Leica CF flash with Leica M8

I fancied a small portable flash for those occasions when a bit of fill-in flash is necessary.

TTL was going to out of the question unless I wanted to pay top Leica prices and the two available flash guns are a bit larger than I really wanted. I checked out other manual/auto flash units but none really took my fancy.

I decided to search on Ebay for a Leica CF.  I've tried a friends Leica CF, originally designed for the 35mm film Minilux, on my M8, and measured the trigger voltage at a very digital-camera-safe 6V, the search resulted in a freshly listed Leica CF at a very good price from a seller with excellent feedback. I pressed the Buy It Now button.
Two days later it arrived. It works perfectly and will live in the Billingham for those rare occasions when a little bit of extra light is needed.

London Leica M8 - revisited

Always a nice feeling when you look at some older images and see a few that were rejected initially.

I played around with some of the Lr5 presets and cropped the images.

Leica M8 35mm Summicron

Leica M8 28mm Elmarit

Leica M8 28mm Elmarit

Voigtlander 40mm Nokton f1.4 photos at all apertures Leica M8

I was frustrated at not being able to get out and shoot due to the shitty weather so decided to take a shot at each of the Noktons apertures. I'm not much of a fan of this kind of "test" I much prefer to judge a lens performance based on real world use, but when you have a new lens and shit weather ....

I used a tripod and set the ISO at 640. I used full stops not the half steps available.

This gives some idea of the OOF achievable with the x1.5 crop factor of the Leica M8 sensor.

Voigtlander Nokton 40mm f1.4 @ f1.4

Voigtlander Nokton 40mm f1.4 @ f2

Voigtlander Nokton 40mm f1.4 @ f2.8

Voigtlander Nokton 40mm f1.4 @ f4

Voigtlander Nokton 40mm f1.4 @ f5.6

Voigtlander Nokton 40mm f1.4 @ f8

Voigtlander Nokton 40mm f1.4 @ f11

Voigtlander Nokton 40mm f1.4 @ f16

Billingham 225 Photo bag

I was recently given a Billingham photobag by a friend, a very generous gesture indeed.

I've always admired the Billingham bags, especially in the tan canvas/brown leather scheme.

I think this model is the 225, or very close to it.

The quality of the bag really is second to none and I think it safe to say that it will last for decades and only get better looking as it does, a shame that is not the case for rest of us!

Function-wise the Billingham is poor when compared to my Lowe Pro bags, there are fiddly straps and flaps and its really quite heavy but, odd as it sounds, these things don't matter as its just so nice in all other respects. I'm using it to keep my Leica kit in as they complement each other perfectly, it would not seem right to use it with my Canon kit, that is too functional, clinical and efficient, but for the low-tech manual focus Leica its just perfect.

If you like straps and leather then Billingham is the bag for you

Plenty of space for the Leica M8 and the rest of the kit

Voigtlander 40mm Nokton f1.4 on Leica M8

While browsing through my emails over the recent holiday period I followed a link to Robert White Photographic. 

In their end of year sale I noticed the Voigtlander 40mm f1.4 Nokton was advertised for very good price.
I already have the Voigtlander 15mm Heliar for my Leica which I really like, so I was tempted, but before I pressed the Add to Cart button reality took hold and I decided that perhaps it might be worth doing  bit of research.

I spent the next couple of hours ignoring the chaos of Christmas and surfed the net for reviews and opinions on the Nokton 40mm.
What I found was very favourable, apart from Ken Rockwell who was at odds with every other write up I found, and that Robert White was selling the lens cheaper than anyone else in the entire world! So it was back to Robert White and I pressed the button. Another pleasant surprise awaited me at the checkout page when a further 10% was deducted from the sale price. I went for the Single Coated version for the classic Leica look.
On my Leica M8 the Nokton is equivalent to 53mm, so a "standard" lens.

I picked the lens up from the Post Office sorting office today and was not disappointed.

Like my 15mm Heliar the Nokton is beautifully made and the single coating gives the large front element a lovely red tint.

The weather here in York is very overcast and wet so there was no opportunity to really test the lens other than a few quick photos of the garden to make sure focus was OK.

Voigtlander 40mm f1.4 Nokton on my Leica M8

Lovely red tint to the single coating