Back in the office. Polished the computer and the hard drives. Sorted cameras. Sat back and admired clean, white walls. Went swimming.

If you like the look of a 40mm, full frame lens you might be interested in grafting a

Carl Zeiss ZM 28mm f2.8 onto the front of a Leica CL. It's a nicely compact

package that makes really nice photographs. Unless you are afraid of the smaller

format. And the fact that the camera has been discontinued. Still.....

it looks so darn cool...

The studio looks great. I'm just now moving everything back in and trying to come to grips with the idea of leaving the walls bare for a while, just to enjoy the "blank canvas" bright white look of it all. This morning I moved the computer, hard drives and printer back into the office space and hooked them all up. I would have done it earlier but I was reluctant to spend a lot of time inside until the paint smell receded and mostly vanished. That was today. 

I love the clean look so much that I'm getting more and more serious about tossing tons of extraneous stuff out. I've got a bag full of microphones, mixers, cables and more microphones and mixers that I'm going to take to the camera store and "trade in." I'd try to sell them online but I have no patience for things like Ebay. I'd rather donate stuff than wade through the pathos and insecurities of online buyers. 

Same with buying stuff from individuals. I'll buy a lens or a camera from a good friend but I'm always hesitant about buying stuff online from anywhere but a well known retail store. Or the same retail/web storefront. I like the guys at Camera West. I'm happy to bite the bullet and pay a bit above market price for used gear at The Leica Store Miami. And, of course, for lots of new stuff there's always B&H Photo. Each of these vendors does a good job of standing behind the products they sell and taking care of their customers when things don't turn out as intended. Not so with strangers online who seem to vanish at the first sign of trouble. 

For the first time in a long time I'm not really in the market for anything. I thought I might resell the two Leica CL cameras but I took them out and used them again and I'm right back in love with them. I've found that Leica stuff holds my interest in a different way than other camera brands. Take the Leica SL camera for instance. It was launched in 2015 and the sensor tech in it is older. It's strictly contrast detect auto focus which drives a lot of photographers around the bend. It's hefty and the battery life is less than stellar but it's adorable, solid and the files that come out of the camera, when used well, are really quite good and, in many ways very different aesthetically than the files that come out of most other (non-Leica) cameras. 

If one purchases a brand like Sony I think a lot of the reason for that choice is to stay up to date with the latest features and technology. If that's a primary reason to buy than it's only logical that those are also the good reasons to want to constantly upgrade. To keep up. Since the Leicas are constantly at least a generation or two behind when it comes to features, and some pizzazz technology at the time when you buy them new, you come to understand that maybe we're buying them for different reasons. 

Since I'm not really in the market for a new camera or lens I find myself rotating through the existing inventory with a sense of new discovery. As in: what have I overlooked before?  On Monday I'll pack up a few LED lights, grab the Fuji GFX 50Sii and head over to my favorite law firm to make an environmental portrait of an attorney. 

I'm delighted to do so because it's a chance to re-visit the TTArtisan 90mm f1.25 lens. Yes, it vignettes quite a bit at the edges of the medium format sensor and it has some geometric distortion built in, but it's also a fast, fun lens. I'll shoot at a safe aperture to start out. "Safe" from the perspective of ensuring enough depth of field to cover from the tip of the attorney's nose to the backs of his ears. Once we have an ample number of keepers I'll ask if he'll collaborate with me by hanging out while I make more exposures at wider and wider apertures. When we're operating in safe mode while doing commercial portraits I mostly stay "North" of f5.6. Venturing as high as f8.0. But after we've got good stuff in the can I want to venture all the way down to f2.0. I know the lens has wider f-stops but by f2.0 the depth of field is so shallow that anything under f2.0 and you're just showing off mindless bokeh rendering techniques, not solving an issue that needs resolution. (And I'm not sure the lens is sharp enough at and near wide open to make this kind of tiny slice of depth of field viable....). 

As far as vignetting goes I tend not to use the 4:3 aspect ratio since various other ratios don't include the far corners and that's where the darkening is most pronounced. Even 3:2 sidesteps most of the vignetting that this lens delivers. Finally, the closer the subject the less vignetting occurs. 

In the end, knowing myself as well as I do, if I find myself shooting a lot of portraits with the Fuji GFX I will almost certainly buy the 110mm f2.0 lens which is almost universally adored by people who use the system. But not until I've hit a wall with the 90mm TTArtisan lens. Not today.

Outside of the commercial portrait arena all my other "fun" work recently has been shot with various cameras set to black and white. It's this week's trend. And with all the controls and presets available now in Lightroom black and white has become such a joy. I like boosting the contrast and I like making images darker. The scenes seem more realistic when I darken them and the increase in contrast makes images a bit more exciting. I'm so over endless tones of mushy grayscale that I almost can't look at flat images anymore without feeling a tremendously underwhelmed.

Shooting all the time sucks up memory space in the office. Currently have six 12 terabyte drives attached to the iMac Pro. Three of them back up the other three. I'm also using a couple of fast SSDs for temporary work. Stuff I'm processing in the moment. The trade-off for speed is limited size. They are each 1 terabyte. Seems to work as long as I continue upgrading, migrating and transferring. But it's a constant reminder that film was/is a pretty robust back-up medium. 

Finally. Having a blast at the pool. Yesterday I swam with an outrageously fast swimmer who won gold in the Sidney Olympics. The coach paired us up in adjacent lanes in order to mirror each other. It's a training method in which one person leads and the other person tries to mirror their stroke cadence and pace. It's a great way to learn subtle (and not so subtle) stroke improvements. Then we did a set of 50s in which my coach set (too fast) targeted repeat times for me, and my partner would estimate how much time difference in our starts would allow him to sprint and try to catch me. He pushed off the wall about five seconds after me. The logic behind the exercise is that trying not to get caught, or trying to catch a leading swimmer, on each repeat makes each person act, maybe subconsciously, more competitive and thus makes each one swim faster. Outside their comfort zone. It worked for me. I probably swam those ten 50 yard "races" faster than any I have in about 15 years. 

My fellow swimmer caught me five out of the ten times. I sprinted well but thought he might be holding back ---- just a little. It's one thing to try racing against someone about half your age but it's another thing entirely when that person is a six foot four inch tall former record holder who never stopped swimming. A bit intimidating? Yeah, I guess so... Required two lunches afterwards... and a long nap.

Winter is coming to Austin sporadically. Cold and wet today. But that means something different to us here than it does to people in, say, Montreal. Cold here is 60° and wet is --- well, wet is the same. Still, it's nice to break out sweatshirts, jackets, etc. Can't wait for another 20° drop. Then I can pull out the trench coat and pretend to be a 1950s spy. Fun with winter clothes.

 

Painting complete. Client (me) happy as a clam. House and office nicely refreshed.

 

We'd been meaning to re-paint the living room, the guest bathroom, that ceiling of the screened in back patio and, of course the studio, for a long, long time. Like 26 years a long time. I guess the fact that it wasn't urgent is a nod to the quality of the paint the last homeowner used. But it was time. Beyond time. And now I can't believe we lived with the quickly deteriorating paint for as long as we did. 

I'd like you to believe that I volunteered to climb ladders, scrape paint, re-caulk long beams positioned high up, and also to bleach the ceiling of the patio to remediate some small moldy cultures. I'd like to tell you that I couldn't wait to clean the abused white walls of the studio/office to prep them for my expert application of new paint. I'd like for you to believe that I relish hard work like this. That I have no fear of heights and love to hang out on the top two steps of twelve foot ladders. All carefree and relaxed. I'd like to write all those things with a straight face but I would worry that B. might read this blog post and write a pithy and much more honest rebuttal. Showcasing my reticence to do anything really productive around the house.  And I would be so embarrassed.

But in my defense I have been here every day to answer questions, help out, make coffee for the two man team that our painting company sent over to do the actual, hands on work and also endure the smell of drying paint. Just as I am certain that I'll be writing the check when it's all said and done. 

There was something both sad and cathartic about this particular process. I had no idea that moving all the clutter from the top of my desk and clearing off piles of stuff would be so emotionally fraught. It dawned on me that this was yet another signpost of change and transition. 

The office space looks so clean and Spartan right now. Right at this moment. I'm hesitant to start bringing stuff back in which will have the unwanted effect of cluttering up the room. For another 25  years. 

The bare white walls are so minimalist right now. Like an austere NYC art gallery.  I'm guessing this might be just the motivation I've needed to purge about 80% of the old gear, modifiers, old work, etc. that this room has been housing; like a mini-museum with metastasizing clutter syndrome. 

Drop by. Maybe I can persuade you to leave with a small parting gift. A C-Stand anyone? How about a couple hundred feet of heavy duty extension cable. Some nice, well used frames? Who needs some long rolls of white seamless background paper? We'll pay you to take it....

Since we rehabbed and re-painted the guest bathroom I can now 

invite friends over for dinner without having to apologize for the 

tattered condition we once experienced in this one. Now it seems 

like a wonderfully neat place in which to wash one's hands. 

The painters covered every piece of gear and furniture with plastic.

If I had done the job I would have convinced myself that I would

never drip paint. And then I'd have spent a few days trying to clean up the mess

followed by months of rationalizing how artistic it is to have white speckles 

applied randomly around the room.

A Nanlite LED spotlight shrouded for protection.

And I may be lazy enough to leave it just l like this and to tell everyone

that it's an expression of modern decor. I'm sure that will go over well.

The painters have departed. I should move the stuff I positioned outside back into the office space before it rains. But I'd rather take a nap. Watching other people diligently working can be exhausting. 

Global Shutter arrives. World radically changed within hours. Early adopters already ensconced in the Photography Hall of Fame. All previous cameras rendered useless.

 Here we go. The GSO. The global shutter onslaught. Breathless bloggers and video influencers have also changed history by declaring that Sony has invented a whole new way of capturing images that no one else in the world had the foresight or technology to create. 

Well.... maybe not so fast. I think a small company that designs and produces imaging sensors solved the technical stuff of G.S. well over a decade ago. For that matter Arriflex, Red, and Panasonic have been using global shutters in high end video cameras for.....a long time. Quite successfully. Sony basically fine-tuned the sensor and imaging pipeline technology in order to help you fill up memory cards much more quickly, in a consumer camera, and with many nearly identical frames. Just like video.

Don't get me wrong. I think global shutters are, in theory, a great idea. They solve some problems. But whether they are the problems we needed to solve is yet to be determined. Is a super high frame rate a good thing? Maybe, but maybe it creates a worse problem by allowing one to generate so many nearly identical files that memory cards quickly fill up, hard drives get overwhelmed and editing time extends egregiously which cuts down on time for human enjoyment. 

Here's a prediction: As soon as global shutters trickle down to affordable, consumer digital cameras, and the "feature" of an "endless frame rate" arrives with them software companies will almost immediately come out with "AI" software that learns your taste in photographs and automatically winnows down your take in a folder. Effectively homogenizing your vision based on what you already did in the past. Work that falls outside your software's learned "taste" parameters gets dumped. Even if it's something you thought to try in a new way. The software will require faster processors and bigger, faster SSDs to operate. In one camera purchase you've created a new need to upgrade vital parts of your computer and your image processing. 

A fact check: Loss of quantum efficiency. Global Shutter sensors can't currently take advantage of BSI technology and depend on older semiconductor tech. Current sensors used for global shutter photography are between one and two stops less efficient which equals one or two stops more noise. 

And then there is the engineering workaround to delivering speed; and speed is what lies at the base of a global shutter implementation. Each file that comes off a sensor; each frame, must be processed by the camera. Hundred thousand dollar movie cameras get around the need to process their files in camera by dumping all the raw information off the sensor and directly into large scale, high speed memory. Super fast SSDs. The raw results (flat, dark, low saturation, etc.) are only made "visible" and workable in post production. Or, in movie cameras, review outputs that have their own adjustable Log profiles.

Current users of high end still cameras have been spoiled. With current frame rates from mechanical shutters cameras have time to take raw data and profile with white balance settings, contrast, saturation and other settings in order to make a pleasing and (hopefully) representative smaller file to delivery to your camera's rear screen or EVF for your immediate viewing or preview and review. The files have been profiled, your camera settings incorporated, etc. It happens to every frame that comes through your camera. Otherwise you couldn't really make much of an evaluation when reviewing the images on your camera screen. 

But here's what is almost never mentioned about cameras and speed, it's the compromises between the throughput of the camera and the amount of time and processing power being lavished on each frame. In order to give you the faster frame rates that many desire something has to be streamlined. To keep costs down parts in the camera (sub processors, main processors, GPUs, etc.) have to be evaluated and compromises have to be made to meet budgets. You could have better color and lower noise out of current sensors if you were willing to pay in terms of battery use, overall cost and increased camera body size (to handle thermal issues...) but too many consumers only see the top level specs. Those are resolution, frame rate and PRICE. 

Price being the ultimate "deal killer". But also the compromises required to hit a price point have a direct effect on image quality. As far as speed goes, all else being equal, the faster you pull frames through a camera's pipeline the less time the camera's working guts have to apply processing to each image. If cost and frame rate are fixed conditions for a camera (to hit the all important price point) then the maker cuts cost in the invisible to consumers areas. They can take a slower imaging processor (the unit that applies corrections and writes output data after files come off the sensor) and reduce the number and/or complexity of the operations the imaging processor undertakes. Do you wonder why very high end Phase One cameras work in the realm of 16 bits while many popular Sony full frame cameras work in the pedestrian realm of 12 bits? It's because churning out highly detailed and data dense 16 bit files requires more (and more expensive) parts and processing. It's also a reason why cameras with very high degrees of color discrimination process files at a slower speed than the one's which paint files with a broad and not very discriminating "brush." 

Color discrimination is the process of breaking file's colors into finer and finer differentiations of tone and hue. The finer the color discrimination the more accurate and nuanced the color coming out of the camera. Less color discrimination and you get a less accurate representations the colors in your images. Would you personally rather have more speed or more color discrimination, the ability to work with files that have higher bit depths, and files in which noise is treated with a scalpel instead of a sledge hammer?

Granted, faster and faster processors will narrow the gap. But only if the makers of cameras earmark the speed increases for file quality over speed and throughput. 

So, yes, the new camera with the global shutter from Sony is an engineering marvel but like any camera it's host to a number of compromises. Higher noise, vis-a-vis current top line 24 megapixel BSI sensors. Lower dynamic range. And almost certainly a processing pipeline that includes 12 bit processing as the default for all raw files. But you do have the nice features of being about to shoot with flash at any shutter speed and the ability to use super high shutter speeds. But with much more limited dynamic range.

Oh, and I almost forgot, the ability to fill a 256 Gigabyte memory card in the blink of an eye. 

Processing. As in most computer based endeavors how processing power is used is a continual trade off between consumer candy features (speed) and real, state of the art image quality. Just sayin'

If you are heading to the Olympics next year to shoot still images for Sport Illustrated or Obscure Sports Quarterly and you are horribly unsure of your skill, timing, etc. A new camera with a global sensor might be just what the editor ordered. Hold the shutter button down long enough and you'll have something for A.I. image selectors to choose from. Every new technology that trickles down into photography has some  positive use case, but that's separate from everyday value to most photographers. 

I'm sure the new Sony A9III is a miracle of sorts. But every photographic miracle comes with some sort of balancing compromise. Old saying.....there's no free lunch. 

OT: Crazy Times at the Pool. What was I thinking???

 I'm happy to be swimming with a competitive team now that I'm 68 years of age. Every workout seems sweeter. Every little victory delicious. Just finishing a hard set seems more fun.  More rewarding. And, interestingly, I'm not slowing down. Much.

Today we were coached by Jenn. She's our toughest coach. 

The warm up was standard fare. 400 yard swim, 400 pull, some kicking sets, A thousand yards with which to loosen up the muscles, find one's rhythm and get the heart rate up. But today's main set was intense.

We did two sets of 20 x 50 yards. That's not so unusual but the intervals were. We were asked to choose a "challenging" interval for the first set of 20 ( times two lengths...) and then choose an interval that was five seconds faster per 50 for the second set. My lane mates chose 45 seconds per 50 for the first set and then 40 seconds per 50 for the second set. Mercifully, there was a break between the two sets. But a "break" at swim practice still means doing yardage. For us it meant a 300 yard dolphin kick. But that was restful compared to the main sets....

Some lanes chose to do their sets on more relaxed intervals but no lane selected faster intervals. We got into a pace we could sustain and which, for the first set, gave us about 5 or 6 seconds rest between 50s. The second set was almost touch and go. A few deep breaths between 50s. A second or two of rest. 

In the end we knocked out about 3300 yards in our hour workout. But man, those were some fast yards with micro amounts of recovery. I'd feel more smug about finishing a set like that except that our lane leader today is just a bit older than I am...  There is a lot to be gained by not succumbing to our culture's perspective on age and performance. We can do a lot more than most people imagine. 

Now, back to the house painting adventures... (going well).

After a weekend of pulling out stacks of paper, moving filing cabinets, rolling up carpets and other prep work for house upgrades there was a lot of pent up desire to be outside with a fun camera.

 

I've been shooting in Jpeg+Raw lately with the M 240, mostly to give myself a choice, when I review files, between black and white and color. The image above looked much better to me in black and white while most of the files below seemed to depend on color to carry the day. 

The Leica M 240 and the 50mm Voigtlander lens seem to be a perfect match. When I use wider lenses on that body, especially the 28mm, you have to move your eye around the finder to really see the frame lines with any degree of accuracy. And that's presuming that the framelines are accurate in the first place. A big assumption given parallax and the changing magnification as the lens focuses toward the minimum focusing distance. The 35mm focal length is the last stop before the inconvenience of wider angle lenses seeps in. I was going to go through the process of finding just the right diopter attachment so I would not have to wear my glasses with the wider angle lenses but I've pretty much decided that in the same way the Q2 is a camera with a fixed 28mm lens and the Fuji X100V is a fixed 35mm lens, the M240 might most comfortably be considered a camera with a fixed 50mm lens. At least the way I use it.

At some point, if I ever warm up to using the 28mm on the rangefinder I'll hunt down a very nice 28mm bright line finder to put into the accessory shoe of the camera. Then I'll focus through the regular finder and then compose with the bright line accessory finder. But for now? I'll keep sticking the 28mm on the front of the SL2 and be happy with it. Or, alternately, I'll stop worrying about where the edges of the frame lines are in the M 240 finder and just merrily shoot without making a big deal out of it. It's not like I'm using this particular lens and camera combination for client work, after all.

I could lie and chalk up the performance here to the fantastic dynamic range of a decade old sensor or I could be honest and admit that I started with a dark file, used an A.I. filter to accentuate the color and contrast of the sky, then made another layer in Lightroom and used the brush tool to select the area under the eaves and on the wall adjacent to the eaves and in shadow. Once selected I color corrected the underlying area (it was too blue), warmed up the white on the sign with the hand, and opened up the exposure on the underlying area as well. I finished it off by adding some clarity slider to the selection but not to the global frame since I wanted the sky to go out of focus. Lightroom makes area by area corrections much easier to do now and I rarely have to go into PhotoShop to get what I want.

Why am I happy with the frame above? Well, I screwed up the exposure by one stop. I forgot about the 1/4000th of a second limit and, using ISO 500 and f4.0, I overexposed and subsequently got into an argument with my camera. But I was able to pull back the details in the file by reducing the exposure in post. I'd read that the sensor in this camera and earlier M digital cameras had limited dynamic range but I think this is a repudiation of some of that reporting. Sure, if you are off by two stops I'm betting your file is screwed but one half or even one stop? Worth a try every time. Or....you could just take the time to get the exposure correct. (Red-faced with shame....). 

the City of Austin likes murals. They'll commission people to paint them on just about anything. 

Above and below= Two versions of the same frame. Color and "Monochrome" AKA: black and white. 

I went back and forth but after looking at them for a while I decided that I like the black and white version better. Not sure why. Retro charm?

Great idea but I'm pretty sure Willie doesn't want the job and wouldn't like the salary....

On this image and several below I used the Lightroom feature: Lens Blur to selectively blur the background. You'll note that because it analyzes the original frame to determine it's "depth" via a 3D mapping routine the focus falls off in a natural progression the further it "extends" away from the main subject. You can control the amount and intensity of the fall off as well as modifying the range of the effect. I absolutely love it and will probably never have to buy a fast lens ever again (kidding? maybe). 

A bit overdone in these examples but easier to see that way....

Nothing beats an A to B comparison, right?

Top one is with the Lens Blur filter using default settings. 

The bottom image is unfiltered. As it appears right out of camera. 

Not a huge difference but enough. 

One click. that's it. No time having to select the subject, etc. 

This is either machine learning or artificial intelligence but whichever it is

I like it.

I used a "dramatic sky" filter from the LRC presets and toned it down by 50%. 

Is any day really complete without a dose of Mannequin? Especially a mannequin with what appears to be a pyramid in the background. 

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One Danger in Dealing with Retirement. Or even the Expectation of retirement.

 

I'm a sucker for clouds. Puffy ones stuck in contrasty blue skies, especially. 

After the painters got started B. took over managing our painting project today and I grabbed my camera and headed out the door for breakfast, a morning walk and a respite from over-prepping everything. The easiest destination was my current default, South Congress Ave. Shopping haven for the South side of town...

I was amazed to find convenient, on street parking just a few blocks away from a long time coffee favorite, Jo's Coffee. You've seen many images from Jo's; especially in the last few months. But today I went there for their breakfast tacos and a cup of drip coffee. They used to bring in other people's tacos to sell but they now make their own and they are delicious. Today I went for bacon, egg and cheese on whole wheat tortillas. Jo's seating is all outdoors. If you want to eat at Jo's or meet for coffee at Jo's you'll be doing it along with whatever weather Central Texas wants to provide in the moment. Today it was clear, clean and in the 70's. Yes, that's Fahrenheit. Perfect for coffee outside.

I'm still getting fully checked out on the Leica M 240. My biggest stumble today was forgetting that 1/4,000th of a second is as high as that shutter is going to go. I'm used to cameras that can crest 1/16,000th of a second and I keep wondering why, when I've got the exposure compensation set to minus one stop, my photos are still coming out overexposed. Duh. Maybe I should pay attention to the flashing 1/4000th in the finder and select a smaller aperture. It's a thought at any rate. 

I have a similar weakness for photos of clouds floating in fields of blue done in color. Not as edgy but....blue is universally peoples' favorite color.

When I got back to this week's temporary office (vacant bedroom now filled with much crap from the studio) I checked messages and saw two from friends. One is a fellow photographer who was inviting me over to his place for a late afternoon "happy hour" tomorrow. He's recently had both knees replaced so I'll probably go by my favorite Mexican restaurant and pick up some really good Queso and a bag of freshly made chips. Try to take the work out of entertaining. He's always fun to talk to, has a big, sprawling place with gardens all around and a lovely patio on which to sit and watch the sunset. And generally surrounded by artists and authors; a few of whose names you'd recognize...

The next message was from a long time friend and the former CFO of our advertising agency from back in the 1980s. She was calling to see if we could schedule a "happy hour" for Wednesday afternoon to celebrate both of our recent birthdays and to catch up. She's always been a financial mentor for me and is probably one of the real reasons I live in a nice house and can afford to hire painters instead of sitting alone in a tiny apartment covering cracks in a dirty wall with old, free posters from bad concerts. Her persistent mantra, early in my career, to save, save, save was delivered into much resistance. So I am in awe that her persistence is what carried the day.

We'll meet at a favorite neighborhood restaurant to share a bottle of wine and a plate of cheeses and charcuterie. And to talk about kids, retirement, writing and what to expect from this crazy economy.

The danger of having a bunch of friends who are slightly older than me and who have plunged into the adventure of retirement before me seems to be that the happy hour is gaining, week by week, in popularity. I tease a bit. We're all pretty mellow at this stuff. Two glasses of wine and we're usually happy enough and ready to head home. Still, it's habit forming and not the best thing if you are planning to swim hard the next day. A balance between social engagement and possible excess...

Hmmm. A photo project about America's fascination with happy hours. That might be fun. 

It's mid-afternoon and the painting is coming along well. We're about to see a second coat of white paint on the ceiling. Amazing how white a white ceiling can look when it's revisited and re-coated after two and a half decades. 

So, what's after all this painting? you may ask. Ah, well, then it will be time to replace the hardwood floor in the living room. And start on Winter landscaping. And re-visit the interior touches in my office. It just never stops....

Buying cameras is a lot more fun but it actually is nice to see fresh paint and it makes everything seem clean and new. And, I think for B. it is a lot more fun than buying cameras. Good to compromise from time to time. 

A reminder that everything here at the blog might slow down from now until Wednesday. The painters are here. The computers are moved. Everything is chaos. Pretty much normal...

 

It's been 26 years since anyone painted the walls and ceiling in our living room. It's a big room with high ceilings a row of six French doors to one side. We raised a kid, along with his rambunctious friends,in this house and the paint is beginning to show its age. Some peeling paint, many picture hook holes and little gaps running along the ceiling beams between the beams and the ceiling sheet rock.... and other tattered spots. 

Two workers on tall ladders are prepping the ceiling and walls with caulk and mud. The floors are all covered with plastic. Most of the furniture has been moved out. B. takes all of this in stride. I am rattled by change and having people in my space; and the prospect of three full days. B. reminds me that I spent a long career doing as little organizational stuff, detail stuff and actual work stuff, as I possibly could. I protest that I worked hard. She counters that my hard work was more focused on shaking hands with executives and instructing assistants and other crew members about how to do the physical labor. I protest that I've carried my share of gear. She reminds me that, at least for the last five or ten years, that's been a voluntary undertaking and not exactly required. I give up and decide to take a Leica for a walk.

I'm saddling up with an "ancient" M 240 and a VM 50mm APO. I have no destination in mind. I have no project bubbling up. Just a walk. And now that I write this I'm beginning to plan a trip to Torchy's Tacos for a fun lunch. I am not good at management of anyone besides myself. And maybe the oversight of project management. 

Being a photographer has been like being on an extended vacation with little spurts of actual work. Enjoyable. Especially when one considers all the more stressful jobs out there. Like painting my ceiling. 

Hire pros. Do more walks. Today's strategy.

Today the living room. Tomorrow the back porch ceiling and a bathroom. Wednesday my office; the cleaning of which, in anticipation, has been like an archeological dig. Depressing...

I have been checking in on the availability of the Fuji X100V for a year now. It is still unobtainable. Does it still exist as a viable product choice?

The Fuji X100V is a very nice camera. Well worth its retail price of $1399. Its fixed 35mm equivalent lens is a very good performer. It's lightweight and easy to carry around. The battery life is acceptable. But there is one major, overriding problem with this particular camera. It has been unavailable for over a year now. 

Sure, you can go to EBay or Amazon and find a vendor who will sell you an "open box" or lightly used one for anywhere from $2,200 to $3,000. For those prices you can do better. In fact, it puts you closer to the prices on used Leica Q2s, which are substantially better picture taking devices. 

I have no idea why there is so much demand and so little inventory for the X100V. It would seem that Fuji could sell every single camera they could churn out for its list price and, if the past is any guide, Fuji is capable of mass producing cameras. So what's the deal? Did they just get tired of having a wildly successful product or are they hellbent on driving medium format sales to the exclusion of everything else?

If I think the camera is a good value then why did I sell two of them? Easy. They are not built to the same standards as more expensive fixed lens compact cameras from Leica. The finders are not as good. The overall feel is plastic-y. The menus are not as well thought out. The optical finder combined with the digital finder is gimmicky and not instinctive in use. But for the vast majority of people, especially those who have never tried out a better finished product, it's a wonderful choice. 

But it's not the "end all" and "be all" of compact cameras. Not by a long shot. 

So, I wonder if Fuji is in the process of retooling and getting ready to launch an upgraded product that is a bit more expensive but also feels more substantial and incorporates features such as image stabilization. 

Your guess is as good as mine. 

As far as I'm concerned, if budget isn't an impediment, a good, used Leica Q2 is a lot more fun to shoot with. But you may have other metrics for cameras than I do.  

If you ever see one offered with a true warranty, new, and at the retail price of $1399, you might consider snagging it. On the other hand that could be a speculative investment bundled with all the risk of every other bet. 

Just thinking about that today as so many commenters rushed to laud the X100V as a substitute for a Leica. Maybe it is. But only if you can get your hands on one.... And you are willing to accept some compromises...

Resurging interest in Leica rangefinder cameras? Fad or Trend? All aboard or waiting for the next big thing?

 

It may just be the way the algorithms present stuff to me personally but I've been noticing more and more "influencers" on YouTube, and even a few well known and long-tenured photographic blog writers, (myself included) are creating and presenting more content about Leica Q and Leica M series cameras than ever before. Some of it can be tied to Leica's recent product announcements of the Q3 and the M11 and M11-P cameras but those are hardly mainstream, mostly unaffordable by vast swaths of photo enthusiasts, and made in such limited quantities that taking possession of one is as hard as being able to afford one.

Last year's announcement of the re-introduction of the M6 film camera has had the effect of increasing the prices and decreasing the availability of most previous film, "M" cameras and has also led to an increase in new lens models from inexpensive Chinese makers as well as established Japanese companies such as Voigtlander. The overall affect being a steady rise in the price of good, used Leica M cameras and lenses and a tightening of availability for new product. Unlike many companies that sell hundreds of thousands of a single model product Leica seems to be in no particular hurry to ramp up production. Of the nearly eight billion people in the world in 2023 only about 10,000 of them will be able to acquire a current, new Leica M11. That's all Leica will make this year. A fraction of a fraction of an audience. And given the hand work and expertise required to make some of these cameras there is even reasonable doubt about their ability to scale up.

There were always two reasons voiced for buying an M camera in the past. One is that some people, after experiencing the process of shooting with an optical finder and a rangefinder, come to understand the subtle advantages and want to shoot with that kind of product. Lucky for Leica that they are currently the only company currently making a full frame digital or 35mm film rangefinder camera with interchangeable lenses and an optical viewfinder. And a real, optical rangefinder.

The second reason many people give for using or wanting a Leica M has to do with the idea that Leica's lenses are better than lenses produced by other camera makers. With a few exceptions; perhaps a lens like the 50mm f2.0 APO lens for the M, lenses from other makers are catching up or have caught up with those from Leica in 2023.

So why the renewed excitement for the Leica M? Speaking for myself I have to be honest and say that it's all about sentimentality and nostalgia, coupled with an uptick in spending power which sometimes comes with age. After all, most of the expenses of raising a family end at a certain point --- college is paid for, mortgages are over, compound interest has been kind, etc. --- There is a window between the expunging of many of life's routine expenses and the drop of income in retirement that's a sweet spot for finally acquiring a few of the luxury items you always wanted but were averse to spending needed cash on.

But I tend to be (somewhat) frugal. I felt the desire to get a digital M camera because I had used M film cameras extensively in the analog days. I've used M3s, M2s, an M5, an M4 and three different models of the M6. I used mostly lenses ranging from 28mm to 90mm and have (and still have) fond memories about shooting with the system. So, I wanted a return to the experience of using an M but without the added fussiness and daily expenses of a film camera, or the outrageous cost of a new M11 digital camera, so I bought a very well cared for M 240 camera, used, for around $2800. It serves its purpose. It's fun to shoot with and fun to have sitting in front of me on my desk. A reminder of some of the most fun days of my career. But I would hardly recommend a Leica M camera to anyone who just needs a full frame camera with good lenses, in order to pursue a photographic project in modern times. 

Digital cameras with EVFs are much easier to learn. Much more precise to use. And much, much less expensive than getting tangled up with Leica digital rangefinders. Knowing this won't stop us sentimental types from wanting one but after I re-acquired an M I have had to deal with the disconnection between an optimistic and happy memory and the reality of both my aging capabilities ( mostly a need for either diopters or a need to wear glasses. And while wearing eyeglasses dealing with an attendant inability to see the full frame of a 28mm lens bright line, etc.) and also the heady progress other camera makers have made; at least in catching up or exceeding the M series for sheer image quality. Said quicker = the M is a quixotic and fashionable camera but in no conceivable way is one the magic bullet for photos, the absence of which is hampering your ability to perform. It's just not. You might "like" the process of using one but you won't be held back if you don't have one in your bag. 

I like working with manual focus lenses but I can do that equally well with any number of cameras. I routinely use M rangefinder lenses on Leica SL camera, the Panasonic S5 and also the Sigma fp. All with good results. When I use, say, a 50mm f2.0 Voigtlander APO lens with an M to L adapter on an SL2 body I suddenly remember how nice it is to compose and focus through a nearly six million dot EVF. And how much easier it is to focus at slower shutter speeds because of the steadying power of in body image stabilization. And how much I appreciate the very high shutter speeds that allow me to use old, manual glass (and the new stuff) in full sun, at wide apertures, and without the need to carry around ND filters. 

After using the frame cropping feature in the Q2 I've become a convert to the idea that a single focal length lens can become a multi-focal length lens when used on the right camera. Basically, any camera that supports high resolution and the ability to set a crop mode. And to see the results of that crop mode in your finder.

Lately I've been using the 47 megapixel SL2 with a Voigtlander 40mm f1.4 lens. It's the same lens I used last  year on a shooting trip to Vancouver, Canada. Only now instead of carrying two lenses (a mild wide and a mild tele) I've started putting the 40mm on the SL2 with a Leica M to L converter and switching back and forth between  using the 40mm focal length in the full, 35mm mode and then, when I want tighter crops, switching the camera's mode to APS-C and making use of the VM lens as a 60mm. Two focal lengths in one and quite a small package. I do the same with the 50mm. Using the APS-C mode to convert the 50mm to a FOV of 75mm. For one recent project I used the 90mm Sigma f2.8 lens with the crop to give me a wonderfully compact 135mm lens. I can't do this with a digital Leica M. If I want two focal lengths I have to carry two lenses. 

Or I have to remember how I wanted something cropped and wait to do it in post. Which is very unsatisfying for me. You, of course, are perfect and will remember your intention of exactly where to crop --- right down into the micron level. 

As far as a nostalgia for a film M camera goes it's really an area in which I no longer have any interest whatsoever. The whole idea of buying, shooting and processing film leaves me cold. My shooting style has changed a lot. I love being able to work a situation from lots of different angles and with lots of different moments. Lots of potential images vs 36.... I hate the idea of having to send out film and wait for it. And there's no way I'd even consider having to put in a home darkroom and deal with that mess again. It's a time and a way of doing things that have long passed into the mists of time for me. 

If you "need" to slow down --- often listed as an advantage of shooting film --- buy some tiny capacity memory cards and shoot enormous, uncompressed raw files. That ought to slow you down enough. But if you are pining for the thrill of getting to the end of a roll of film and having to rewind and reload as you are watching aliens land their spaceships in your front yard I would say that you are misguided. The idea of wanting to go back to film strikes me as being as logical as pining for a return to cooking with Margarine. Or heading out for a night on the town with a bottle of Boone's Farm Apple Flavored Wine. Or going out in the morning to adjust your carburetor. Or getting a hair weave. Or breaking out those Dingo Boots. 

When I am asked by anyone who is getting interested in photography "what camera should I buy?" I never suggest a rangefinder or a pricey Leica. My go to recommendation is nearly always first to master a recent model iPhone and only then, if you still need "better" to consider something like a Panasonic S5ii and a really nice, standard zoom lens. Maybe a Sigma 28-70mm f2.8, or something similar. 

Why? Because in competent hands few if any people will see a difference between that and an $8,000+ Leica and it will mostly be easier to learn and easier to use. 

The people who gravitate to Leicas should understand what they are getting into. And, like a good spy, they should have an exit strategy for every (buying) situation as they enter a new space. Just ask Henry White, a long time Leica M user. He'd tell you the same thing. ...when he's not busy stuffing plastic explosives into his M4 body..... (excerpt from the novel, The Lisbon Portfolio). 

I love my M 240 but probably not for the same reasons you might. And certainly not of the same reasons a collector might. It's all about time travel back to the 80s and 90s for me. So, of course your mileage ---and your position on your "timeline" will vary. 

The wiser entry point for a Leica experience? The Leica Q, Q2 (sweet spot) or the Q3. Master one of those and learn why you like it and then you'll be better able to decide about joining up with the M Leica cult. Funny that most who write about them don't own them. Journalistic disconnection....

this is not the first time I've written about M series cameras and likely not the last. I love em. But not for any logical, economically wise reason. Caveat Emptor.