Leica M8 - going, going, gone.

Yes, you have read the title of this post correctly, I have sold my Leica M8, Elmarit 28mm, and the Voigtlander 15mm and 40mm lenses.

Why have I done this? well it wasn't an easy decision, I really liked the look of the files the M8 produced and the Leica and Voigtlander lenses were really very good indeed. 

The seed was sown when I was shooting recently with a friend who was using a Canon 5D2, now I've got one of these as well but thought it might be nice to compare images from the same shoot on different cameras, and the Leica gear is much lighter to carry than the Canon. 
The Leica battery was charged ready for the shoot and but it lasted all of around 30 mins before giving up. Ok, I should have had a spare, and in fact I do, but for some reason it was not charging in the Leica or Delkin charger so it was left at home.
The cold could have contributed to its shorter life (the Canon kept on shooting though) or it might just be that the battery is nearly 8 years old and past its best. Anyway I looked at it I was going to have to replace it. As third party batteries don't last very long in the Leica (I've tried three different types) it was going to have to be a new Leica battery, which are around £90.00, and ideally I need a couple, so I was looking at £180 for batteries.

The M8 is getting on for 8yrs old, I had already had the shutter repaired by Leica which involved sending it back to Solms for a month,  as Leica UK can't do much more than clean the sensor, so had lost a bit of confidence in the camera anyway, so the thought of spending £180 on new batteries for an ageing camera seemed a bit daft. I thought it was time for it to go.

Also recently I had noticed that the value of the M8 was starting to creep down having been steady at around the £1100 mark since my purchase.

My initial thoughts were to sell the M8 and get a M9, but the M9 is essentially the same camera with warmed over Firmware and a full-frame version of the same Kodak CCD sensor, the thought of paying £2500 - £3000 for a 2-3yr old camera was not very attractive. Also the recent tales of a backlog of M9s with "sensor rot"in Wetzlar awaiting repair did nothing to add to its attraction.

I briefly considered the Leica M (240), a new model and no reliability scares have yet surfaced, but I tried one last year in Ireland and found it heavy and neither one thing or the other with its live view and crappy focus peaking so the thought of blowing £5000 on one was again not appealing.

Focussing; I liked the manual rangefinder focussing when I was using the M8 but then I'd shoot with my 5D2 and find it so much easier.

So decision made, what did I replace it with? There is really only one alternative to a Leica M out there, the Fuji X-Pro1, with Fujinon XF14mm f2.4 and Fujinon XF18-55 f2.8-4 OIS zoom. 

The X-Pro1 has an APS-C sensor which is slightly smaller than the APS-H found in the M8. A crop factor of 1.5 compared to 1.3 in the Leica, so not a lot in it. 
16MP of CMOS goodness in the Fuji compared to 10.8MP of Kodak CCD in the Leica. Neither has an AA filter, Leica forgot (or just didn't care), Fuji jiggled the sensor filter layout with an alternative arrangement to the usual Beyer filter design found in most sensors so as to do without an AA filter yet avoid Moire.

I read and re-read all the info on the Fuji I could find (and there is a ton of it out there) and could not find a bad review of either the camera body or the Fujinon X lenses. This is hardly surprising really as Fuji have been making top quality cameras and lenses since the 1940's. 

The Fujinon lenses drew many comparisons to Leica lenses and were not found wanting by any reviewers both in construction and optical quality.

Reviews of the first X-Pro1 bodies mentioned slow AF due to firmware gremlins but these were quickly dealt with and with the latest Firmware (v3.40) it appears these issues are now sorted out.

All reviews commented on the quality of the images from the Fuji X-Trans sensor, even the out-of-camera jpegs looked really good.

It could be argued that the X-Pro1 is closer to what the Leica M should have been (obviously the Leica would have remained manual focus) but this would have meant loosing the Rangefinder focussing, probably much to the disgust of many Leica users.

What about going to an APS-C crop sensor, smaller than the Leica? Now, I love my Full Frame Canon 5D2, its never let me down and produces top quality results and its my go-to camera for when I have to deliver. I like the 35mm full frame as years of learning photography on 35mm cameras has made me extremely comfortable with the focal lengths etc. Having to do some mental maths with a crop factor is a bit awkward but can be overcome easily enough. But are we loosing out on image quality by settling on APS size sensors? I've not thought so with the results from the Leica M8. I recently found this entertaining piece on FF Vs crop sensors. The website Dedpxl from where this came is also a decent read.

There is a ton more tech in the Fuji than the M8, most of it I probably won't use more than once to try it, we'll see, I'll post more stuff after it all arrives.

York Cemetery with Leica M8

Despite it being a horrible cold January afternoon I ventured out and met with my friend and fellow photographer Graham at York Cemetery.

I decided to take my Leica M8 while Graham had his Canon 5D2 and Canon 70-200m L F4.

After about half an hour of shooting my Leica decided to stop working, the battery despite being fully charged when I set out was depleted, probably due to the cold. Grahams Canon, however was still working. Japanese engineering triumphs again.

Out of the 20 photos I took a couple warranted a tweak in Lr. the rest were junk.

Leica M8 Elmarit 28mm

Leica M8 Voigtlander 15mm f4.5

Canon 100mm f2.8 USM and Canon 5D2 tethered

I received my Canon 100mm f2.8 USM today. First class service as usual from MBP in Brighton. Lens looks as new and was had at a saving of £150 over buying new.

As a quick test I put a couple of pocket watches in the light tent with a Canon 430 EXII Speedlite each side fired by the Canon ST-E2. All tethered to my MacBookPro with Canon Utility 2.

I'm impressed by the sharpness of the lens and it works well tethered.

Canon 5D2, Canon 100mm f2.8 USM, Canon 430EXII x2, tethered with Canon Utility 2

Canon 5D2, Canon 100mm f2.8 USM, Canon 430EXII x2, tethered with Canon Utility 2

Canon 5D2, Canon 100mm f2.8 USM, Canon 430EXII x2, tethered with Canon Utility 2

EOS Utility v2 and 5D2

I bought one of those light tents for table top product photography the other day, I blogged briefly about it before, now though, I thought I'd get my 5D2 out and give it a more serious play with.

I also used the opportunity to try some tethered shooting. I tried Lr but found that Canon EOS Utility v2 was better at controlling the functions of the 5D2.

I used the same subject as the other test but used a couple of remotely fired Canon 430 EX flash guns as the light sources.

The 5D2 was connected to my Mac Book Pro with a USB cable and the shutter is fired with the Space Bar

Canon 5D2 Canon 24-70 f2.8 L ISO 1600

Canon 5D2 Canon 24-70 f2.8 L ISO 200

Canon 5D2 Canon 24-70 f2.8 L ISO 200

Olympus 3040 Z

My first digital camera was an Olympus 4030 Zoom. 3.3Mp, 7.1 - 21.3 f1.8 - 2.6 lens.

It uses SmartMedia cards for image storage.

I still have it and use it for Ebay photos, for which it is perfect. Set on P and point and shoot, the built in flash will fire if required.

I recently bought one of those light tents from Ebay, it cost around £12.00, basically four spring hoops with translucent nylon covering them to diffuse the light.

To try this out I popped a silver pocket watch in the tent and used the old Olympus as it was to hand.

Illumination was by a 60W lamp hanging about 40cm directly above the light tent.

The watch is a key wind/adjust Open face pocket watch by Thomas Russell & Son, Liverpool. Made 1893, Stirling Silver case hallmarked Birmingham.

Silver Fetter+one half Albert chain.

Lightroom DSLR Guru Cross Process presets.

DSLR Guru was a short lived outfit who briefly offered a free set of pre-sets for Adobe Lr.

The website is now dead and it appears that DSLR Guru are as well. This is a shame as the presets are the ones I use the most in Lr.

Here are some recent images processed with the DSLR Guru Cross Process C41 presets.

Canon 5D2 Canon 20mm f2.8 USM

Canon 5D2 Canon 20mm f2.8 USM

Canon 5D2 Canon 70-200mm f4 L

York cemetery with Canon 5D2, Canon 20mm f2.8 USM, Canon 70-200 f4L and Canon 50mm f1.4 USM

I've not been out with either the Leica or the Canon kit for quite a while. I have been using the Canon kit for work but those photos are terribly boring and will never appear on this blog.

As we were enjoying a mild October weekend I thought I'd take a spin down to the old York cemetery and give this new lens a quick go.
Unfortunately for me there was a quilt exhibition in the old chapel with lots of cars parked outside so I was unable to use the 20mm for the shots I had planned.

Instead I went for a walk around and used a selection of my lenses.
Since my purchase of the Canon 70-200 f4 L in the summer I've added a Canon 20mm f2.8 USM to my kit.

I'd used one of these 20mm previously as my brother has one, and despite the rather negative reports on this lens on the internet (there are some positive ones as well, its not all bad) I rather liked it. After all Canon have been making this lens since 1992 and it is still in the current line up so it can't be that bad!

Almost all internet reviews of this 20mm lens report on the vignetting and corner softness, however according to a couple of websites this is apparently intentional as Canon designed the lens with  "Intelligent Field Curvature (IFC), although Canon make no mention of this in any of their literature that I've seen, which if it was unique I'm sure they would have mentioned it somewhere? IFC is supposed to help with getting real-world wide angle subjects in focus across the frame. 
Now, I have no idea if this is the case or not or even if such a thing as IFC exists. What do know is though is that in Lightroom if I apply lens correction the vignetting vanishes and the resulting images look fine. I've always liked the way very wide angles lenses render an image, and this Canon is the nicest one I've used/owned (previous favourite was the Zuiko 21mm f2.0).

I'm aware of the infinite number of internet debates about clear/UV/Skylight filters on lenses in digital photography. My use of filters is that when outside in conditions where I feel the front element might get damaged I'll use a filter to provide a bit of protection. Shooting inside I generally remove them. Having decided to use a filter we then enter into yet another debate on the best make of filter to use, Hoya, B+W, Heliopan or others. Each make has its supporters and they ague passionately for their chosen brand. 
I like Kood filters. Kood are a UK company with the filters made in China or Japan. They work fine for me, I can't see any degradation to the image.

Canon 5D2 with Canon 70-200mm f4 L

Canon 5D2 with Canon 20mm f2.8 USM

Canon 5D2 with Canon 70-200mm f4 L

Canon 5D2 with Canon 50mm f1.4 USM