would perform - see previous post - but after working with the files for a couple of days I've found a good way of eliminating the vignetting (Lightroom) and can work with everything else. Zeiss 28mm biogon was superb, as expected, as was the Voigtlander 75mm F/2.5 Heliar. The 75mm is a real star performer. I've always loved it since buying it for m4/3 use. Its really sharp & I've never seen anything from a Leica lens thats better. However its now not a very long lens. It was a 100mm equivalent on the M8. Long lenses are not a Leica speciality. One solution might be to carry my GF1 with me & use it on that for longer shots.

So I'm really pleased I followed through on the purchase. My ebay account has been busy, with lenses and cameras going on sale to fund the M9. My m4/3 outfit is looking a bit depleted, but it now faces serious competition!!

D & A

Update:-

There are a few negatives which should be mentioned:-

Battery Life is short.

It takes an eternity to format an SD card.

Its very slow transferring images to card, even with a high speed SD card, so bursts are limited to 4-5 shots.

I got dust spots after my first lens change!!

Panoramic Stitching

For the past 3 years or so over 50% of my images submitted to picture libraries have been multi image panoramic stitches.
For many libraries a file size of 48MB + is required. This is to give clients the opportunity to print up to A3. Since there are very few DSLR's that are capable of producing files of that size, files have to be interpolated.
This is something I've never been happy with. It does compromise on image quality and "cons" clients into thinking they are getting something they aren't.
However since its part of my living, I've had to do it.

The improvements to the Photomerge software in Photoshop have offered an alternative. By shooting a picture in sections and then combining them to produce a larger file, interpolation can be eliminated. It also allows me to use cameras that produce high quality but smaller file sizes. My Leica M8 and Panasonic G-series cameras for example. I had a Sigma SD14 a while ago, and while the images were superb, they were very small and didn't interpolate well. This technique allowed me to produce some really high quality, high resolution files from that camera.

Even with good software there's a lot of work needed on the files after stitching. However I find the final images are well worth the trouble.

A

All quiet on the Leica front.

Due to an episode of amazing clumsiness I smashed the screen on my M8 & its currently in Germany waiting to be repaired.

Plus I'm still waiting, like the rest of the world, for my M9.

Just to remind myself of what I'm missing I edited a few images from the summer.

A

Leica M8 Peak District

A few days of high pressure allowed a visit to the Peak District to take some pictures of the Tissington & High Peak cycle trails. I used the M8 which was light enough to carry on my bike.
I have ordered an M9, not sure I'll sling that over my shoulder on my bicycle!

I used Voigtlander 15mm & 75mm & Zeiss 28mm lenses

Leica M8 - Clent Hills

Yesterday - A fairly steep climb to the top of the Clent Hills. I took the Voigtlander 15mm & 75mm + the Zeiss 28mm.

I'm getting better with the Leica, gradually becoming more familiar with the controls & anticipating what lens I'm going to shoot with.
Its quite difficult to explain why a camera that is so tricky to use is appealing. For me its to do with the satisfaction of knowing that to use it successfully I have to use all my experience & photographic knowledge to get the picture. When I press the shutter theres a satisfying clunk that indicates "objective achieved"
I do realise that this all sounds like pretentious nonsense & that I'm just a camera snob justifying spending lots of money on a "man toy" or piece of "male jewellery". I'm honest enough to admit that there is an element of that, but there is a lot more.
Using it makes me feel like a "real photographer" By that I mean someone who is in charge of the camera & not someone who is controlled by it. I often feel the latter when using one of my technological marvels. (See previous posts!) The Leica is actually pretty simple to use with very few controls & menu options. Using manual focus & manual exposure is actually far less confusing than cameras with auto-everything. Add to this the incredible image quality and the wonderful feel and it all starts to make sense.
I experience a great satisfaction when I take pictures with it & even more so when I look at them on the screen. If I wasn't doing commercial work then I would use the Leica exclusively. It makes me want to get out the door and take photographs with it & thats not something I experience with all my cameras.