Category: Leica M9

Posted on

You call this talent?

Repost: 9.27.11

As we were walking to the hotel and stopped, waiting to cross Michigan Avenue, we noticed this guy on a bike smoking a cigarette and balancing himself in one spot for what seem to be an eternity. While multitasking, he had many cars passing him left and right. I definitely think this is a talent but don’t think it’s a talent I want?

The shot was taken with my Leica M9 and 50mm summilux set at continuous shooting, f/1.4, and 1/45 shutter speed. Because of the low aperture and the small size of the camera I was able to successfully get this shot at such a low shutter speed. Last, I keep my camera on continuous shooting so that I have a better opportunity of getting a sharper image and catching the action act the exact, right time.

Posted on

Morning Haze

Repost 8.21.11

Yesterday morning I was heading into work on a road behind our subdivision.  It was foggy and as I was driving I found the light coming through the trees with the combination of fog to be very interesting.  I stopped in the middle of the road and opened my door and shot a few pics.

This image was created using my Leica M9-P and 50mm summilux.  I initially edited the picture with Nik Software Silver Efex Pro 2.  It has a slider that allows for you to selectively bring back colors.  I did this to the road and really liked the look.  Unfortunately, I didn’t like the rest of the pic thus I decided I would go back to my original file and process it through OnOne Softwares Perfect Layers.  Once I did this I felt I was on to something.  I then opened up Photoshop CS 5 and layered the two pics.  Next I extended the sun rays and added a sepia tone to give it a more warm feeling.

Posted on

Depth

I was in Madison Wisconsin this weekend to see my sister and nephew.  I had some opportunity to take some shots with my NEX 7.  I’m still very happy with it’s results.  I think its auto white balance is better than my Leica M9.

This shot is a close-up of an organ’s keys.  I really liked the texture of the keys and thought a close-up would work well.  I set my f-stop to 1.8 so that I could get some depth of field.  I think it turned out well.  The “bokeh” is good but in my opinion it’s not as smooth as my Leica lenses.

ISO 500 1/60s f1.8 zeiss 24mm

 

Posted on

The Iron Skeleton

Repost from July 2011

My wife and I spent 4 years in Des Moines, IA while I was receiving my degree.  The first couple years I was vey busy with my work and never showed much interest in photography.  Midway through my second year, my father lost his year long battle with cancer.  When he passed I inherited his film dSLR and lenses.  Not until later in the year did I finally gain an interest in photography.  Initially, I was just taking pictures in the operating room for the physicians I was rotating with.  I remember getting many compliments doing this and thought it came somewhat natural.  Canon came out with the EOS 20d (you can find the most recent version, Canon EOS 60D here).  I remember how excited I was to get this and try out my dads lenses.  Since then, I’ve traded, bought, and upgraded from the Canon 20d and his lenses.

Many years have passed since purchasing my first dSLR and I’ve now moved on to Leica M9 rangefinder camera but I still have many good pics that I took.  One of those was from a trip back to Des Moines a few years ago.  I was driving around Booneville, IA and came across this old railroad bridge.  At that time I was starting to show some interest in HDR photography.  Below is one of those pics (I also posted it in black and white).

Posted on

Sony NEX-7 – Our Future @ 9 months

I recently posted pics of our baby girl on our couch at nine months.  The picture posted was taken with my Leica M9 and Noctilux.  I also took a few pictures with my Sony NEX-7 and Zeiss 24mm.  Because, Aperture does’t process NEX-7 RAW files currently, I’m using Capture One Express and finally got around to processing them.

I have to say the images in my opinion are comparable to my Leica M9.  The sharpness is dead on and the colors are great.  I even noticed that the Leica M9 output causes some red tones in her skin that is not seen on the NEX-7 (I’ve heard others comment about these red tones but I never really noticed other than when shooting at high ISO’s).  Let me know your thoughts?

P.S. If you want to see the full size images let me know and I can email them to you.  Last, even though I speak very highly of the Sony NEX-7, I still love shooting with my Leica.  There is something I find fascinating shooting with an all manual camera (I suppose I like the challenge).

 ISO 100 1/200 f/1.8 24mm zeiss

 ISO 100 1/200 f/1.8 24mm zeiss

ISO 160 1/1000 f/.95 50mm

Posted on

Sony NEX-7 & Zeiss 24mm f1.8 shots

I posted my first picture using my new Sony NEX-7 on Saturday.  I used my Leica 50mm summilux (80mm equivalent) lens and I had a few people inquire about pictures with the Zeiss 24mm f1.8 lens (38mm equivalent).  Today’s post includes pictures using the 24mm lens.

So far I’m extremely impressed with the quality of the camera and lens.  My previous camera experience includes “point and shoot”, Canon dSLR’s (including the 5D Mark II), and my Leica M9-P.  I’ve grown accustomed to shooting with manual focus and forgot how nice it is sometimes to just let the camera do it.  Most of the reviews out there will tell you the Sony NEX-7 autofocus is slower than other cameras in its class but acceptable.  I don’t have any other experience shooting with other micro 4/3 cameras but so far I have absolutely no complaints about the speed.  I think the speed is 100% acceptable and most would not be disappointed.

I use Apple’s Aperture for my camera raw processing and library and currently they don’t support the NEX-7 raw files.  I’m trialling Phase One’s Capture One software since it does support it (I actually like the software but unsure if I want to use it in my workflow).

The pictures today are jpegs converted from raw files in Capture One.  Little, to no editing was performed.

ISO 100 1/250 f/1.8 Zeiss 24mm

ISO 100 1/320 f1.4 Zeiss 24mm

ISO 1600 1/50 f/1.8 Zeiss 24mm

 

Posted on

Sony NEX-7

August I pre-ordered the much anticipated Sony NEX-7.  I’ve been wanting a good back-up camera for my Leica M9 and thought this would be the camera to have.  Wednesday, I got my wish.  B&H Photo surprised me (I didn’t get the typical shipping notice in my email) with my NEX-7.  I’ve been shooting with it constantly the past few days and so far I’m amazed how “light” and “snappy” it is.

This is my first shot posted using the NEX-7.  I have the Sony 24mm Zeiss lens but I also have the Novoflex M-mount to Sony E-mount adapter.  This was taken with my Leica 50mm summilux.

ISO1000 1/60 f/1.4 50mm summilx (80mm equivalent)

Posted on

Our Future @ 8 months

For the past 2.5 weeks I’ve been without my camera.  I had to have my M9-P repaired because the shutter release kept sticking.  Fortunately, it was fixed and delivered to me last week, just in time to get our baby girls 8 month picture.  It’s definitely becoming more difficult to get her to sit still.

Here is a link to last months picture.

ISO 400 1/60 f/4 28mm elmarit

Posted on

Huh?

Our dog Abby is known for her facial expressions.  She’s a very intelligent dog always trying to figure out what we are doing and what we are saying.  I snapped this picture soon after I received my Leica M9 and 50mm summilux.

ISO 160 1/180 50mm summilux

Verified by ExactMetrics