I've been working on reducing the camera inventory over the course of this year. I wanted to get rid of excessive duplication (also referred to as "redundancy" or "back-up" gear) and I was strongly motivated to get rid of different systems with different menus and different batteries. For someone who spent a large part of his career juggling different cameras for different work scenarios it took time for me to get comfortable with winnowing stuff down and being rational (or as rational as possible....) about it.
I wrote a tongue-in-cheek piece about getting a new Leica Q2 yesterday but what I didn't mention was that I've sold off, over the last couple of months, five cameras from other systems and at least ten lenses. Gone. Out the door. I've gifted a few lighting units and have given away other peripherals.
Once I started shooting with Leica cameras I decided that I'd pare down as much as possible to only that family's products because it's nice to have consistency and it's nice to have all of the lenses be interchangeable; even between the APS-C Leica CLs and the full frame SLx cameras.
At this point I only have two non-Leica cameras left. One is the Panasonic S5 which is too useful to part with. It's a go-to camera for video work and also a great camera for use with dedicated, on-camera, TTL flash work. Think galas, social events, etc. But I'm not in a hurry to part with it until I find a bullet-proof on-camera flash system that works across the Leica universe.
The other camera is the eccentric, wonderful, quirky but capable of beautiful files --- Sigma fp.
Both the fp and the S5 use all the L mount lenses interchangeably and both are worth so little as trade-ins or sellable products that it just makes economic sense to keep them around. And a bonus feature of the Sigma fp is that it takes the same batteries as the two Leica CLs. Nice. Swappable. Wish the S5 could use Leica batteries; or even better, that Leicas could use S5 batteries...
Since I sold my two Fuji X100V cameras last December I've been casually looking around for the right camera to replace them. A couple of times I almost back-slid to the Fujis but they have been unavailable for so long that my interest in them collapsed altogether. The Q2 has been on my radar for a couple of years now but I never quite figured out if the camera would work for me; both for jobs and financially.
But selling off more and more cameras and lenses made the purchase at least fiscally do-able. So I took the plunge.
Why that camera? Because it makes sense considering the direction in which I'm pushing my primary working cameras. It tucks into the overall system quite nicely. And, as with the Sigma fp and the CLs, it takes the same battery as the SL and SL2 cameras. I can see using it in concert with the bigger cameras when I want something quick and no nonsense while on assignment.
I've often argued against the Q2 because I'm not a big fan of the 28mm focal length and that's what you get, permanently installed, on a Q2. But a quick tutorial with a friend who was already a Q2 owner showed me just how well the camera works with the zoom-in feature. It's really a well done work around for a fixed focal length. I can choose to shoot in a 35mm A.O.V. space and still come away with files that are over 30 megapixels in resolution. While the 50mm frame lines are smaller that crop too is usable and gives one about 15 megapixels of resolution.
But the features I like best are the sharpness and performance of the Leica lens, the color science, the sensor (which I think it shares with the SL2) and the uniformity of the menu with the SL2 --- which is my most used camera for $$$ work. A well designed menu doesn't get the gushing credit that things like super snappy AF do but in my mind is a primary benefit for a camera --- and by extension, a system.
The Q2 is much smaller and lighter than my SLx cameras so it's easier to always have around. I'm also happy with the I.P. 52 weather resistance rating and look forward to moments of nonchalant indifference when the rain starts to pour down.
But the biggest selling point is the image quality.
I wanted to buy a leather half case to protect the bottom of the camera --- since that part gets set down on rough surfaces sometimes when we're all moving quickly. I looked at a version of a leather half case at a Leica store and was shocked (really --- shocked) to see a price of $350. I opted for one advertised on Amazon and the cost was $34. I'd ordered one before for the TL2 and it was perfectly fine and fit well. Some things you really don't need to splurge on....
One more thing. Just because a camera is made by Leica doesn't mean it can't be voted off the island.
Just recently I mini-celebrated (nice coffee) the departure of my most ill-advised Leica camera purchase. Yes, the Leica TL2 is now someone else's interface nightmare. Gone and at a $ loss. But I'm happy just to see it go. I'm sure there are many who bond with the camera and the cellphone-like menu system but the camera was just a non-starter for me. I'm touchscreen illiterate. And when you don't look forward to using something it's time to let it go. Unwanted cameras just take up space in the drawer and in your brain. Once gone you can use the space for something better.....or just enjoy the space itself.
It was an interesting attempt by a company that was brave enough to take chances. But it should never have left the lab. At least not before a good test run in the hands of many ham-fisted photographers....
Several readers have asked if I considered the Q2 Monochrom when making my purchase but to be truthful it never crossed my mind. I find the controls in camera (Profile: Monochrom HC) and the breathtaking flexibility of Adobe's Lightroom all I need to create B&W images that match the style I like.
I would love (not really) to write a series of blog posts about the 20+ years I spent in my own commercial darkroom souping film, making contact sheets, printing on fiber based paper, testing sodium vapor safe lights, toning in selenium solutions, using Spotone and tiny brushes to dust spot prints, fixer staining many beautiful shirts and pairs of pants, pouring chemicals down the sink, and so much more but I find the whole subject .... incredibly boring. Like describing to someone how to dig a hole with a shovel, fill the hole with dollar bills, set them on fire and the cover the ashes with the dirt.
Many, many years ago, when I worked in advertising, we used to have to order type from a service for print ad production. When the type (on sheets of paper like material) came the leading and spacing wasn't always perfect and we used a waxer for adhesion on the backside of the page of type and then carefully cut some words out letter by letter and aligned them and pressed them onto the boards we sent to the printers. It was careful, time consuming work but it was always just cutting type out with a sharp blade and repositioning it to make the type look better. Once we were able to kern and space type on our computers we never had the misplaced nostalgia to go back and heat up the waxers and hunch over a drafting table lining stuff up sticky type with a Mayline. Never.
That's about how I feel when I see people waxing sentimental about the actual drudgery that was darkroom work. We only really cared about the prints. The final piece of art. How we got there wasn't the source of joy. It was getting out of the darkroom alive and with a nice print in our hands that was the happy part.
Going backwards? Not on your life!
So, what's on your holiday list of "most wanted" stuff? And please don't say, "Dektol."
Finally, swimming. We have a mean coach on Tuesdays and Thursdays but we're growing to like and respect her. She upset our routine by making us lean into all four strokes and also to up the effort level in our workouts. Not necessarily more distance but a lot more speed work. Keeping those heart rates over 150.... at least mine...
Today, by her declaration, was I.M. day. It stands for individual medley. There are three races in the Olympics that are I.M. The 200 meter I.M. the 400 meter I.M. and the 400 I.M. relay. In each the first quarter is butterfly, the next quarter is backstroke, then breaststroke and finally freestyle. In the 400 (non-relay) the first 100 yards is the killer. It's 100 yards or meters of butterfly stroke --- which most people could not finish for any reward. It's too hard to do for occasional swimmers... Even fit ones. And then the turn. And then right into backstroke, etc.
Our workout today consisted of mostly I.M. sets but also three main subsets that concentrated on one main stroke for each. You have not started out your morning under physical duress until you've knocked out five or six hundred yards of butterfly. It's just a whole different thing. In fact, I've been sitting here typing this post just to rest up and have the energy to get up and go find another cup of life-giving coffee....
Just a warning if you were planning to come to Jen's 8 a.m. workout next Thursday.
No commercial links here.
25 comments:
Kirk
What happened to your gh5 II, gh6, and g9?
jay
sold, sold, sold. gone.
I'm bowing out of doing moe commercial video for the time being. If I need something special I'll rent it.
Best, KT
Kirk Let me suggest an alternative for the camera case for the Leica Q. My suggestion is an Arca Swiss base plate. It protects the camera, can be had with or without a hand grip, adds the quick release and can be had for less than $100. Just a thought.
I still make occasional film photographs (almost always black-and-white), but only because I enjoy shooting with an 85-year-old camera, identical to my father’s, which he let me use, after issuing appropriate admonitions, when I was a teenager in the 1960s. These days, I may wake up from a dream on a really bad night, recalling the stench of fixer in the basement darkroom that I set up in my parents’ house. But now the film goes to a local custom lab, which processes it at least as well as I ever did and without the olfactory artifacts.
In my holiday list should I win the lottery: http://de-vere.com/products-504ds-digital-enlarger/
Currently going down the same path, Kirk: Leica SL2 & Q2; Leica CL & Panasonic GX8. The latter combo will probably go once Leica grants my holiday wish: a Q with M mount, or an M with (only) inbuilt EVF. And as a practical improvement on the Leica AF lenses: Direct Manual Focus, i.e. the focus ring to allow manual override instantly, without having to go to the camera‘s menu first and set it to MF (try doing that with gloves on) - should normally be doable even with a firmware update, shouldn’t it? And to calm those who fear accidental override of their automatic focus point: make DMF selectable in the „Capture assistants“ submenu.
I see a new Panasonic S5II in your future because as a retired pro I know backup habits are hard to ignore. One of the joys of retirement has been re-discovering old cameras I liked but could not commercially rationalise at the time. An amateur acquaintance asked me if he should get a particular M camera. My answer was will you enjoy using it. Rediscovering B&W film processing which is now a pleasant ritual rather than an industrial process requiring 100% perfection. Discovery by personal experiment is now an entertaining option.
Cheers Pierre
Instead of a leather half case to protect the bottom of my camera I use thin felt gliders (normally used under the legs of chairs) cut to the right size. Cost, space required and weight is approximately zero.
When companies make non-interchangeable "premium" cameras, they never go the distance. That is, they don't make multiple versions with different focal lengths. Seems like a good experiment to try. Ricoh at least has 2 digital GRs, one with a 28 mm equiv lens and one with a 40 mm equiv lens (I think), which is the kind of thing I'm thinking of.
When I owned a tiny Olympus Stylus film camera years ago, it produced prints of very high quality for what seemed like a toy in the hand. I forget now if it had a 28 or 35 mm lens, but it seemed to me that they should have released 28, 35 and 50 mm versions. Carrying those 3 cameras around would not have been onerous since they were so tiny, and also inexpensive.
Sony managed to make a pretty small "full-frame" RX1, so small packaging can be achieved even with larger sensors.
You've tried everything else in the Leica lineup, so why not a digital M?
Ah, typography in the old days. I went to art school at Georgia in the mid 1970s. In graphic design classes we used the rub-off letters for any type needs. One letter at a time, getting the spacing just right. What a pain. Then, ten years layer, the Mac and its Laserwriter made it all unnecessary.
Do the Godox on-camera flashes work well with Leica?
Gordon: They trigger. If the flash has the old automatic setting that doesn't depend on the camera sensor to work then you can have automatic. I suppose that the Leica branded flashes (expensive and limited) would work just fine but I'm not going to spend good "next lens" money to find out. cheaper just to hold onto the S5 and a couple Godox flashes for that system...
Since I keep resigning event clients it will soon likely be a non-issue for me...
David, Try press typing an entire book. That would be dedication!
But yes. That's one area in which technical progress was inarguably the right thing.
Ah. CRSantin, Thank you for once again providing me with a subject to write about next. Why not an "M" Leica?.
Spinning it around in my brain as I write this...
I've been paring down my kit for a couple of years now - slowly but steadily. Alas, a Q2 is too dear for me. But I'll hang onto my CL. The big question is how the S5II will turn out. If it's the camera I'm hoping for, a whole lot of other gear will go very quickly.
Over time, Spotone used on fiber prints gets discolored, so the dust specks are once more visible. All that work for naught!
I'm hoping for an S5 and a full set of lenses to fall off the back of Santa's sleigh. Fat chance, the old bugger is still shooting with a Pentax Spotmatic and Kodak Plus X.
Eric
I once shared a boat with a guy who was really interested in all the mechanical systems. I wasn't. I was "Boat go in water, good. Boat don't go, call boat mechanic and go get lunch." IMO, Leica Ms, which I have owned, both film and digital, are for people who really like mechanical systems. As opposed, say, to photography. I know that sounds bigoted, but I was never able to squeeze out of a Leica M what I routinely got from Nikons and even Pentaxes. Getting a great print out of an M must feel like victory, but (again, IMO) why should simple competence feel like victory? Victory should come from a great image, not because you made the ******' camera work.
Moral of story: Never share boats.
JC, I owned a bunch of M gear in the 1990s and it could not have been simpler to operate. The focusing was quick and accurate and the only other controls on the camera were aperture and shutter speed. Can't get much easier than that. I was able to use them all day long at fast moving events, for years, and not lose many frames or opportunities.
That was then and this is now and once we collectively suckled at the teat of autofocus most of us have never been willing to return to an early way. Same with AF. But that doesn't mean the M cameras have become less capable. Maybe it is the operators who have lost a step or two... or who have become ******* lazy or complacent. (possible that I am included in this category...).
Kirk,
I'm one of those guys who still enjoys souping film and messing about (literally) in the darkroom. The key is that I don't do it for a living.
Similarly... for a living, I'm a physicist. I just watched "Hidden Figures" last night. Scores of people calculating rocket launches with slide rules, mechanical calculators, paper, and chalkboards. Anybody want to do that now? Not I.
Steve
Sorry Kirk but, the more cameras the better.
Jon, Give me a month or so and I'll correct the shortfall. Already looking at the monochrom Q....
Attaboy! I have faith in you!
Sigma dp quattro 0 through 3
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