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

Wymondham Abbey

I visited Wymondham in Norfolk this week.
I've not been to Norfolk since 1989, its still as flat and featureless as I remember.

I paid a vist to Wymondham Abbey, with its famous twin towers. These provide quite a grand looking landmark as you approach Wymondham.

Unfortunately the abbey itself was a little disappointing up close, apart from the towers I wasn't especially impressed with the exterior and the interior, whilst nice and warm on a winters day which is unusual for a church, did not have any features that impressed me, no tombs, or stained glass.

The light was very flat and not very flattering but I managed to get three images somewhere near using Ps, Lr and Nik.

I played around using my Canon 50mm f1.4

Canon 50mm f1.4

Canon 50mm f1.4

Canon 24 - 70mm f2.8

Leica M8 raw to DNG

On the Leica forum there is much talk about an interesting discovery made by a forum member Arvid, this intrepid chap as written some code that takes the images shot in the JPGFine+RAW setting and converts them into 14bit uncompressed DNG files readable by photo editing software. The JPGFine+RAW  option is hidden and needs a sequence of presses on the direction arrows on the M8 to access it.
Arvid's page explains more and provides a download of the software.

The standard M8 DNG is 8 bit compressed and around 10mb in size, the converted 14bit raw file is around 20mb so twice the size. 
The camera reverts back to JPG mode if it goes to sleep or is switched off.

I went out and took a few test photos taking advantage of the low December sun and the contrasty light that this provides.
I shot at ISO160 and both he DNG and raw were taken with the same exposure settings.

Back at home I converted the files using Arvid's Mac droplet and the M8raw2DNG software.

I viewed the files in Lr5. My MacBookPro has the Hi-Res screen and I also have an Apple 20" Cinema monitor.

After much looking and zooming in  I'm afraid I can't see much difference, at least not where it matters. The raw converted files exhibit a different colour balance, possibly because M8raw2DNG includes the M9 colour profile, in terms of shadow noise I could not see any difference between the raw converted and camera DNG images. Likewise highlights looked the same to me.
One difference is that the raw converted images are 3964 x 2642 compared to the camera DNG 3916 x 2634.
It also took much longer to write the files to my SanDisk Extreme SDHC card, although I was able to buffer a couple of shots.

So my conclusion to this addmittedly unscientific test is that Leica in camera DNG do a really good job at converting the raw files. I will continue to watch with interest developments in this area, I'm sure Arvid will continue to refine this tool, he's obviously a pretty clever fella.

I saw no point in putting the images here as I'd have to reduce them to JPG and any differences would have been lost.

Polaroid print Nik suite

I've been going through the presets in the Nik suite.

This preset struck me as being pretty accurate, I've not done a Polaroid print for years and from memory this looks good.

Polaroid transfer preset Nik suite

A return to abandoned cottage with the Leica M8

I returned last weekend to the ruined cottage just outside Beddgelert on a day of awful weather.

I had with me my Leica M8, the 28mm Elmarit and 15mm Voigtlander. 

It was so dark I had to up the ISO setting on the M8 to 640, pretty much as high as I dare go.

I've played around with the images in Lr, Ps and Nik suite as usual.

Leica M8 Voigtlander 15mm

Leica M8 Elmarit 28mm

Leica M8 Elmarit 28mm

Leica M8 Voigtlander 15mm

iPhone panorama Moel Siabod

I recently walked up Moel Siabod in Snowdonia.
I don't take a "proper" camera with me on these walks anymore, the iPhone 4s is more than good enough.
Also 3G is pretty good in most of Snowdonia, especially on the tops, so I can post to the likes of Instagram immediately.

This is a view from the summit of Moel Siabod looking towards Snowdon and the Glyders.

Moel Siabod is a superb walk. the scramble to the summit is about the same as Tryfan, but obviously not as long. there are a couple of more tricky parts towards the summit, but these can be missed out by easier routes if desired.

Image was shot using the standard iPhone camera and processed in Nix HDR to give it a bit of a boost.