New lens arrives and is almost immediately subjected to "mannequin testing."

UPS got here early. I was thrilled. They delivered a nondescript, brown box with no box trauma evident anywhere. Nicely done. Inside the box there were lots of shipping peanuts. And nestled in the warm embrace of the peanuts was another box. And inside that box there was another box (no kidding) and inside that box was all the goodies one has come to expect when unboxing a premium Leica lens. I pulled out a 50mm APO Summicron and immediately attached it the a waiting SL2-S camera - waiting patiently on my desk with a full charged battery and a (twice checked) memory card. 

The lens is heavy. Incredibly solid feeling. Bereft of any external controls other than the focusing ring. I spent an hour walking around shooting random stuff that I thought might show off the performance of the lens and then, after stopping to buy Girl Scout cookies (thin mint) I rushed home to look at the images and perhaps convince myself that I hadn't spent a king's ransom for nothing. These four images are really two images; a full size and then a very tight crop so we call all see the detail in the fabrics and the appliqués. 

From my point of view the lens is exactly what I was expecting. And hoping for. Both images were shot hand-held and at f2.8. I think the detail is yummy. That's all for right now....

 

Photography provides photographers with so many opportunities to screw up. Just like today...

Mirror, mirror on the wall, reflecting the door on the restroom stall. 

It's a sunny day in Austin. The high today is predicted to be 82° Fahrenheit. T-shirt weather. Birkenstock weather. Rangefinder with 21mm weather! And that was my plan. I grabbed the same camera off the desk that I used on a different walk yesterday, got in the car and headed over to the UT campus to meander around, photograph and reminisce about my long years there as, first a student and then a Specialist Lecturer in the College of Fine Arts. I was looking forward to seeing the crowds of students crossing the streets with cellphones firmly in hand. The perfect landscaping of the University. So easy to do when budgets are infinite and local labor is cheap. I was also looking forward to having a nice coffee at Medici Caffé. Right there on the main drag. Just across from campus.

I parked my car at a metered space about a half mile from the epicenter of my destination, tossed my camera onto my shoulder and meandered through the side streets and into the campus flow. Then I saw a great scene appear in front of me. A majestic building with an unending line of students passing in front. I turned the camera on and looked at the rear screen for confirmation of life only to find the dreaded notice on the LCD: "Warning! No memory card inserted !!!" and just like that the air came out of the fun balloon of my afternoon. Hard to take photographs, even with a Leica, if there is no memory card plugged into the card slot. 

It wasn't the end of world. It wasn't a job. No one I can think of was depending on me to inject some sort of new brilliance into the world of photography. But I was crestfallen because, well, I like to get things right and I hate it when I screw up the basics. I usually recharge the battery of the camera when I get home from a walk or a shoot. I usually download from the memory card the images I've taken as soon as I get home. And, as soon as I download images (automatically  backed up to a second HD...) I re-format the card and stick it back in the camera for next time. But, yesterday we were in a rush to meet people for dinner at a favorite restaurant and I broke with habit. Now to my chagrin... and embarrassment.

I re-learn stuff all the time. After I wrote that last paragraph I scrounged around and found five or six slightly older 64 GB SDII cards, put them in an appropriate container and stuck them into the center console of the car. Now, if I'm willing to circle back to the car to correct this kind of oversight in the future, they will be there waiting for me.

It's a pretty safe bet that I'm not the first photographer to trip over my own lack of attention to details. And it's not the first time I've left the house and gone somewhere only to find that either the memory card or the extra battery for the camera didn't complete whatever journey I planned. Never came along for the ride. But it's rare enough that I'd say it only happens once every five years or so. 

The other potential oversight/stumble usually involves either camera batteries or flash batteries. Nothing like going out on a cold day with a digital camera, watching the battery level gauge drop minute by minute as the chill wind cuts through your thin, cheap, Texas gloves and  only then realizing that the poor battery in your camera is flying solo. Once it's done its best and given its all your shooting day is over. Done. Makes one long for the old days of film when many cameras ran on double "A" batteries or were so totally mechanical they could be used without batteries. One less point of failure. Of course, those were the "good old days" when we might have assumed that there was a fresh roll of 36 exposure film in our camera only to find, while seeing the most beautiful, potential image imaginable, that your camera's frame counter stopped counting about 50 frames ago ---- because there was no film n the camera. There's always something that can go wrong. 

While it's easy to get frustrated by these small roadblocks that the universe sometimes conjures up to keep us on our toes my response today was to shrug my shoulders and continue on to the coffee shop for that perfect latté. At that point I really did consider my Leica as just expensive jewelry.

Chateau somewhere just outside of Paris proper.

In full costumes to amuse the American corporate clients

that paid a king's ransom to party in style...

The Champagne and caviar flowed like...whatever. 

If you went to Paris with an Olympus Pen FT camera and your camera's 

meter battery died you could still shoot the 72 frames on your roll of film

without issue. All the better if you were shooting color negative film and 

you were smart enough to figure out ballpark exposures....

 Same in Mexico City or Venice. 

Louvre. Is that a spiral staircase or just 

swirly bokeh?

On the streets of Madrid. Across from the Prado. 

Boat racing in the Jardin de Luxembourg.

Question: It is "upgrading" if you are adding a new camera but not getting rid of your current camera?

Can one "upgrade" from a newer camera to an older one? 

Is it okay to just own both?

Rediscovery of an APS-C camera. Portrait of David.

A while back, when I was just putting a foot into the Leica digital waters, I bought a couple of their digital CL cameras. Sweet, compact, interchangeable lens cameras that used APS-C sensors to keep them small and easy to carry around. While Leica sold a small group of lenses for the CL, L mount partner, Sigma stepped in to supply faster, less expensive APS-C designed lenses for the system. The three I ended up holding onto were the 16mm f1.4, the 30mm f1.4 and, my favorite, the 56mm f1.4. The 56mm is equivalent to an 84-85mm field of view on a full frame camera. 

While initially overshadowed by subsequent purchases of newer, higher resolution, full frame cameras from the company I have found the Leica CLs to be great tools for those times when you either want to travel a lot lighter or when you need their smaller sensor size to supply greater reach in the telephoto range. Also, the greater depth of field for a given f-stop is helpful when you want to use fast, wide angle glass at near wide open apertures but still keep enough in focus to make a photo work well. I pulled out the CLs recently and put them back to work. They are quite fun to carry around while out walking with no agenda.

I was out walking on Sunday, a week ago, when I dropped by Jo's Coffee and ran into my friend (and fellow photographer) David. I made this casual portrait (above) as we were sitting and chatting. It seemed just right. The 56mm Sigma lens (Contemporary) kept the span from David's nose to the back of his hat in adequate focus at f2.8 but successfully blurred the background just as much as I wanted. 

While I understand that Leica is a smaller camera company than most and it's a stretch to think they have the comfortable bandwidth to serve up a number of different product lines concurrently, I really wish they had not pulled the plug on the CL (compact Leica) system. They left many users wishing and hoping for a CL-2 camera that never arrived. There are times when "small and light" but still highly capable is a nice option to have. While I like the various fixed lens compact cameras out on the market I always find myself wishing they offered the choice for a different lens instead of the focal lengths the herd demands (relentless 28mms). Leica was on the right path with the new Q3-43 but how nice it would be to have an even more compact Q variant with an APS-C sensor and a fast normal lens on the front; like the Q3-43 does in the full frame arena...

I thought about selling the CL cameras a while back but hesitated. Now, when I go and look for additional bodies I find that they are going back up in price on the used markets. Maybe Leica can look to those rising price trends as product demand research and come to the decision to re-launch that format. But...probably not. 

One of my friends took me to task when I originally bought the CLs  and an assortment of APS-C only lenses. He suggested that if the camera system was discontinued that the lenses would eventually become useless and would lose their value. I might have agreed had I not tried using the Sigma APS-C L mount lenses on a Leica SL2, with the camera set to shoot APS-C. The lenses work quite well when used that way and the camera provides image stabilization! You are still getting file sizes over 20 megapixels and, if Sigma follows other lens makers then APS-C lenses are designed to give a higher resolution with over 50% contrast to compensate for their intended use on a smaller, more densely packed imaging sensor.  All nicely bundled with auto focus and full lens automation.

In a pinch, at corporate events with speakers at far away podiums, I have resorted to using the APS-C mode on the SL2 to gain more reach with a telephoto lens on the front. I could easily do the same thing by using the longer ff lenses (like 135mm and above) with the CL bodies. Nice that the lens mount is the thing that keeps the older bodies and lenses from being obsoleted entirely. And, depending on your intended use, not obsolete at all !

The strength and weakness of the digital CL are the same. The battery. It's a bit small and runs down fairly quickly. 250-300 shots. But the strength of it is that the CL uses the same battery as many Panasonic compact cameras and both of the recent Sigma fp variants. This means the market is filled with compatible batteries as cheap as $12 each, to batteries I have more confidence in, like Sigma branded and Panasonic banded batteries in the $40 price range. But if you absolutely have to have the Leica branded battery you can still find them for around $125 each. I have a bunch of the Sigma batteries. I've yet to have on fail. 

I just liked the portrait and thought you might enjoy the technical backstory. Hope all is well.