Voigtlander 75mm f1.9 lens makes a visit to SXSW one afternoon. Loved the signage. And the lens.

All images: Leica M240 + 75mm f1.9 Raw > Processed to Jpegs. 

OT: Cars and car maintenance.

 I know all of you love to change the oil in your own cars, in the driveway, but I sure don't want to know what you do with the used oil. I know if I mention that Subaru gives me free maintenance for two years or 24,000 miles someone will snarkily claim that the service was priced into the original price of the car. I'm pretty sure that whatever brand or model of car I purchased several commenters will quickly "educate" me about why I've made a horrible and life-crushing mistake with my own choice which will haunt me for years. With all that in mind I thought I'd just write a jaunty and upbeat synopsis of my adventure today. 

I worked hard at swim practice yesterday so I decided to sleep in this morning and just chill. Eventually I dragged myself out of my toasty warm bed and padded down the long hallway to the kitchen to make a cup of (perfect) coffee (hand ground, Columbian Supremo) and take a bit of sustenance. I read the news, checked MJ's site for updated diet, car and medical advice, and then answered a few emails. 

I looked across the dining room table and noticed that B. left me a mailer that came in the mail. It was from my Subaru dealer reminding me that I'd be smarter to do my every six month or every six thousand mile oil change, filter change, tire rotation, and 24 point inspection  timely than I would be if I put it off for too long. Now, I don't drive nearly as many miles as I did when I was working too many hours in too many days. And, if we drive on vacation we generally do it in the family car as opposed to the business vehicle. I noticed that I only had 20K miles on the car but I do understand that Texas's hot weather tends to break down oil over time, not just driven miles. 

So I grabbed the old laptop, my phone and an M series Leica and jumped into the Subaru at 10:45 a.m. I was at the dealership at 11 a.m. and checked in by 11:10. The service advisor went over the scheduled maintenance with me and suggested that it might take a bit longer than usual. Maybe two hours instead of one. Would I need a loaner? Naw, I've got stuff to work on. 

The baristas were holding court in the very clean, very well appointed waiting area and I got a very nicely composed and presented latté to sip on. Popped the lid on the laptop, plugged in my noise reduction ear buds and settled in. This is the second new Forester I've owned and I've had nothing but great experiences with the vehicles. I think the secret is... to do the scheduled maintenance and use the recommended oils, fluids and authentic parts. 

The dealer's wifi was quick and perky. The staff young and personable. The cost? Zero. The upsell? Non-existent. When I hear horror stories about predatory car dealerships and larcenous repair shops I think back to my days as a BMW driver. That was a horrible experience. Subaru? So far nothing but smiles and saved money. 

I don't buy fancy cars anymore. The turbo-charged Volvo 960 wagon was a gut wrenching disaster the minute it eluded its warranty. How many turbo chargers can one car destroy? And really, before you tell me it was driver error, I have to say that I used to let the damn thing idle for at least two minutes at the end of every ride. The BMW 540 was the worst product I ever bought. It was well mannered for exactly 48 thousand miles (and very fun to drive) and then, the day after the warranty clicked off it transformed into an on again, off again, car invalid. Front suspension issues, a blown radiator, the "marvelous" theft proof ignition system died and had to be special-ordered from Germany, along with a set of very, very pricey ignition keys that were an integral part of the anti-theft system. 

Since my car trauma of owning and delivering intensive care to the BMW ( would be cheaper to take it to a hospital ICU and have a surgeon look at it...) I permanently swore off any German car and any "luxury" car. At 5 mph on Mopac expressway in rush hour the ability to accelerate wildly, or cruise at speeds over 100, becomes absolutely meaningless. Now I am an avowed Honda, Subaru and Toyota fan. In fact, the day I decide that I'll never put a couple hundred pounds of photo gear in the hatchback ever again is probably the day that I'll buy a base model Toyota Corolla and never look back. Ben's hand me down Corolla is a 2003. He does the basic maintenance (or, rather, his mechanic does it), changes the oil, rotates the tires, replaces stuff when it's needed and continues to drive for, basically, pocket change. 

Since I now think driving anywhere more than 200 miles from home is a waste of time things like "Oh, my Suburban is such a great highway car!" are meaningless to me. 

And here's one more thing to enrage all the car fanatics out there... everyone in my family replaces their car batteries every three years. No exceptions. So much cheaper and more efficient than getting stuck somewhere and tossing away a half a day of your own precious time. Further inflammation and outrage? The Subaru dealer will charge me $225 to replace my "perfectly good" battery. And I'll smile and gladly pay it as I remember the BMW battery that left me helpless and furious one late night at the parking garage at the Austin airport. I vowed: Never Again.

Ooops. Gotta go. The car is ready...early. 

Just one more thing. The car, brand new and ordered just the way I wanted it was $26,000 plus tax, title and license. Just slightly more than half the average price that American consumers pay for the average car. Cheap enough to buy without the need for financing. But... everyone's mileage will vary. A lot.

ON TOPIC: Finding a weak spot in the Leica system as it exists right now. It's flash. Or the lack of it.

 Over the overly long arc of my career I've used studio electronic flashes more than any other kind of lighting instruments. And my entire use of studio flash was done with the cameras and flashes set to manual modes. All manual, all the time. Early on I proceeded with a variety of flash meters to light the way to correct exposures but since the time of digital I more and more depended on the LCD image and the in-camera histogram. I still use my flash meter on nearly every studio flash engagement but now it's a balancing act when it comes to the fine-tuning. I get to know how the differences between what I'm seeing on a camera screen and what the meter tells me will look like once I get the images into a computer and look at stuff on a monitor. 

With a manually set camera and a manually set electronic flash, supervised by an accurate flash meter, you have a situation in which every camera does equally well. Equally well for exposures, at least. Sure, one camera might be better able to focus with your weak modeling lights while another might have more fine control over color settings but when it comes right down to getting a correct exposure all the cameras, from the cheapest to the finest, to the most Veblen, do pretty much the same job. 

I've used my Leica cameras (various models) with studio flash for nearly four years now. From the SL to the SL2 they do a great job. Because...why not? Everything is set for complete manual control. 

In the past, in addition to highly controlled advertising shoots I also found myself (somewhat happily) photographing a lot of corporate events. Most of the needed photographs at most conventions, seminars, trade shows and conferences were done while being as invisible and as fly-on-the-wall as possible. I used fast lenses to shoot mostly with available light. Especially when documenting speakers behind a podium on a well lit stage. No additional lighting required by me. Just get the color balance and the exposure correct, work on your handholding techniques and you are golden. Believe me, people will praise you for not intruding on their event with flashes blazing, creating a huge, show stopping distraction and making a high dollar event seem just a little --- tawdry and amateurish. 

BUT. But in nearly every event I've covered over the decades there is always a social component in which the existing lighting is universally sucky, people are impatient with being posed and don't ever want to wait for that third chance to get everything "just right." What the client usually wants are well lit images of two people together, three people together or small groups of people together who are, or seem to be, enjoying the event and the chance to meet and mingle. Or to just hit the open bar with gusto. 

You, the photographer, while scrupulously avoiding the open bar, will be tasked with getting as many happy couples and small groups photographed as you can in a limited amount of time and you will almost always have to provide the main lighting, on the fly, or at least augment the lighting you find at the venue. Since you will be  weaving in and around a crowded space you'll need to find a flash that fits on your camera, that provides accurate exposures and which is, hopefully automatic enough to give you a 90% or better "hit rate." 

The flash is perhaps even more important than your lens choice. As far as lenses go you can use a standard 24-70mm zoom, provided you try to stay away from the widest focal lengths so the people on the edges of the frame aren't ballooned up to giant sizes. You could also use a 35mm or 50mm lens but you'll need to compose and crop with your feet. Meaning you'll have to back up or wade in to get the proper compositions. Once you've got your lens figured out and you've got the room figured out all that's left is getting the right flash. And getting its operation figured out.

I prefer flashes that can sit on top of the camera. I know, it's heresy. But it's the classic, front lit celebrity photo. The red carpet motif. The "Make sure you get the shot. Any shot" scenario. I loved finding a great flash (SB-28, SB-800) when I did events with a Nikon DSLR. Some of the better Nikon flashes, when used with their pro cameras were foolproof. Rock solid. Amazing. One in the hot shoe equipped with a bounce card on top and a pocket full of double AY batteries and you were prepped and ready for an evening of grip and grin photo work. 

I'm booked for an event job in the second half of April. Most of the three days will be spent in conference situations in big ball rooms. No problem for a full frame camera and fast, longer lenses. But there will be a long evening of socializing, dinner, live music and dancing. There will also be a cocktail party reception on the first evening. And the client wants great images of couples and groups both facing the camera in static poses and also a good selection of candid shots in the same low light situations. 

This calls for flash. Fast to use flash. Easy to calculate flash and since this is the first time I've explored on camera flash with Leica SL and Q cameras I have to say that the universe of TTL and automatic flashes made for these cameras is tiny. Quantum physics tiny. Shot glass tiny. There are currently two Leica flashes on offer. A big one and a small one. And, surprisingly, or unsurprisingly, there seem to be no dedicated, automatic third party flashes at all. Nothing from Godox. Nothing from the other big names. Just the two Leica flashes. The SF40 at about $550 and the SF60 at about $675. Neither model gets rave reviews from users. Most users who squawk have issues with reliability. As in "oh shit! My flash is D.O.A." Those whose flashes are still with us complain about automatic/TTL exposures being all over the map. About long recycle times. About overheating. And, since it is Leica, there is the usual complaining about pricing. 

Sure, Leica cameras are made to last with solid metal bodies, etc. but it seems obvious that flashes are just a nuisance for them. A distraction. Something they relegated to a third party with a wish and a prayer. Perhaps they understand that the majority of users don't want to sully their vision and image integrity with something as pedestrian as on-camera flash. But it just so happens that I do need that. 

At least a couple times a year. 

I am currently considering two workarounds. One is to just pull one of my non-dedicated but highly reliable, fully manual Godox flashes out of their hiding place and spend a few weeks practicing total reliance on guide numbers. Not a deep exercise but more of a reminder and warm-up. After all, with digital cameras it's pretty straightforward to figure out a good subject to camera distance and make a small guide on white gaffer's tape to put on the back of the flash. And the flash never gets tricked by white or black outfits. No exposure metering to trick. It's a low cost, low key fix and I have enough non-dedicated (meaning just a single pin for flash triggering on the bottom of the flash and no other control contacts to confuse my camera) flashes that I can destroy a handful of them with misuse and still finish the job. It will just require me to pay attention better. And it means I get no auto focus assist light should the ambient light get really, really dicey. No life jacket.

The second option and maybe a better one is to pull a couple Panasonic S5s off the copy stand and out of the desk drawer and put one of several dedicated flashes I have for that system on top. Then I can fire away with full automation and even take advantage of the AF-assist light if needed. I already have the gear for that so it makes the most sense. And I really like the Godox V1 I have which uses big lithium batteries and for which I have many fun attachments. My nod to Leica would be to use the Leica 24-90mm zoom on the Panasonic camera. Why not?

Still, why can't Leica make some better flashes for those few who have extra space in the trunk of their Buggatis for more gear? Or, maybe I should presume that one of the Leica flashes would be fine and that most people are silent about their Leica flash experiences because everything is just fine and it's only the small handful who have issues who are vocal. 

In the grand scheme of things it's a very small bump in my road toward event happiness. As you probably expect, I'll try everything well before the shoot date and probably settle on either the most eccentric solution or the most expensive. You know my new motto, right? The More Friction The Better. 

Rain. Walking. Those damn Leica cameras. Diopter Philosophy. Fake reminisces of teachers from long ago. Pretend Elitism and much more.

In my experience there is no such thing as "free" coffee. It almost always comes with

strings attached. Yep. It's a pop up church in downtown. The coffee is a lure. You join

in and you're tithing forever. Avoid free coffee. Invest your pocket change.

It was like movie rain last night. Giants pounding the roof of the house with boulders of rain. Torrents. Like machine gun fire. More flashes of lightning than electronic flashes at a group swimsuit model shoot meet up. Thunder that made one think they were living inside a timpani drum, surrounded by hundreds of other timpani drums all being beaten by hundreds of monkeys, all jacked up on speed. Well that may be overstating things but it did rain, thunder and lightning a lot last night. We did miss out on wind damage, hail and tornados. Thank goodness since we just got all the furniture moved back into our living room yesterday afternoon. It would be a pity to see the whole house destroyed on the very next day...

(Joe, go look at the comments from the previous post. I answered your ??? about the flooring...).

Last week was a lost photographic week; at least to my mind. The action at SXSW was lame. The streets were as gray as the participants and the weather... well the weather was great whenever it was my turn to be at home supervising the floor install and miserable when it was my time for unsupervised  recreation. I never mind swimming in blah weather but I do get put off about doing photography when the sun hides its face. 

I decided that today I needed to go out and walk (gotta get in those 10K steps...) and spend some quality time with one of my cameras. I pulled out the camera that started my current deep dive into Leica M stuff out of the equipment drawer and put the 35mm lens on it. Then I headed downtown for a lively walk and a search for non-free coffee. 

I often wonder what other people think about when they head out to photograph. I tend to think about all the images I've seen from the 1940s, 1950s, 1960s and 1970s that look so incredibly interesting now. Images that document post world war culture, the rise of the enormous American middle class, the protests and hippies of the 1960s, and the big recession and the (short lived) death of big cars when the gas crisis hit. Many thanks to our dear Saudi friends who engineered the first major gas shortages of the post war years. And helped deliver to us an awesome recession.

In each era the hairstyles, the clothing, the shoes, the cars, the signage in restaurant windows and the amazing billboards are fascinating because they are so different from our normal diet of visual items and trends today. I think that, if I make the right kinds of photographs and then wait 20 or 30 years they too will be the proof of how weird the era we are living through right now will seem. Red "gimme" caps? Black tights on chubby people? Tattoos? Fads like bidets for dogs? Entrepreneurs mostly selling apps that do something for you that you used to do more quickly and easily with a ballpoint pen and a pad of paper? Entrepreneurs still trying to perfect instant red wine? Electric vehicles which were originally intended to save the environment now the victims of car design steroids and dwarfing pre-EV cars in size, weight and total energy consumption; and doing so at three times the price of the cars we used to buy back before the turn of the century? What an enormous cluster fuck we're living through. And I'm here to document it so some smart ass thirty years from now can make glib comments about how stupid we were back when. Yeah, I actually think about stuff like this when I leave the house with a camera in my hands. It helps. Or maybe not...

I thought the rain was all done when I locked my car in its usual spot, just across from The Treaty Oak, and took off toward the hike and bike trail. I didn't think I needed a jacket, a hat, a camera bag, etc. I was reveling in the cool, clean touch of the air on my face. I dangled my camera around my neck on a light brown leather strap, letting it hang down just so in the center of my chest, at the bottom of my sternum, just like a tourist in a strange land. All that was missing was a pork pie hat, some Bermuda shorts and some white "athletic" socks plunging down into a pair of joggers with thick, bouncy soles. And maybe a pair of mirrored sunglasses. (If I seem to be typing a bit funny it's because I got a new desk yesterday and I'm not used to it yet. I'll start researching desks in this coming week and make sure I have the optimum one for writing. There are so many to choose from and I want to make sure that my fifth grade writing teaching, Mrs. Smithington-Wells (who claimed my writing was so good it was destined to change the world...) isn't turning over in her grave because of grammatical mistakes I can vaguely attribute to external causes). 

I was about a mile into the walk, just wandering through the park near the Dougherty Arts Center when the rain renewed its interest in making my day more interesting and began pelting me with big, juicy drops of cold water. I know that a Leica M240 can stand a bit of rain but I hate to be unprepared if nature really lets loose with a fusillade of ferocious raindrops. I had visions of Mr. Plegly, my first scout master, dropping by the house to strip me of a handful of merit badges. Though he often said my ham radio merit badge was earned through exceptional work mastering the frequencies. But nothing equals the work I did in the cub scouts with my Pinewood Derby racer... My she was yar. (Movie reference anyone? Your turn to shine... Hint: Cary Grant).

So, you've got that rangefinder camera in your hands, the rain is coming down, you are at least a mile from your car. What do you do? I looked around to see if there was a doggie poop bag dispenser any where in the vicinity. Nope. I looked through the park and over to Barton Springs Rd. where I spotted a convenience store. I hustled through the sloppy rain and went in. It has been decades since I've been in a convenience store. Like a 7-11. They haven't changed a bit. Are those Swisher Sweet cigars over there, behind the counter? They sure are.  I asked for a plastic bag and the guy behind the counter made gruff noises but then handed one over. With my new, impermeable accessory I could venture back out into the "deluge"  and keep heading toward my destination, the open air coffee shop called, Jo's. South Congress Ave. Right next to the San Jose Hotel.

Rain can make stuff look so different. The homeless are bent on getting to shelter and so just glance when passing by - instead of asking for cash. The colors are more saturated. The distant details blurrier. I was so happy I'd chosen Keen's hiking shoes instead of my usual Birkenstocks. The rain would make mush out of the cork soles on those oh-so delicate German sandals. 

When it's 58° outside and one is wearing a fairly light shirt over jeans one tends to look for shortcuts to the target destination. When one is soaked then one tends to shorten the estimated time of arrival by a good bit via faster locomotion. My philosophy teacher at St. Xavier school in Cincinnati, Dr. Blevins, taught me the expandable and contractible natures of context. He said I "got it" quicker than just about every other student ever. I forget what I replied because I was only there to swim with the Cincinnati Pepsi Marlins Swim Club. Indulgent parents indeed. At any rate, with the camera covered and safe I made good time to the order window at Jo's where I requested a nice cappuccino and a bacon, egg and cheese breakfast taco on a flour tortilla. Not sure whether my cardiologist would approve of the menu d'jour but as I've told him many times, "This is life. It's not a contest." His rebuttal? He hands me a printed sheet with a new recipe for lentil soup and kale. In a wry and subversive twist I add a half a pound of sausage to the recipe before handing it over to our cook. 

If clouds are deep and thick and moist (and which clouds are not moist?) I advise folding up a right sized plastic bag and putting it in a convenient pocket. Just in case. You'll likely thank yourself on that one time you get stuck out in the downpour. Lie and take credit for your preparedness.

I used to have no love for the 35mm lenses of this world. My north star was always the 50mm lens and, given the right opportunity, the 85mm lens. But in my high school typing and genome mapping class I was the odd man out. Most of the other students in my school swore by the 35mm lens and swore at me for my heretical preference. But lately I've softened my rhetoric and am now ready to admit that the 35mm lens can be quite a good choice for casual imaging. Especially for a day like today when, every once in a while, one wants to do a mild amount of zone focusing, and I have to admit that in instances like this the 35mm is the better choice when compared to the 50mm. Any wider than 35mm? Bite your tongue. 

I was just about soaked when I made it to Jo's. Ordered my cappuccino and my taco and I sat at the little faux bar overlooking the sidewalk that overlooks the street and enjoyed some casual people watching while haphazardly ingesting my frugal fare. Then I turned around and made some photographs of the pick up window and the people lingering around it. I love the neon signs  up on the wall surrounding the coffee portal and I really enjoy making casual snaps of the ever changing selection of couples, singles and groups nervously, calmly, happily waiting for their particular cup of caffeine to be announced. I take a lot of frames with my camera because people are animated. Sometimes multiple people's faces can be seen from the camera position and sometimes their gestures and body language become more interesting over time. Taking only one or two frames seems like only checking one or two tires before taking a thousand mile journey in one's car....

Jim Thomas asked in yesterday's blog about how best to navigate diopters and viewfinders when one becomes eligible to wear bifocals. And in my case, progressive lensed glasses. Here's my non-answer answer and I genuinely hope it's helpful even if it's nothing more than commiseration. 

If I know a camera well, and don't need to frequently check image reviews or menu items while out shooting, I find the correct diopter that gives me very sharp focus on the rangefinder patch and in the rangefinder window and ditch the glasses. I can still see fairly well in the range of about 2.5 feet to about  50 feet. At the longer range I'm better off augmenting with glasses. And in the closest range I definitely need optical help to read type and assess sharpness. I use a plus two diopter with the Leica M cameras. It provides as sharp or sharper a finder image than when depending on my bifocals or progressive lenses. But what this means is that I generally carry my glasses somewhere on my person so I can use them if I do need to consult the menu for any reason. Or if I find a convenient Wall St. Journal or NYTimes at a coffee shop and want to catch up on reasonably recent news. Today I had my favorite pair of glasses hanging off the front of my shirt collar just in case I needed them --- but not for viewfinder use. 

Now, most of the time, I can manage without the diopter on the finder eyepiece --- if I'm wearing glasses. But...but... all bets are off when I put on the 28mm lens because the glasses prevent me from getting my eye close enough to see the full frame without having to move my eye all over the place. And that slows down the act of photographing quite a bit. Too much for my taste. My options are to use a diopter which then allows a closer eye point, or to buy and use an auxiliary, dedicated 28mm finder attachment. Which has its own limitations. I broke down and bought a 28mm, outboard, optical finder just to see which I prefer. I like the optical finder; I can see the edges of the frame better...

It's a whole different thing when I shoot with the SL or SL2 cameras. Those have built-in diopters and great viewfinders with a very high eye point. I can center the diopter dial at neutral and use my glasses. I can see all the way to the edges of the frame with no swiveling nonsense. Or, I can set the diopter adjustment at +2.0 and ditch the glasses. Since I can bring the menus up in the finder I can make camera adjustments without having to look at the rear LCD panels and the same thing with image reviews. The SL cameras are really wonderful when it comes to everything viewfinder-wise. But, they aren't M rangefinder cameras. 

I remember the day I found I needed glasses. I had recently purchased a very expensive Hasselblad camera and was using it on a photo shoot at Motorola. My assistant and I had set up lights for a group shot and when the group arrived I seemed to have some problems getting them adequately in focus. My assistant, who was twenty years younger than I, jumped in and focused the camera for best focus and we soldiered on. But with all the hubris and narcissism I learned from my oh so privileged upbringing I could not accept that the blame for being unable to achieve sharp focus lay with me. It had to be the gosh darn new camera. I boxed it up and sent it back with a pithy note about spending thousands of dollars on a product only to get a defective article. I was 46 at the time and feeling immortal and bullet proof. 

Several weeks later I got a phone call from someone with a classic, Swedish accent. He introduced himself as a tech advisor for Hasselblad. He told me that they had received my camera and, using hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of optical test and mechanical measuring equipment they had discovered that the camera in question was ..... operating ..... perfectly. 

I responded that I have always had perfect vision. His response? He asked how old I was. When I told him he said, "You did have perfect vision. But now, perhaps, you need to visit your oculist." He further added, "Most photographers I have met require some sort of eyeglasses prescription when they've reached your age..." 

He made arrangements to send the camera back to me and suggested I look into purchasing a diopter accessory after I'd visited my oculist.  This was at a time before built-in diopters were routine. He was right. A +1.0 diopter did the trick back then...

And this brings up yet another niggle. I have a Fuji GFX 50Sii. I like the camera mostly. The files are quite nice and the slight difference in depth of field compared with full frame/35mm type cameras makes me happy. But... the range of the built in diopter is limited. When I use the camera without my glasses to help me I have to move the diopter control all the way over to one extreme and when I get there it's just on the edge of being sharp enough. I could use a few more clicks in order to satisfy myself that I have the right click selected. The work around for that camera is --- just to use eyeglasses. But it still pisses me off that they included a feature that isn't universal enough to serve me.

If there is a God, and by any chance I make it to heaven, I will surely take this situation up with the management. Maybe I can get an upgrade on the supplied harp.

So, I walked back over a different bridge and into the heart of downtown. I ran into someone who knew me but, in the moment I didn't recognize him. I just flat out admitted it. Turns out I had photographed him for an accounting practice many years ago. We chatted for a few minutes and it was nice. 

I walked into the J.W. Marriott to use their restroom. The one I usually use at their hotel was closed for maintenance. I asked the concierge at the desk about the location of an alternate. He left his desk, guided me across the lobby and showed me to another restroom facility on the other side. I wondered if everyone got guided tours when asking for restroom directions but it did make me feel special. He must have recognized the Veblen heritage of my 12 year old camera and acted appropriately. I wonder if he would have been responsive at all had I been sporting a Sony instead... (attempt at humor; nothing more).

Just before making it back to my car the rain started up again. Almost as a swipe at me for having the temerity to expect a dry walk. I slipped into my car and dropped the camera onto the passenger seat. Not a drop of water on it anywhere. I headed home smugly thinking that I'd gone toe-to-toe with the rain and come out with a draw. No camera destruction and a free washing of my clothes. How lovely. 

And, I like my little Carl Zeiss 35mm Biogon ZM lens. Cute and highly functional. As well made as a Mennonite horse carriage. But without the baggage. Just another day in paradise.

A full on Yeti store with a full bar, etc. Right there on S. Congress Ave. 

I still don't get the logic of spending $500 on an ice chest. Anyone 

ever heard of Coleman? Geez. Talk about Veblen...

Looking to the east the Austin skyline is starting to look a bit like Shanghai.

I count six new high rise buildings just in the tiny Rainey Street (former)

neighborhood. More at every other point on the compass.

Shade tree mechanics?

ground zero for coffee on S. Congress. At least it's covered...

The lighting in the restrooms at Jo's comes from daylight through a red filter 

as a ceiling. It can take some adjustment.

all the plants look juicier in the rain.

I am my own drone. Okay. Okay, I was on a bridge...

trudging back to the car through our dystopian reality...

Two couples on a bench. And the end of a long week.

Old school street photography. Medium format film. No AF, no AE. Just 

eyes and hands and luck.

Good stuff: It's been a long week but the floor is done and it's beautiful. B. is happy. I like it too. I don't want to put the furniture back in because the wide open space feels so good. The room would make a perfect portrait studio. 600+ square feet and ceilings that go up to sixteen feet. Now with gorgeous 

floors. 

B.'s yoga matt over toward the far side of the floor... 

Bad stuff: The diopter I ordered from Leica Store Miami was sent by the least competent freight company I know of. That would be UPS. It should be a straight shot from Florida to Texas. The item was shipped ground. But somehow my shipment made it up to Maryland. Now it's somewhere in Illinois. UPS just sent me a note to tell me that my delivery would be delayed some more because the trailer hasn't left the UPS facility in Ill. in enough time to make the first delayed delivery estimate. They are thinking maybe Tuesday of next week... Amazing. At this rate it'll go to Alaska first. A little frustrated but then I generally am when directly confronted with incompetence. 

Good stuff: The controversial Leica battery; the SCL6, works well across all the cameras that used to rely on the SCL4 batteries. According to some I must have a king's ransom in Leica batteries... Now selling battery futures. $3,135 worth of modest performing batteries. Just enough to trade for a weathered used car... 

How many batteries does one need? Always...one more.

Bad stuff: SXSW was visually boring this year. Many fewer big, bright corporate showcases. Much less action and many fewer people down on Sixth St. I made three forays into downtown to document what was billed as hundreds of thousands of people. I'm thinking it was more like tens of thousands. And mostly they seemed to be people who drew short straws and were required to come. At least that was the pervasive vibe. I looked a lot but didn't see much I wanted to photograph so I came home and continued doing chores. 

Good stuff: In years past I would have prevailed upon our son to come over and help me move all the furniture back into the living room. This time around B. decided that we'd just hire a moving company to come in and do it all. They arrive tomorrow. After swim practice and coffee. No backache next week for me. 

Neutral stuff: I've declined another project for this Fall. Sent it along to a comrade here in Austin. I looked at the proferred schedule for this event and saw that one day of the three was scheduled to start 

at 8 a.m., end at 11 p.m., and it felt like they'd like to have images the next morning. Not my cup of tea anymore. I'll defer to someone who is still highly motivated...  

Fun movies on Netflix but I know you all are too intellectually pure to enjoy my picks so I'll abstain from tormenting you. Figaro, Figaro, Figaro....

Looking forward to having my house back.

 

Inflation? What inflation? Improved luxe product sees a $110 price drop.

 

People complain all the time these days about inflation. But when I went to buy a better, more powerful camera battery to use across four different Leica cameras I found that the new battery had several advantages over the old battery. The new SCL-6 battery now has a capacity of 2200mAh while the previous SCL-4 battery only coughed up about 1850mAh. The new battery has approximately 15% more available power!!! But here's the real shocker, the old battery cost $285 per. That's a tidy sum for a mid-range camera battery. Part of what some people call, "The Leica Tax." The new battery has been selling at retail for the past year at $170. That's about 40% less than the original battery that was introduced along with the original Leica SL back in 2015. 

A 40% drop in price is nothing to sneeze at. That's real money. Now those poor, cash-strapped Leica owners will save about $115 every single time they need to buy a new battery. A voracious battery user might save thousands over the life of his or her camera.  Even better, the new battery will work in a wide generational swath of Leica cameras. Good news for owners of the Q2, the SL, the SL2, the SL2-S, the Q3 and the newly announced (and much anticipated) SL3. At least three generations of cameras at my count. Forty percent deflation on an improved product. Has that ever happened before?

It's positively DeVeblen. 

Mein new battery ist charging on the corner of my desk as I write this. Ich bin putting it in an SL2 and taking it out for a nice adventure tomorrow. The video improvement alone in the SL2 probably makes the upgrade worth it (using the older, original battery caused the camera to drop to a lower video output when the remaining power was less than half...). 

Paying only 60% of the previous new price for a better product while using inflated dollars against a weakened Euro. Amazing. Macro economics at work...

Now... let's see if we can get Leica to drop the price of the new camera by 40%. That would be a really neat trick. Then the whole system would be nicely DeVeblen-ized. So many happy dentists and hedge fund managers... Or would they all just rush to buy up new Hasselblad stuff before those prices fall?