It's so much fun when Leica introduces a new product. It always makes me think about buying a Panasonic camera...

At a factory in Mexico. Self portrait.

 

I own a SL2 and I like it. It's very nice. Now Leica has introduced their replacement for the camera and it's called the SL3. Changes include the option to use three different resolution settings for raw files (a useful feature I had back on a 2003 Kodak SLR/n digital camera...), a new 60 megapixel sensor, phase detect AF (which might come in handy for event work with flash), a new battery which, surprisingly, the camera desperately needs as it's battery life is worse than previous models, two different type card slots (which for some is great but for me is a pain in the ass), an added, second control dial on the top plate that can provide ISO control but is also programmable, and, finally, a tilting rear screen. They would like for people like me to upgrade to the new camera and have priced it to move quickly...$7,000.  (sarcasm alert).

Of all the new stuff on the camera the only thing that really moves the needle for me is the ability to have 60 megapixel raw files as well as 36 and 18 megapixel raw files. When shooting events, portraits and tons of other web targeted content the ability to shoot full frame at 18 megapixels in raw is great. But really, I've got cameras that shoot 24 megapixel raw files natively, and that's close enough. 

Since there's no obligation to actually consummate the transaction of a "no deposit" pre-order with most stores I immediately pre-ordered an SL3 from my favorite Leica dealer. Why? Because I think it will be at least a month or two before they get product in the door and I may want one by then. Someone has already called me today to see if I want to sell them one of my more "minty" SL camera bodies. A few sell offs here and there and I'd be ready to accept the latest and greatest from Wetzlar. 

But when I really thought hard about it I came up with two scenarios that seem like a better use of my money. And a third scenario where I just keep the money in my investment account and take a chance on some new "hot stock." The first two scenarios for better spending the $7K required for the SL3 are based on the kind of work that requires certain differing performance/use parameters. 

I'm shooting an event in April. It seems like I'm always shooting some sort of corporate event where I need to make flash photos on the fly. Leicas are famous for having a very, very thin selection of (just) decent flashes. And the usability, based on reviews and real life stories, tells me that they are far from optimal for quick flash use in dark spaces. Rather than spend $675 in addition to the cost the SL3 ($7000) for a so-so shoe mount flash, if my reasons for acquiring the new camera are for event work, my logical brain tells me (emphatically!!!) that a slightly used Panasonic S5ii for $1500 is a much better choice. It has the image stabilization that makes focusing through longer lenses better. It has phase detect AF. But just as important, I already have several dedicated Olympus/Panasonic flashes (Like the Godox V1) that work great with the S5. No more money out of pocket to outfit the used S5ii --- and a track record of moderate (proven) success from the existing flash systems. In this scenario about $6,000 stays in my pocket. 

The second spend/spend/spend scenario is based around the idea that the higher resolution of the new SL3 would be helpful for shoots like the ones I did for Abbott last year and the year before which are model intensive, require high quality files for big print targets, and can benefit from higher end Leica lenses. 

And I might have gone down that path a couple of years ago but last year Paul dropped a Fuji GFX50Sii on me and it quickly became obvious that there is a quality difference provided by more square sensor surface. If I get invited to do more jobs like the previous ones mentioned, or the job which required highest quality files for a 30 foot truck wrap for the Capitol Area Food Bank, I'll much more likely reach for a medium format camera body over even a 60 megapixel FF body. And I'll buy or rent the lens, or lenses I need for particular projects; all at a big, big cost savings over the purchase of a new camera from Leica, the major advantage of which is slightly more pixel density. The map has changed a bit for me. 

We're almost back where we were in the 1990s when we mostly used two camera systems for two different types of work. Leicas for event work, public relations, public relations portraits and the like. Medium format cameras for big advertising work. Work that required the highest quality available; especially in the eyes of clients. 

Or, I could just ignore the new product announcements, ditch the work that doesn't conform to my favorite current cameras and move on. It's interesting to have options. This morning I'm leaning toward ignoring everything new. 

Maybe I'll start researching really high end swim goggles instead. It looks like a pair of the best goggles caps out at under $100. That's reasonable purchase. And no firmware updates to consider...

My role in getting our tax numbers together is complete. I'm off the hook now. I'm so happy just to get back to photographing and swimming. Who here is photographing with medium format digital cameras? What do you use?

 

a few years back I was doing an ad campaign for a natural gas company 

based in Oklahoma. One small part of the assignment was to photograph

a particular restaurant kitchen that, of course, used natural gas for cooking.

I did the "straight up" corporate shots of the cook and his kitchen but I also noticed

 the words tattoo'ed on the cook's hands and wanted a shot of that for myself. The original is in 

color. I've shown it here before. I made a conversion to black and white because...

well...because I wanted to. I don't remember which full frame 

camera system I was using at the time but it worked out fine.

Taxes: Most of my current participation in the family's tax preparation is concerned with the Schedule C, profit and loss statement for my business. Mercifully, B. handles pretty much everything else. I bitch and whine (how did "whinge" become whine? Pronounced like: "wine.") about the time it takes but in all honesty it only takes me two days to access all the numbers from two checking accounts as well as the numbers from two credit card accounts and then to filter out all the charges that are not relevant to taxation from the ones that are. For example: Lunch with Ben (not deductible). Leica M240 M-E (nicely deductible). There's not a lot of "gray space" but since every cent I spend in a year is via a credit card there are a lot of lines to look through. Okay. That's not true. I did write 23 checks last year. So retro. 

Yesterday, around two thirty in the afternoon, I put everything into the template that our CPA likes and sent it, along with some brokerage statements, to B. She'll incorporate the rest of the needed information and pass it along. Sadly, I can't just depend on the standard deduction. I have to itemize. Otherwise my CPA will give me a stern lecture. But yesterday, at around 2:45 pm, I tasted freedom. I immediately went out for celebratory coffee. How rich would I be if I could deduct the cost of all my coffee episodes??? More about coffee in the swim section...

In a couple of years it will probably all change but we've been doing accounting stuff this way, more or less for nearly 40 years. Most of them profitable. A few.... not so much. But at least my part in this year's math adventure is done. 

When I hit the point of completion I usually make some bold statement to myself that I'll get much more organized in the current year. I'll become a master of Quickbooks Pro, or some other dorky accounting program. I'll parse out the categories as I go along. Right. But, at 68, I know I'm lying to myself and, in fact, I'll probably just go in the other direction, put all the printouts and stuff in a cardboard box and delivery it (without notations!) to Barry; my accountant. He'll  complain and charge me a lot more but I probably won't care. 

Work: It's been a slow but happy year so far. Most of the work has been portraits. Either in the studio or on location. I'm happy working either way. We've booked a four day event in San Antonio in April and I've got a sprinkling of portrait work until then. But it's interesting. All the panic about money from my early years is gone. If fun and challenging work comes in I'm more than happy to rise to the challenge. If we hit a dry spell (or year) I'm happy taking time off for more swimming, walking and goofy camera fun. 

Most of the portraits I've been doing this year are kind of a throwback to my earlier work. I'm using huge modifiers like 7 foot diameter, soft white umbrellas and going a step further by adding a layer of diffusion to the front for an even softer effect. I'm getting a lot of use out of the medium format GFX camera. Funny (to me, at least) that I have so much fun buying Leicas but I use them less and less in the business side and use the GFX for just about anything where I have a modicum of control with the subject. Not sure this would be true with fast moving event stuff. But, I bought the GFX 50Sii and a few lenses in the middle of 2023 and haven't felt the urge to "flesh out" the system any further. 

The GFX is a good, solid working tool, it's just not as much fun as the smaller, sleeker cameras. 

My kid was telling me that he bought a new computer last week. It's a MacBook Pro, 14 inch with an M3 processor, 16GB of RAM and a 2 Terabyte hard drive. He used to edit video for me and he was telling me that I wouldn't believe how fast the new machine eats through video footage. Multiple streams of 4K edits in real time. He also mentioned that he was surprised by how good the display on the newest machine is.

Ben's first computer. A Blueberry iBook. He had a desk in my office...

It got me thinking that it's probably time to upgrade my system. My 2018 vintage iMacPro has been rock solid and it does have 64 GB of fast DDR4 RAM and a fast Xeon processor but from what I've read on the various computer test sites my kid's machine is faster than mine by a factor of 10X-14X.  I'll justify buying one as it will be a replacement for my 2018 MacBook Pro 13" which is probably one software (OS) upgrade away from being obsolete. And then I'll try sneaking it into the studio mix....

I do need to take a laptop with me for the April event job. The client wants a quick turnaround on some shots from day to day.  Yeah! That's a supporting rationale... 

I'm finding that the idea of retiring is more or less miserable. I'm diving back in with a handful of clients. I like the challenge of photography. I hate volunteering for stuff. I know first hand that most non-profits would rather have cash donations than more hands to manage. Your mileage may vary. And I think mentoring someone would be cruel. For them. I'm too scattered.

Swimming. I was plainly being immature at swim practice today. We had a new coach for today. I approached her at the poolside and told her that this was my first time ever to try a masters swim and I hoped I'd be able to get through it. She was very kind. Until my usual lane mate corrected my story. Drat. I really had the coach going for a few minutes. 

It was 60° when we hit the water at 8:00 am. The sun was shining, the birds were chirping, the coach was coaching and the water was so clean you could have read fine point type at the other end of the 25 yard pool. If you had your goggles on. We had a challenging workout with lots of 100s on short intervals. In between sets of 100s we had a pyramid of 75s kicking. On the same intervals as the swimming 100s. That'll get your pulse up!  

I'm trying a new swimming experiment. I've had the habit of drinking a cup of coffee upon rising each morning. That means I'm ingesting "healthy" dose of caffeine before practice. But in truth I have always been an anxious person and the caffeine sometimes exacerbates my performance anxiety in the pool. Get anxious in workout and your muscles get tighter and your brain makes breathing feel harder. Genius that I profess to be (sarcasm alert) I finally figured out after 63 years of competitive swimming, and 40+ years of caffeine-drenched morning swims, that I might be better served by skipping the coffee until AFTER workout and seeing if that affects my overall results. 

Goodness gracious! So that's what it's like swimming relaxed!!!! I've been doing this experiment (no pre-workout coffee) for about three weeks now and the difference in workout is revelatory. No anxiety. Faster repeats. Less tired at the end of each set. Why didn't I do this say.....forty years ago? I guess I'm just a slow learner. 

Now I'm wondering just how much that glass of wine with dinner affects my swim performance the following morning. Dropping another habit might just be a second interesting experiment. Guess I'll find out.

SXSW photo thoughts. It all starts on Friday. A great day NOT to be at the Austin airport. It's the start of SXSW. I love photographing there but I'm always trying to decide, right up until I walk out the front door, which cameras and lenses I should take to document the event over the eight days. This year I've had the recurring and strange idea of going really light. Now planning on taking two Leica CL cameras, the Sigma Contemporary 18-50mm f2.8 zoom and the ultra-fabulous Sigma 58mm f1.4. Two cameras with the weight of one. Small and light lenses with lots of good performance. Those are today's front-runners but you know that, with me, it's always subject to change. 

Is it wrong to still be having so much fun taking photographs? I'm guessing not. 

See you out there? 

the chef in color.

The Quiet Before the Storm. Or, how SXSW impacts Austin.

this is Sixth St. today. On March 4th. 

On March 8th the same street will be closed off

and filled from side to side with tens of thousands of

music fans, movie fans, performers and more. 

Should be fun.

 I'm pretty sure that a lot of cities, big and small, all around the USA would love to have a couple hundred thousand spend-happy tourists flock into their cities for an eight day, hotel filling, bar busting, tax receipt engorging convention of tech forward young adults who also love the latest technologies, movies and music. Well, I hate to disappoint many other city councils and chambers of commerce but.... I think Austin has a lock on SXSW for the near future. See their website for a taste of the eight days between the 8th of March and the 16th. https://www.sxsw.com/

I look at the festival from a photographer's point of view. The image above is Sixth St., smack in the middle of our downtown. By the end of the week it will be festooned with multiple live music stages, each complete with a state of the art video crew filming the performances with multiple 8K cameras and streaming them....somewhere. The entire street, from the main highway to Congress Ave. will be closed off to vehicle traffic and filled with wannabe musicians, super fans, gawkers and vendors (some legal and some...impromtu). It will be loud, messy and filled with energy. People go there to be seen. To share their music. To hawk their CDs. To pitch their movies. And the some of us go there to document the event. It's a magnet for cameras and their photographers. 

Most of the serious action takes place inside the Austin Convention Center. Pay $1,920 for a wrist band and you can get in to just about any and all seminars, performances, showcases, tapings or other sponsored events. 

I spent one year at SXSW inside the "velvet rope" photographing famous bands on stages in the convention center during their performances, for Sony Music. I spent one year at a corporate sideshow photographing speakers over at a venue on Rainey Street (just across from the Convention Center) and watching the wristband elite drop by to eat up all of the catering and lay waste to the open bar. All on my client's dime. Over the years I've seen the event from every angle. I was at the event there for the rollout of the world famous "Cronut." In fact, I was the official photographer for that late night event, working for the P.R. firm out of NYC. Documenting 400+ people who waited till midnight to get a free donut/croissant combination that was shaped like a small drinking glass and filled with milk. Sorry, no seconds!

I've largely given up hitting the official venues and aim instead, as a photographer, for Sixth St. and all the surrounding areas because nearly every bar, restaurant, coffee shop and alternate space is rented out to corporations that want to introduce their latest and greatest stuff. Let's not forget that SXSW is where Twitter got its first traction --- along with a lot of other start-ups. The swag can be overwhelming.

The number of people out in the streets during all hours of the day and night is amazing. Most are young and excited to be in, what is for two weeks, the center of their universe. This is where bands get discovered. Some get contracts. The film festival rivals Sundance for cinematic interest. And the participants come from, literally, all over the world. Each hoping to land funding for their big break through.

My plan this year is to head down for as many days and evenings as I can (after swim practice, of course.). I'll take two cameras. Both will be black Leica M240s. One will sport a 50mm lens and the other will sport a 90mm or 75mm lens. With those particular cameras I doubt I even need to weigh myself down with extra batteries. With just these two cameras and a small bag I can travel light and nimble. 

The priority is to work the crowds and photograph the endless parade of people; most of whom are looking to become somehow famous. Dressed and made up to attract maximum eyeballs. A wonderful opportunity for photographers to practice their favorite street shooting craft. I'm sure my friend Andy will be there and I might even coax my friend Paul to give architectural photography a little rest and troop down for a day. 

I learned a long time ago that parking downtown is next to impossible. If you do find parking in one of the many private garages you'll end up paying mercenary rates to the owners. One year in the recent past a day's worth of parking was averaging over $80. 

If you try taking an Uber you'll likely get into a traffic jam that'll take forever that's not going to make anyone happy. My ploy is to take public transportation. Austin has the worst. But there is a bus that goes from maybe a half mile from my house all the way into the belly of the beast. It's the #30 bus. It costs $1.25 each way. I think I can swing that. The ride takes about 30 minutes and drops me off in front of the W Hotel. It's a five minute walk to Sixth St. Easy enough to catch it back home as well. Look at me breaking the American and Texas traditions of each person traveling separately to events in their own private car and demanding endless close-in parking....

I've always had a blast photographing during the weeks of SXSW. The crowds are mostly younger. 20s, 30s and a shrinking number of 40 year olds. Maybe some leftover 50+ hippies as well. Usually so much good energy. 

The only glitch in my scheduling this year is that the show will exactly correspond with our new living room floor renovation. Exactly the same two weeks. I'll have to be extra nice to B so she can take the lion's share of supervision duties. Now gearing up for this Friday and the official start of the insanity. If you're in Austin you owe it to yourself to check out the turbo-charged street scene. It's a fun photographic project.  You get to participate as much as you want. Bring your own violin or harmonica as well and get discovered....

reports to follow.

Tax Time. A process that feels worse than dropping your favorite camera on the sidewalk.

 Yes. I know. Taxes are the price we pay for a civilized society. But as a detail averse small business owner I hate the process of getting all of the numbers together so the CPA can do his magic.. or voodoo. I buy too much stuff. I usually use a credit card. Doesn't everyone? At the start of tax prep I have to go through hundreds of lines commemorating the indulgent, sometimes impulsive spending and pick out the wheat from the chaff. The deductibles and depreciable expenses from the day-to-day normal guy spending. Leica cameras versus things like coffee, lunch, cool shoes, new swim goggles (which I'm discovering are NOT deductible...). 

It was beautiful outside today but I wouldn't know it first hand because I've been tracking down last year's invoices and trying to make them match up with those pesky credit card numbers. Hours and hours of filtering. Yuck.

There's an old joke that's been floating around as long as there have been commercial photographers. It goes like this: How to you make a small fortune in photography?  ..... Easy, you just start with a large fortune.

If you do happen to drop your favorite camera onto unrelenting concrete and you are in the biz you can take comfort in knowing that the repair or replacement costs will be deductible. And, if you are a smart photographer you probably have been paying for insurance for your entire career and you'll finally be able to use it. Once. Because I'm sure the insurance company will not renew your policy after they've paid to replace your Hasselblad X2D and your favorite lens...

Perilous times, for sure. 

Yes. We should all have powerful accounting or bookkeeping software in our offices. But in the end it's the data entry that crushes your soul. And who knew that Crocs were NOT deductible??? 

Anyway. That's today's trauma. Should be done in a day or two and my mood will lighten considerably. Until I see the final numbers. And write the frightening check.

After looking at the numbers for 2023 I know one thing. I'm currently working at not working. 

Yes. I do photograph after sunset. Here is a blog post with plenty of samples....

 https://visualsciencelab.blogspot.com/2024/02/last-week-it-was-freezing-and-today.html

What do I look for when I test a new (to me) lens? What are the parameters that are most important?

 

I moved my schedule around today. Instead of heading to swim practice first thing in the morning I decided to go downtown and mess around with the new 50mm lens I wrote about yesterday. I put the Carl Zeiss 50mm f2.0 Planar ZM on a trusty Leica M240 and headed to my usual parking place across from the Treaty Oak. A hug and magnificent tree that's been right there in the middle of Austin for hundreds of years. 

Usually I go out photographing in the afternoons so I thought it would be nice to see what everything looked like when it was lit from the other side. Or backlit by morning sun.

It's always a good idea to test a lens that you've just bought. The one time you use a lens (new or used) right out of the box for client work you might get bit on the butt by the cruel pinchers of fate. Happens. When using a new-to-me used lens I tend to be very circumspect until I've proved to myself that it works as it should.

When testing a lens I want to see how sharp it is wide open, at both close up and distant focus settings. A lot of lenses are good at infinity and fall apart at their closest focusing distances. Many lenses are optimized for best performance at 50X their focal length but lenses with floating lens elements don't fall under that rule of thumb. But good or bad performance at different distances is something you really want to know if you're messing around with rangefinder cameras because while you are out shooting everything looks like it's nicely sharp and in focus through the viewing window. Mostly because the viewing window is very much NOT looking through the actual lens. Funny as it may seem in 2024 it's also possible to accidentally leave the lens cap on and not find out until it's too late. Because....you are viewing through the little window/optical finder and NOT the lens. Embarrassing. All too common. 

When I want to evaluate the sharpness of a lens at the closer distances I look for subjects with a lot of texture. Things like brick walls, peeling paint, rusty manhole covers and the like. For middle distance evaluation one subject that's just great is a tree that's just starting to bud, against a clean blue sky. This is also a good scenario for checking for purple fringing and magenta and green casts as well. 

Good distance subjects are big buildings with lots of balcony railings and other details. I check for sharpness in all these instances at a lens's widest open aperture, then closed down to what I generally consider to be the "optimum" aperture ( usually f4.0 or f5.6) and then again at f11.

It's great if your lens is sharp everywhere but it's even better if it's nice and contrasty at all these settings too. Once a lens convinces me that it's got great sharpness and contrast I also want to start looking at how much it vignettes at various apertures. Most fast primes are going to vignette a bit when used wide open but in most cases the better lenses don't vignette to the extent that software can't fix the issue. My set rule is a lens has grounds for rejection if an f2.0 lens is still vignetting frightfully at f5.6. That's a problem. And one I'm not inclined to mess with.

For me the best way to check for vignetting is to shoot a clean, even blue sky. Generally with the sun directly behind me. Stark, white walls are also good. Shoot in "A" priority and run through all the apertures you'll usually be using and the bring the files into post production and take a good look. You can also use an "eyedropper" tool to actually measure the fall off from the center of the frame to the corners. 

If you are using an after market lens hood and you see too much vignetting you might want to remove the hood and test again. Could be that a generic hood isn't right for your lens even though it's specified for a set focal length. Sometimes that's down to the physical design of the lens. The lens maker's hood is usually the best bet.

One of the most important tests is whether or not the lens in question focuses accurately on your cameras. Back in the DSLR days I had a run of lenses, both Nikon and third party, that backfocused on a Nikon D810 and front focused on a Nikon D800e. You "could" correct for the front or back focus of the lenses using the camera's software but it was a chore and required much trial and error. If you are manually focusing your lenses on a mirrorless camera you'll nail focus every time. Well, if you know how to focus, you use the focusing aids, etc. But even mirrorless cameras can be guilty of having focus issues in AF. 

I've spent quality time calibrating all three of my M cameras and when I get a new lens I focus on a target at infinity and make sure everything is accurate and then focus on a target in the studio at the close focusing distance and evaluate the results on a big screen at 100%. 

For me the focusing accuracy of a lens and the sharpness and contrast are the most important parameters of a lens. Also vignetting under 1.5 stops when used without software corrections. Some people talk about a lens having saturated color but I prefer a lens that's very transparent when it comes to saturation because it's so simple to add saturation to a file after the fact. 

I do all of these tests with raw files even though my preference is to shoot my personal work with Jpegs. The raw files reveal more of the good and the bad in a lens. And if I've shot something at higher ISOs, get more noise than I bargained for, and want to rescue the file I need raw files to take advantage of the A.I. Denoise in Adobe Lightroom. 

I spent the morning downtown with the camera and lens and I have to say that I'm very happy with the performance of both the camera and the lens under test.

I stopped at Taco Deli for a bacon, egg and cheese taco and a cup of their delicious medium roast coffee and then I headed home. A little later I headed to the Rollingwood Pool (AKA: The Western Hills Athletic Club) for the noon masters workout. 68°, brilliant sun, my own lane, and Julie on deck coaching. Heaven. 

My evaluation of the lens leads me to believe that I've got my hands on a small but high performing lens package. Even wide open it's nicely sharp. Works well at f11 and even f16, as well. The lens is slightly less contrasty than the Voigtlander 50mm APO but that's probably good for the environments I usually work in. For the small sum I paid I think I got a real bargain. 

I'm loving the way Leica M cameras handle the color red. 

no lens review seems complete without some mannequin photos. 

Shot near the close focus distance of the lens with the lens set to its widest 

aperture. At least the mannequins are agreeable about standing still and holding

a pose for a while so I can fiddle with the camera settings...

this is not a suit I would consider buying. Or wearing. Or having in my home on

someone else. It's just.....dreadful. Which is why I enjoyed photographing it.

for a popular city with a burgeoning population there sure aren't a lot of people 

out and about in the downtown area before 10 a.m. Hmmmm.

a time honored, middle distance test target that also stays still....

 a decent close-up target for rangefinder cameras. Their minimum focusing distance 

is usually set to (point) .7 meters. Any closer than that and the rangefinder doesn't work

nor do the frame lines move far enough to prevent a lot of parallax. But ---

at 100% I see really great detail on the rusty manhole cover. right?

A lovely medium distance test target. Here we are on the 1st of March and the 

trees are already starting to bud and bloom. If we get enough rain this Spring we 

may just have a green Summer. 

another good test target. lots of textured detail on the pink wall and a sharp line

(where I set the focus) on the metal flashing at the top of the wall.

Any lens testing tips you'd like to pass along?

A fine and useful lens for M mount rangefinder cameras. The Carl Zeiss 50mm f2.0 Planar ZM lens

 

It all started out so innocently...

I'm far past my quota of owning various 50mm lenses. I have variations for L mount cameras, including: two different Zeiss versions. I already have a Voightlander APO 50mm for the M. I even have a 50mm lens from Fuji for the GFX camera. Fifties everywhere. But the best laid inventory control plans of gods and men ofttimes go awry. 

Just as an aside, I love the M series lenses that are made to fit on the Leica M cameras. They are smaller and lighter than the lenses made for DSLRs or mirrorless cameras. They are completely manual and well marked so they are pretty much perfect to use at their hyper focus distance settings for very quick street shots and, with adapters, you can put them on just about any great camera. I've had various M mount lenses on my SL cameras and my Fuji GFX camera by using high quality adapters. It's a great way to make a big, hulking "work" camera into something a bit smaller and stealthier. The camera stays the same size (obviously) but the overall package shrinks. In my studio one of M lenses can serve at least three different cameras systems without breaking a sweat.

Anyway. I was informed by house management (B.) that we're getting a new hardwood floor installed in the living room. I acted shocked as though this was the first time I was hearing this information. Seeing right through my attempted subterfuge the house management handed me an 8.5 by 11 inch piece of paper with the agenda for the deconstruction of the existing wood floor and the installation of the new wood floor. I was floored.

I have, listed on the paper,  two jobs, or assignments. Work which I don't remember bidding on or negotiating payment for. I was briskly informed that my "payment" would consist of "getting to enjoy the new floor for years to come." My assignments were alleged to be "simple." 

The agenda strongly suggested that I be on site one day next week to receive the materials for the project. An additional line item even more strongly suggested that it would be strongly appreciated if I cleaned out all the crap from the floor space of my studio/office and then maybe spent a day or so clearing out all of the furniture, bookshelves, hutches, etc. from the living room, the target of the upcoming renovation, and carrying said objects to my office for "short term" storage. I read the fine print at the bottom of the agenda and discovered that we were expecting one full week of demolition of the old floor, followed by another week of the installation, followed by a replacing of the baseboards and trim, followed by painting of those materials. 

Given my poor performances on previous projects requiring planning, hand skills, dexterity and perseverance (or the necessary follow through) I was summarily excused from doing any of the actual construction work. 

I looked around the studio and discovered that I had a small mountain of gimbals for video work that I had not touched since 2020. Also several ungainly and obese video tripods which initially cost a fortune but which were quickly superseded by the aforementioned gimbals. Drat! Video production can be quite the money pit. Especially if one buys the gear and then, after a few miserable projects, decides that one doesn't ever want to do video ever, EVER again. Add in a couple of photography tripods from the forest of tripods tucked under one big shelf and you have, basically, an SUV's worth of stuff to either take to the dump or otherwise dispose of in a more humane way. And with dispatch. 

I called my favorite equipment retail expert and he let me know that they had no interest in offering to take the equipment in trade for fun and juicy new stuff (the purchase of which kinda defeats the overriding purpose- more space) and that the resale value of now ancient gimbals is plummeting towards zero. I asked if anyone needed equipment donations. He does work with several underserved public schools which could absolutely use the gear. I dreaded having to go from school to school making explanations and wasting time so I was thrilled when my expert offered to accept the gear and donate it for me. Problem solved. Floor space revived. Much needed inventory shrinkage accomplished!!! Yay for me. 

I loaded all the stuff in my vehicle and headed north to the photo store. Noel greeted me warmly and looked over the stuff that took four trips from car-to-counter to deliver. He promised he'd get it into the hands of people who could do something good with it. Now I have a place to stick the sectional couch, multiple big bookcases, an assortment of chairs and .......... so much more.

The house management just delivered architectural drawings to me showing how the furniture should be distributed in my space. I will comply.

But I made one critical mistake. On the way out of the camera store I paused for just a few seconds too long in front of a tall but slender glass case. It's the case in which the store displays their used Leica, Contax and Hasselblad cameras, lenses and accessories. And there they were. Lovely, pristine Carl Zeiss lenses for my M series Leicas. I took off my glasses so I couldn't see all the toys clearly. But it didn't help. I put the glasses back on and, in an instant, spied the one lens in the Carl Zeiss ZM system that I thought I wanted and didn't have. 

It was a demure, black, 50mm f2.0 lens, about the size of an old style enlarging lens, sitting quietly, patiently and begging me to be... more interested. I flagged down my contact in the store and asked him to come and unlock the case so I could take a closer look. Maybe I'd find some deal-breaking flaw that would keep me from having to ask for a raise in my allowance. Haze? Scratches on the glass? A crunchy focusing ring?

But no. A close inspection made it clear that the lens was in great shape. The price was less than half of the new price. The lens came with the lens hood that Zeiss charges over one hundred dollars for, as a separate item. Not included in the box with the lens. And then, the tipping point, the lens had a lovely Leica professional filter on the front. How could I justify not adopting the lens and giving it a good, welcoming "forever" home? 

The way I rationalized it was by the trade off of volume. I left with a hatchback full of unwanted gear and came home with something that fit daintily in the cupholder in the center console of my car. It was destined to be. 

The ZM 50 f2.0 is basically Carl Zeiss's version of the 50mm Summicron but retails for less than half the Leica's new price. The Zeiss lenses, as good as they are, don't have the panache and (nod to MJ) the Veblen appeal of the Leica lenses and so they don't hold their resale value as well. I have convinced myself that all of this impulse buying is fine since the cost of the used lens is but a fraction the cost of the new floor.  I pretend to have the fiscal high ground. 

Yes. I tested the new lens. It's almost as good at the Voigtlander lens I already have. But it looks so cool in the shoulder bag next to the matching 28mm and 35mm ZM lenses. I'll stick the Voigtlander on one of the SL2 cameras and pretend it's just for the big cameras. Then all the lenses in the bag will look like a matched set. I might even take them out and shoot with them for a while. Novel, Yes? 

We're in the middle of the floor project and tax season. Blogging may be choppy for the next few weeks but I'll try my best...