Yes. I've spent some time with the Leica DLUX8. Good acquisition or big mistake? As usual, I actually used it before I decided.

 Added on Sunday after seeing many Jpeg files: Good Acquisition? Yes. Very much so.

I bought the Leica DLUX8 camera. It came in on Thursday. I had already read the manual and watched the smarter influencers on YouTube talk about what they liked and didn't like. I was pretty sure the camera would be capable and nicely designed. I wasn't prepared for how tiny it is "in person." It's small. Really small. Which makes me happy that mine came with a half case that has a built-in front grip. I also got a thumb grip that fits into the hot shoe. Together they make the camera a better fit for my medium sized hands. 

I guess the reason I thought the camera was bigger is that on YouTube the "influencer/reviewers" are constantly holding the camera in front of themselves out toward the filming camera; the filming cameras generally have short focal lengths and so the size relationships are all skewed. It's an odd thing, expectations. But really, if you are one of those tender users who can't bear to walk around with a camera heavier than a creme filled donut you'll like this one. Used on a strap I constantly had to check and see if the camera had floated away. It's pretty light...

After four years of lugging around the brick they call The Leica SL2  I suppose it will take me some time to get used to its opposite. 

I know some photo bloggers love to get those links reviews out to the public before they have ever seen or touched a particular camera or lens. Perhaps it's more fair to say that they have made new camera introductions just a jumping off point that triggers a long flood of writing about something else. But I guess the point I've made for years now is that the only way to really get to know how a camera works, how well a camera works, and how well a camera will work for you is to get one in your hands and give it a spin. Use it the way you use your other cameras. Shoot the same kinds of stuff so you end up with some sort of basis for comparison. Right? Passing along the consensus of other people's reviews is hardly the way to "review" a camera. 

In terms of understanding the DLUX8's operation I had a bit of a head start since so much of the menu in the new camera matches the menus in three of my other cameras. In fact, the set up, including mapping out three custom profiles, took about ten minutes. The rest of my downtime was just waiting for batteries to charge. 

I didn't think I would miss a dedicated charger but in fact I do. I'm not remarkably thrilled at having to charge the four batteries I bought, one at a time, in the camera. Mostly because it means I can't use the camera while I'm in the process of charging batteries. Drat. Ah well, I'm sure, if I really, really like using the camera a lot, I'll source a third party charger that works. In the meantime I'll make do.

I started using the camera in earnest yesterday. B&B and I all got in the studio limousine and headed toward San Antonio, Texas to meet my brother's family, and my late sister's family, and a small subsection of my brother-in-law's family at a favorite Mexican food restaurant in what would have been my younger sister's 65th birthday. A remembrance of sorts. 

I'm always mortified if I am ever late; either for a casual social event or a time limited client engagement. I presumed that there would be traffic galore on Friday afternoon and so we headed down with two and a half hours set aside to make the trip. In the old days, pre-everyone-moved-to-Austin, we could make the trip to San Antonio in about an hour. Yesterday, with multiple full stop delays, we drove up to the restaurant with two minutes to spare. White knuckle driving on a busted up highway layered with four lanes of crazy, young people in giant pick-up trucks interwoven with looming and zooming 18 wheelers.

We sat on the patio under a nice, diaphanous shade, and had a really great meal. The main attraction though was my nephew's brilliant, sharp, funny and precocious almost two year old son, Ira. He was just amazing. He got through a two hour, grown up event without a single issue and spent the whole time reminding all of us just how much fun childhood can be. He "ordered" the kid's quesadilla plate. And enjoyed tearing apart the cheese-packed tortilla before consuming it. We did not let him order from the bar. 

I was at the far end of a long string of tables from the kid but it was the perfect opportunity to break out the DLUX8 and snap away with the lens extended to its maximum focal length; a 75mm equivalent. The camera focused and metered without issue and handled a bit of backlighting with grace.

After dinner the three of us, B & B & me headed back to Austin and endured yet another atrocious trip. This time traffic on this main highway that runs north to south was funneled down from four lanes to one lane which brought all the cars and trucks to a complete stop for the better part of half an hour while people figured out how to compress into one lane without chaos breaking out. 

This morning was filled with errands and routines. Since I won't be here for most of next week I wanted to make sure bills were paid for the business and that all the jobs which had come in recently were done and dusted. Final images delivered and invoices tendered. Then I needed to go by the Apple store and pick up a new iMac for the house. My delightful spouse/CFO had been working on a hand-me-down iMac from 2013 and it finally hit the point where we couldn't upgrade the OS to anything recent enough to satisfy the security requirements of our banks and brokerages. We ordered a custom build earlier in the week... Now she's better equipped than is my studio. A new machine with an M4 processor, 24 Gigs of memory and a Terabyte of SSD storage. Nice. But, of course, I am further down in the "corporate" hierarchy so going to the Apple store and shlepping computers back to home base is part of my responsibilities. Of course I made it to swim practice, etc. 

But when all the boxes on my list had a bold check mark on them it was time to find a shade-full hat and take the new camera arrival out for a more varied spin. I set it up as a fully automatic camera for today. Program automation. i-AF engaged, Auto-ISO on tap and I headed to the ever crowded and kinetic S. Congress Ave. Home of Jo's Coffee, the Hermés shop and so much more. 

The camera is quick to operate. The automatic white balance works well --- as demonstrated by the interior shots of fluorescent lit Allen's Boot Store. The exposures were mostly right on the money --- or at least as accurate as most other cameras I've used. And the battery life was actually much, much better than I had been led to believe (running firmware 1.4).

There is only one thing I'm not really fond of with the new camera. When it's turned on the lens extends and it looks dorky that way. The package looks so nice with the lens retracted... But it's something I'm sure I'll get used to. 

I shot a couple hundred images in both .DNG and Jpeg and I did minimal processing to the ones I'm showing here. Most of which started life as raw files. The raw files in this camera are limited to 12 bits but they are actually healthy and rich. A great starting point for more involved post processing. Lots of leeway in shadow lifting and what not. I processed in Lightroom Classic.

I am happy enough with the results so I'll toss this camera and its little flash into the camera backpack and take it along with me to Santa Fe on Monday. Might press it into use for some social, candid photos at one of the receptions. Talk about stealthy....

As far as file size goes the Jpegs out of the camera will be just right. I'll shoot in raw and Jpeg just to be sure. That's about all I can tell you about this little camera right now except for one more thing... the EVF really is as good as most fans of the camera say it is. Nice, bright, sharp and detailed. Just what this photographer asked for. Does that make it "worth the purchase price?" As always, that's your call. 

Some captions interspersed below.

Allen's Boots. No need for the macro setting, the lens focuses nice and close in its normal mode. 

all of the boot details shots were done handheld, depending on the image stabilization to save me.

Mostly as combinations like 1/25th of a second shutter, f2.8 aperture, ISO 400. 

Detail in the Hermés show window. Standing in my own shadow to block glare on the glass.

I never remember the name of this little shop but they always do great decor. 

A wreath of colored eggs for Easter! Again, I was excited to work close in and get details (below) without having to resort to the macro mode on the camera. 

and, of course, it was vital to ensure that the new camera could do a decent job with our treasured tradition of mannequin photography. It passed. 

sure. I bet....

Family resemblance --- loving those reds!!!

Shadows, highlights, full sun. And a dog.

Open Road Stetson in straw weave. Still not approved by resident hat critic, John. 

We abide by his preferences on this having no objectivity of our own...

And we end this blog with a quiet contemplation of cappuccino. 

Heading to Santa Fe, NM. early tomorrow morning. Looking forward to the change of venue.

Spring time in Texas. That wonderful two weeks between Summers...

 When I work on things like events or commercial shoots with their "laundry lists" of shots that need to be captured I have a camera in my hands for hours at a time. That may be why the feel of a camera, for me, takes precedence over cutting edge technical specs for cameras, and why I've been hesitant to change brands after finding a system that feels right to me. One would imagine that after six, seven or eight hours with a camera in hand or hanging over a shoulder on a strap, the last thing I would want to do is carry a camera around with me when I'm "off the clock." 

But it seems nothing could be further from the truth. When B. and I went to the Austin Epicure for breakfast this morning (just around the block and down a bit) I had the new, little Leica DLUX8 (which I recently claimed I would probably never buy.... yes, the gods punish even commercial hubris) which I use to take a few quick photos. Mementos. Notes. 

The image accompanying the type here was taken just before dinner at the house of best friends. They are amazing entertainers. One half of the partnership is a brilliant three dimensional designer who loves to set a beautiful table -- usually outside in their gardens.  The other half is a professional whose side hobby is cooking. He's a veteran of dozens of cooking classes and schools and when you are asked to dinner the only response that makes any sense is: "Oh Hell Yes!!! What kind of wines should I bring?"

When I leave the house I always take a camera with me. I walked into their backyard and saw the table and fell, visually, in love with the entire presentation. And, of course, I was motivated to take photographs so I could later send a small batch to my hosts as an incidental "thank you." 

This image was taken with a Panasonic S1R. The first 47 megapixel camera I owned. Accompanied by a 50mm lens. Likely the Zeiss ZF version I've owned for at least a decade now. The shot was reflexive. The composition quick and casual. When I look at it the image reminds me of a great dinner, great friends, and the kind of Spring evening that starts out a bit close and ends up with a coolness at night filled also with the soft, yellow glow of light bulbs strung across a garden and people pulling sweaters on against the chill but at the same time having too much fun to go inside. The host lighting a wood burning fire in a close by fire pit as candles flicker on the table with their dance cascading off every reflective surface.  From the wine glasses to the silverware. And it all starts with a well set table and flowers, freshly picked from the garden.

And for just those two weeks between Summer and Summer we get to have weather that requires nothing but an ability to feel pleasure.

The camera is just there to create visual keepsakes for those who might be interested. 

Oh! It must be Good Friday. 

Alien Spacecraft Discovered by the Railroad Tracks that Run Through Downtown.

 I often post images and forget to come back and caption them. I guess I'm either too lazy for this kind of presentation (blogging) or I wrongly assume that everyone thinks as I do and you immediately understand what I was looking at when I took a photograph. 

Take this image for instance. If one were acquainted with trains and train trafficking they might recognize this as some sort of device having to do with routing trains so they don't collide with each other on the same track. Kind of makes sense...I guess. I find it odd that the silver, metallic device just sits in the middle of some scrubby grass next to a largely unused parking lot near the middle of Austin. I can't imagine why it needs the rocketship nosecone apparatus at the top. I look at the bottom and see the device supported by four legs which keep it about a foot off the ground. I am further mystified as there is no writing, no labels and no logo on the device that might speak to its provenance or aim us toward its owners. It is, to me, an enigma. A mystery. 

When I look at it while walking with a camera I respond to the bright silver finish and the odd rocket-esque device on the top and I stop trying to figure out what it's actually use is. Why it was made and placed in a little plot of almost indestructible, native Texas grass. I'm sure I could do a search online and find its exact reason for existing but as I may have mentioned before, I am quite lazy. 

Instead, when I look at stuff like this I tend to regress to a time in my life when I spent most Summer days lounging around the house (after swim practice, of course!), soaking up the air conditioning in my parent's house, and reading science fiction books. Ray Bradbury, Isaac Asimov, Robert Heinlein, and scores of others. Reading about robots gone awry on the surface of the planet Mercury, lonely astronauts adrift and powerless in the depths of space, hard-headed experts working out the faux science of hyper-space travel. Robots grappling with the idea of self while still hewing to the three laws of robotics. And then there is the ancient law that says those who can't enjoy an occasional science fiction novel are doomed to be boring...and fatuous. 

And when I regress to that state of mind everything looks like an alien object put here for a reason we don't yet know. Like the Monolith in "2001: A Space Odyssey". And so I photograph the found object in order to catalog the presence of alien life all around us. Relics from the cosmos...

When I look at the image above I think perhaps that the top part, the rocket ship shaped, torpedo inflected appurtenance might be the actual space craft of a tiny species of highly advanced beings from another universe. Like the people who lived in the bus station locker in the movie, "Men in Black." 

Then I notice another clustered unit just to the right and about forty feet back from the "mother ship" and I wonder what the relationship is between the two objects. And I wonder if it would be scary to see these things at night, hiding from the liquid glow of a greenish-yellow streetlight. Would they be more interesting photographed in color after the sun sinks over to the west towards Fredericksburg and then hides just past Marfa? Would the colors of the urban space reflect off the shiny surfaces in a peculiar way? Would it seem odd to people passing by to see an old, grizzled photographer setting up a last century tripod in order to capture something special about something very mundane and casual? Would they call the police? Would they just shake their heads and remember something about eccentricity and aging? 

I walk around the device several times and let my subconscious decide the angle from which I'll take the final photograph. I'm using a small camera with a wide angle lens. I used to photograph things like this with a longer lens but when I started celebrating the idea of object strangeness I started to see the perceived distortion of the wider lenses as being a partner in my art/science fiction/documentation. And I found I liked it. 

I chose to shoot in black and white because, in color, the image was boring. How do I know? Well, I tried shooting it in color and....nothing. Contrasty black and white? Much nicer. Now if I could only come up with a short, concise caption that would sum up what I was feeling and how I interpreted what I was looking at I'll be set and ready to share. 

Just a thought about an image. It's important that, if you want to have fun while photographing, you have the mindset to make things fun. And sometimes that means interpreting the things you see around you in a different and sometimes sillier way.

Epiphanies over hamburgers. (UPDATE: 4:23 CST): The camera and accessories have arrived. The camera is tiny and cute. Five minutes of set up and ready to go...

Yesterday I had dinner with a good friend who is an even more frequent buyer of cool cameras than I am. We were supposed to have lunch this week, back on Monday, but a delivery delay changed our plans. Turns out he was waiting on the delivery of a brand new Hasselblad X2D camera and a very cute and very small 28mm lens. You know the drill I suppose. Few retailers will send out a $12K plus package of goods without requiring (demanding?) that you be home to sign for the delivered package. And most of us have gotten used to the idea that no matter when UPS or Fedex tell you your delivery window might be it will change faster than U.S. tariff policies over the course of the delivery day. In fact, for me, one of the most frustrating facets of modern life is the waiting for and then delayed delivery. 

Ever other delivery I get from a camera store or retailer, sent via UPS or Fedex, starts out so optimistically, almost cheery. Of course you'll get a notice telling you to expect your delivery between 9:50 a.m. and 11:30 a.m. on, well, today. It doesn't come so you check your tracking information in the email they sent. Now the time has been revised to between 1:30 p.m. and 5:30 p.m. Which is then revised to just.... before 9 p.m. If you are a busy person you've basically just lost of a full day waiting around for someone to deliver that wonderful package that was supposed to be a solution to some problem or just a fun toy that would add some sparkle to your day. Now it has turned into a logistical nightmare. After dinner, the one you had to have at home after telling your friend, spouse or other potential dining partner that, unfortunately you have to change plans as you have to be home to accept and sign for your precious package... You eat leftovers while a rising sense of frustration climbs. Not to mention the dreaded social isolation...

Mid-evening, after clicking through Netflix and determining that you've seen every decent offering on the service, you decide to double check the delivery information with the tracking number for your package. Now, in a total deflation of happiness, you find that your expensive and much coveted package is now being rescheduled for delivery.....tomorrow. Which means you get to start the dreaded procedure all over again the next day. And to compound your frustration you are never, ever given a reason for the implied but failed promise. You are left dangling at the whim of a faceless corporation. A corporation that really doesn't give a f@ck about you getting your package on time. They'll get paid for it no matter when you get your products.

Can you tell that I'm waiting for a delivery today? 

Fortunately my friend did finally get his package on Monday but long after the promised time frame. Still, getting a Hasselblad X2D and a lens on the promised delivery day has to count for something...

We met for dinner last evening. We ordered our burgers and a shared big batch of French fries and sat down to chat about, of all things, photography, cameras, and monitor screens. What a nice divertissement from the off-key, fog horn pronouncements about the gyrating stock markets and the nasty tariffs. 

After we finished with our meal my friend disgorged the H-Blad from his WotanCraft camera bag and handed it over to me (yes, I had washed the fry and burger grease off my hands...) to inspect. I went straight for the EVF. Really nice! I visited the menus for a good while and was thrilled to actually find a menu that looks even better and even more distilled down to the essentials than my recent Leica cameras' menus. The body is gorgeous, minimal, almost stealthy and the lens he had attached to the camera was tiny. 

My friend is not at all interested in video production and was reveling in the fact that the X2D is completely video-less. None. Nothing to do with moving pictures. That really does help minimize the menu clutter. 

After an in-depth physical and mental handling inspection of the camera and lens he took it back from me (even though I had suggested that he let me test it for him on my upcoming trip) put it back in the bag and pulled out the latest iPad. The new one with the double layer OLED screen. We used the iPad to look at night time images he'd shot with the new camera. The images were great but the amazing thing was how perfect that screen was. Bright, clear, accurate and, well, just amazing. The camera is perfect for my friend but the introduction to it, in person, just cemented my preference for Leica SL cameras as high end work cameras. Will I ever buy one of the X2D H-Blads? Unknown. Maybe. Probably. Down the road. If photography survives. The camera takes amazingly good images. The H-Blad color science "hype" isn't hype; it's really, really good.

But I'm just as excited to be getting (hopefully soon!) the little Leica D-Lux 8. Seems it's the "new" even more than the product itself that generates most of the excitement. 

A few weeks back; maybe three weeks ago, I was having lunch with the same friend and our discussion turned to what he called, "stunt Leicas." In context,  he'd bought a Leica M9 for his growing camera collection and realized that it might eventually be irreplaceable if it was lost or stolen, hence the need for an alternate, widely available and more economical model that could be pressed into service for dicey location work. We both agreed that in Singapore or Tokyo you could take a diamond encrusted, gold plated Leica out with you and never worry about theft but on the other hand there are some cities in the USA in which it seems everything not nailed down is a target for larceny. Hence the need for a more replaceable option. Hence, the stunt camera.

He reached once again into the magical Wotan Craft camera bag and pulled out an almost perfect Leica M. The typ 240. Black paint finish. Brass top and bottom plates. It had seen use but was in great shape. My friend had a 3rd generation 50mm Summicron mounted on it. A perfect combination. 

Handling the camera caused me to realize that so much of my attraction to a particular type of camera has much more to do with the handling than the spec sheet drivel. Or the frame-to-frame speed. Or the noise characteristics. If a camera isn't fun to handle then what's the point?  I have several M240s and they are my go to cameras when I want to pare gear down to the absolute imaging essentials. In fact, to our dinner last evening I also brought an M240. The M-E. And I also had a 50mm lens attached. 

My friend started out his photo passion (he's an advanced hobbyist, not doing it for the $$$) he followed the usual path of Canon, Sony, etc. For years he (politely) teased me about the Leica thing. Until he actually bought one. And was transformed. The camera that did it is also a favorite of mine. It's the original SL. The world's first professional mirrorless camera. While it's futile to try to change anyone's mind via the written word or YouTube reviews it seems like one has to have tried various other cameras and then tried something like an SL if you want to change minds. Last evening we discussed the differences and we both agree that it's in the build quality that makes the cameras feel different but it's the finer differentiation of colors that make Leica files different. 

I think all camera makers generally use similar processors (not talking about sensors, just the processors that construct the files in camera during the capture phase) in terms of throughput and speed and overall processing power but each camera maker can fine tune what and how the processor does the work. We talk about a three legged stool when we talk about the exposure triangle but I think every processor works with its own compromises. Mostly the trade-offs are between capture speed and how much processing gets done to the individual file before it is written to the SD card. The faster the processing speed the quicker the camera can write files to the card but the compromise is that each file gets less or more economical processing which affects color differentiation. The slower time from capture to card writing can give the processor more time to work on each file for a more sophisticated final product. Everything is a compromise and I guess the question I would ask is: which parameter is more important to the final user? Or if most of the final users even notice the differences in file quality?

I've worked with many camera systems and I keep coming back to cameras like the SL and the SL2-S because I find the colors not "more saturated" or "sharper" but more nuanced in their color representation. And since I'm rarely in a hurry to shoot a couple thousand images in an hour I'm happy to make what I consider a reasonable compromise; choosing quality over speed. I may be as wrong as I can be about this. But you have to agree that it does make sense....

Oh, who am I kidding? You don't have to agree. You can have your own theories. That's what makes all of this so much fun. 

Just got the email that now tells me my delivery, which was originally scheduled to happen between 9:20 a.m. and 11:30 a.m., has now been (tentatively) re-scheduled for between 1:45 and 5:45 p.m. Just the right time frame to ruin my lunch plans and to make dinner plans with other people iffy. Thanks UPS.

What a precarious time for  the house manager to be out of town!!! 

Sunny Sundays are for Photographing Fun People and Swimming Glorious Workouts. Everything else is an add-on.

It was cold, windy and dribbling rain on Sunday morning. I woke up, swallowed some coffee, grabbed a clean, dry towel from the linen cabinet and headed over to the Rollingwood Pool where I was joined a small group of fearless and dedicated swimmers ready to brave the elements and get some yards swum. How many ways to mix up the four strokes in one practice and still get a lot of yards in? Coach Kristen had the formula. Mix in some easy recovery yardage between hard sets and the yardage racks up. But it was still unseasonably cold when we exited the pool an hour later. 

After an exciting breakfast of egg, potato and onion torta, perfect coffee and a slab of Parisienne Sourdough bread, thickly coated with (sugar free) peanut butter and drizzled with blueberry preserves, I headed over to South Congress Ave. with an SL2 festooned with a 45mm lens. I visited with photographer friend, David, who has a degree in economics and we exchanged bafflement over the current state of....economics. We gave up and sat in front of Jo's Coffee for a while shooting the breeze about more interesting/less emotionally challenging topics. 

I walked the big circuit around South Congress Avenue, snapping photos of whatever and having fun just being out in the clean air, bright sun and cool temperatures. It was packed with people out along the street and that was fun too. 

I ended up back at Jo's because they have the most convenient restrooms in the area and then I decided I needed a latté as well. That's when I ran into the young lady with the hat. She was just great. And happy to stand around being photographed....

Home for dinner with B.&B. 

Here's some more photos from the day...

Reflections in a blue painted table.

Mural art at the Austin Motel courtyard.