I want this

A thread for lusting after cameras and other equipment.

Because I really want an Olympus E-P1

http://digital-lifestyles.info/copy_images/olympus-e-p1-compact-lg.jpg

I saw some test shots online yesterday and not only does it look awesome it apparently takes great pictures too, with pretty decent hi-ISO performance.

Dyao just mentioned on another thread their intention to get one of these. They look ace. Any idea of pricing yet?

Imagine an old 55/1.2 Zuiko on this, using Live View to manually focus, shooting video. Cor!

hope this creates a market compact cameras with sensors as big as their DSLRs. also in black, please. i like the idea of this but no way am i getting into another lens system.

(it's £599 w/o lens in the uk, michael)

"market for", duh

I was imagining the same re: zuiko and wondering where my thrifty 50 zuiko is and how you focus on an LCD screen.

$799 US with the zoon am $899 with the fixed focus 17mm f2.8 with the viewfinder as shown.

With Live View on my 40D you can zoom in (5x or 10x) to achieve sharp focus, a la:

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/pernfors88/3586365885/"; title="Dinner in the garden by JerryBones, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3655/3586365885_71b6278124.jpg"; width="500" height="375" alt="Dinner in the garden" /></a>

(late '70s Zeiss 135mm f/3.5, £36 on eBay)

Isn't there an EVF like the new Panasonic? I know you can buy a rangefinder-style optical viewfinder attachment, which doesn't seem terribly useful.

Arse! I knew I'd do that...

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3655/3586365885_71b6278124.jpg

i need a digi, 2 bring to africa

recs plz

I think I'm going to get one of these, have been wanting something like this for a long time.

definitely, this finally fills all of the gaps left by the epsom RD-1 and sigma/ricoh jobbies.

Yeah I've been following the E-P1 with bated breath - in fact I think I mentioned the M43rds in the "What camera do you own thread..."

The thing has fulfilled all my expectations so far, except for one thing: AF speed. I've read that it's not as fast as the Panasonic G1 (the other M43 camera on the market right now), which focuses as fast as most entry level DSLRs on the market. This could be a problem for me since I intend to use this mainly for street photography.

One of the really exciting things about this camera is that due to its flange-back distance being shorter than virtually any other system on the market right now (20mm), you can use it with pretty much every lens ever made for 35mm systems and up, provided you have the right adapter, which I'm sure is a trivial for all those talented machinists working in China. The downside (or upside if you mainly hang out on the tele side of things) is that the EFL of these lenses will be doubled, so that great Zuiko 24mm becomes a pedestrian 48mm on a M43 camera. However I've read that the elimination of the mirror box makes the designing and implementation of wide angles and ultra wide angles much much easier, so I expect Olympus will fill in the gap soon. Also DOF is effectively doubled in comparison to full frame due to the smaller sensor, i.e. that 17mm 2.8 upthread is equivalent to a 34mm 5.6 in full frame terms (but you can still shoot it at 2.8 speeds). I've never had much use for hairthin DOF, so it doesn't bother me - in fact, for street photographer greater DOF is a bonus...

Isn't there an EVF like the new Panasonic? I know you can buy a rangefinder-style optical viewfinder attachment, which doesn't seem terribly useful.

― Michael Jones, Thursday, June 18, 2009 5:06 AM (Yesterday) Bookmark

No EVF, as Olympus stated their goal was to make this thing as small and compact as possible - the 17mm (34mm EFL) lens comes with an OVF attachment. Rumors point to Olympus releasing a more full-featured M43 camera this December, I'm guessing with flash, EVF, and an articulating LCD screen.

Also exciting is the news that Panasonic has a 20mm 1.7 pancake in the pipeline. Anyway I hope to get one of these babies soon, but I think demand is going to be pretty high for these so I don't know how soon I can find one...

i need a digi, 2 bring to africa

-- i want to marry a pizza (gbx), Thursday, June 18, 2009 5:18 AM (Yesterday) Bookmark

What are your requirements? Pardon my ingrained prejudices but I think ruggedness might be a key component; in that case the cheapest weathersealed DSLR you can buy is a Pentax entry-level, however it'll only be weathersealed if you use one of the more expensive lenses with it. On the digicam side, Olympus makes some which are waterproof and dustproof, however I've heard image quality from these is only so so.

durability is def a thing, for sure---is pentax the go-to brand for that?

think you need to tell us how much $$$ you want to spend and how big a camera you're prepared to drag around - pocket, small bag or native luggage bearers?

bidding starts at $500. i love the look/feel/size of old rangefinders, so i guess that's the size we're looking for? I mean, the cam at the top of the thread looks perfect, honestly

wait what about this:
http://www.amazon.com/Panasonic-DMC-LX3K-Digital-Stabilized-Black/dp/B001CCLBSA/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=photo&qid=1245284406&sr=1-1

guess we're looking for a small digital that doesn't swap out lenses

canon g10 is usually reckoned a solid choice for people who want a fully featured camera (ie, full manual controls) that you can easily carry around, esp. if you're looking for something without interchangeable lenses. i'll try to think if there's anything else...

thanks!

Also DOF is effectively doubled in comparison to full frame due to the smaller sensor, i.e. that 17mm 2.8 upthread is equivalent to a 34mm 5.6 in full frame terms (but you can still shoot it at 2.8 speeds). I've never had much use for hairthin DOF, so it doesn't bother me - in fact, for street photographer greater DOF is a bonus...

This is my only fear (well, and the AF I suppose, but I'm going to mounting some ace old glass on it anyway, so that's less of a factor). I'm rubbish at using wide angles, so that bit doesn't bother me, but I can't work out hand-holding speeds from the lens, and am a huge fan of hairthin DOF.

Still, if this takes off -- and given that pretty much every photographer I know has went "oh yeah" when they've seen it, I think it will -- hopefully it'll start a trend and we'll get a FF one eventually. M8 doesn't count :)

In the realm of true dreamytime want-this, there's obviously the 5D2 and various bits of L-glass, a Mamiya 645AF with a digi back, Leica M8.2, a top-end Nikon Coolscan and loads of TIME, etc, etc, but in the sort-of-real-world, I quite fancy this for the 40D:

http://www.cameraworld.co.uk/images/products/large/Hahnel%20HC-40D%20remote.jpg

I think the xxD models are the only Canons that don't sport some sort of IR receiver, so my dinky little RC-1 controller (which was free with an Ixus film compact 10 years ago) has languished in a drawer since the 300D died. Clever of Hahnel to spot the gap in the market and stick IR capability on one of their battery grips (which are cheaper than Canon's anyway).

Interesting - what would you use an IR receiver for? I have one on my E-520, but haven't thought about how to make use of it...

As for me, although I'm an Oly shooter for now I've always suspected that my sensibilities with regards to lenses have always been entwined with Pentax. The problem is that they make a bevy of small pancake primes, yet have no small and lightweight body to pair with them. Even the new, small-ish K-7 weighs in at close to 2 pounds.

I guess my dream DSLR setup would be a body that's under 1 lb, and a selection from the following:

http://www.letsgodigital.org/images/artikelen/39/pentax-15mm.jpg

http://www.microglobe.co.uk/catalog/images/pentax_21mm_f3.2_lens.jpg

http://www.bid4optics.com/shop/images/smc%20DA%2040%20mm.jpg

That 40mm lens! It's barely there.

IR-receiver - remote control of the camera for self-portraits/group shots, etc. Self-timer is only any good if you've already focused the lens, whereas the remote triggers AF.

(I'd post a picture of Ava remote-shooting herself with the 300D as an illustration but this is not the parenting board and I need to rein that in a bit...)

Actually, much better than blowing 90 quid on a IR-capable battery grip...this for 17 quid.

Update - like anyone cares: I decided to go for a slightly more expensive Hama version of the above wireless remote (50p more P&P but slashed from £40 cos they obviously weren't selling any with Johnny No Brand just a click away for £17).

The no-name product had good reviews but just seemed a bit...dodgy (one positive review said that they hadn't actually figured out how to autofocus with it yet and another that the battery was actually too big for its compartment). Doesn't inspire confidence. But then again the Hama listing had completely the wrong product photo so who knows what I'm actually getting...

Went to the Olympus E-P1 launch last night - it's really great (I only got to play with one for about a minute), the contrast-AF is faster than I've ever encountered on a compact (but I haven't tried the Panansonic G1) and the thing handles lovely.

Here's top old geezer David Bailey at the launch (rather brilliantly, I failed to take a decent picture of him actually holding one - he was presented with model 001 by a 007 lookalike!):
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3386/3661344698_420faebb2e.jpg

And here's an E-P1 with off-shoe flash and nice leather case round the neck of an Olympus pro:
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3330/3661349840_e2ff0283f2.jpg

Looks lovely! Amazon has yet to e-mail me a an estimated shipping date. I've heard it's available at select shops in the UK already. Lucky!

Yes, whether Jessops just had the stock the Olympus team had brought with them that evening, I don't know, but they shifted quite a few (they may have been pre-orders being collected, I guess).

Oh drool, that camera looks sooooo lovely. :-)

Took delivery on my E-P1 today - found a good deal for the body only. Unfortunately, I don't have any lenses yet! The thing is staring at me, begging to be used.

Should clarify: I've ordered a bunch of old c-mount cine lenses which should arrive here within a week, along with an adapter. The adapter shipped from Taiwan last week and ought to arrive here in a week or so. Til then, stuck looking lovingly at the camera

First impressions: Although I handled one at B&H a week ago, it still seems bigger than it does online. Doesn't seem *that* much smaller than my E-520 - although maybe the fact that it's built in shiny silver influences my judgment. It's actually a little smaller than my old Oly OM-G. Fit and finish are superb.

Perhaps what's throwing me off is that it looks like a compact - my brayne is going "Hmm, this looks pretty big for a compact" when it should be going "Hey, this is tiny for an SLR!"

I want this.

Not to push you over the edge, stet, but have a look at what a kindly old Japanese gent is doing with his:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/yoshinori_kikuchi/sets/72157619142449147/

The one thing that this system lacks, and I daresay it's a problem which has plagued digital interchangeable lens systems ever since they were first realized, is a wide array of quality ultrawides (which get turned to pedestrian wides). I have half a mind to get a Voigtlander 12mm f5.6 for mine. Unfortunately, with wide angles on digital, you tend to get a lot of smeary corners, due to the fact that the microlens sites on the edge of the sensor have 'depth', and thus light rays which are not perpendicular to them don't enter them evenly, and then you end up with CA and smears and all that. Modern lenses have to be designed to be as 'telecentric' as possible.

Anyhow, this:

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2532/3706510388_9c0210e814.jpg

The ultra-wide issue is worse with 4/3rds, I guess, due to the 2x crop factor. That Japanese guy is doing amazing things but a quick skim suggested that there are more gorgeous shots of hardware (taken with his Nikon) in his photostream than actual photos taken with the kit depicted.

Also, I think this is supposed to represent an end to the glass chase for Stet, not a new start! Still, PHWOAR eh, Stet?

PHWOAR is right! I'm not over bothered by the wides, I can't shoot wide for tofu, and 4/3 does give you extra reach on longs, at the expense of a bit of d-o-f.

TOP has delayed their e-p1 review, grr.

TOP?

The Online Photographer.

That review is up. It's pretty good: only complaints are the AF performance and the low-res screen. Am not bothered about the screen -- it's miles better than the one I have now anyway. The AF could be a pain, but am more likely to have manual lenses on it anyway, right? Hmm.

Just saw the review as well - figure I'll add my comments to the mix, despite having only had a fully functioning lens attached to it since this morning, so take them with grain of salt. I think the screen is pretty good - viewing angles are excellent and it's nice and bright. I have youthful eyes so have no problem with using the screen - you can definitely use it to ballpark focus without zooming in. Haven't used a 460k dot screen so don't know if a higher res screen would be better for nailing focus in this regard.

Magnifying while using manual focus lens is a pain - you have to press a button to zoom in, and then press it again to zoom out. You specify the area of the screen to zoom in on using a green square on the screen. You move the green square using the four-way d-pad. Unfortunately, the functions that the 4-way d-pad used to control - ISO, AF, WB, and drive mode - are no longer accessible. That means you have to switch to another mode in order to change any of those functions. Out of these four, ISO's probably the only one that warrants frequent changing - so maybe assigning ISO control to the Fn button can sidestep this issue. The camera's interface is extremely customizable, so I'm sure I'll eventually find a configuration that works for me.

It's definitely not as convenient as using a rangefinder or a split screen focusing screen if you're trying to nail focus using a manual lens. People who routinely scale/zone focus shouldn't have too much of a problem. NB Some adapters will allow you focus slightly past infinity, so the focus scale will be off a by a little bit.

All of the above is moot though if you're just gonna HF the lens at f/8 with high ISO. Which is what I'll probably end up doing most of the time!

AF seemed kinda quick when I played with the Pen but then I s'pose I was expecting traditional compact contrast-AF performance and it's loads better than that. But if it's in place of yr SLR phase-AF, well...I couldn't be doing with it really. Not for the sort of pictures I take (though I do take a good proportion with a manual focus lens). Panasonic G1 seemed to get rave notices for its AF, so perhaps the system can be improved.

The danger with these 920k LCD screens on the newer Sony/Nikon/Canon DSLRs, it seems to me, is that you run the battery down by just endlessly gazing at videos and images you've shot. Having played with a 500D, it's very moreish.

Perhaps I should just buy an M6. Buy the time I'm frustrated with film again and sell it either the E-P1's focus will seem brilliant, or the E-P2 will be out. :)

I want one of these: http://www.luminous-landscape.com/reviews/cameras/gh1.shtml

My cine lenses came in. 5 of em, all 25mm (50mm equivalent FOV), f1.9. You can get f1.4's and f0.95's but they're a bit more expensive. Have already dinged the bottom of the camera. Somehow I am less distraught over this than when it happened to my MBP.

Some Japanese company has come out with a black leatherette covering for it. Doesn't look quite right to me. Also the thought of scraping off icky bits of adhesive in a couple of years is not so appealing.

http://aki-asahi.com/store/html/E-P1/leatherette/Type1/E-P1_Leatherette.jpg

Alright dudes, time to buy a bag. Which color would you choose:

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/4103Vk-t45L._SS500_.jpg

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41sTG1Yzp7L._SS400_.jpg

The top one, I think.

Yeah that's what I was leaning towards initially but the second color is growing on me. Gametime decision, I think.

Here's a pic of the set up so far. I have a Voigtlander 12mm coming next week which will be my main lens I think. Thinking about picking up a cheap Russkie 50mm. (I sold all my Oly gear to finance this, in case you guys think I'm a rich bastard). Each of these cine lenses cost about $25.

http://i975.photobucket.com/albums/ae232/daggerlee/Photo2.jpg

Dante Stella weighs in.

He makes some good points but a lot of struck me as 'I am a pro photographer, how do you expect me to use this' elitism. Kinda like dudes who still stick by the mantra that "if it has a built-in flash, it ain't a professional camera.' What really me go WTF was the whole "if you can afford this you might as well buy a Epson R-D1 or M8 - they're only 50% and 150% more expensive than the EP-1."

Sadly, his point that legacy lenses may not ever be ideal on a digital sensor may be correct, from what I understand about sensors and how they work. Ah well!

DPReview gives the E-P1 a highly recommended with a few reservations. I got my 12mm in the mail today, for an equivalent of 24mm on the camera. Going to NYC this weekend, will give it a thorough working out.

As so many of the other threads have disappeared into the mists of time and this is a good record of our various product lustings, I thought newsy stuff could go here.

So...two new Nikon bodies - D3000 and D300S.

The former is a 10.1MP entry-level model, basically the D60 with a bigger (but no higher-res) LCD and improved AF. The latter is the D300 with added 720p video recording and a faster continuous frame-rate (better than the prosumer Canons, dammit).

Which means: now is the time to go out and buy a D60.

pretty yawnsome micro-updates from nikon there, along with the 70-200 and 18-200 lens updates. although i'm kind of relieved they're not working too hard to take my cash away at the moment.

rumoured new 24mm 1.4 and 35mm 1.4 would be much more interesting to me. and i definitely want an ep-1 sized camera at some point, although i'm not sure they've got it quite right. looking forward to seeing dyao's first shots.

Yeah, as much as anything it seems to be an effort from Nikon to tidy up their product numbering. Dxxxx = consumer, Dxxx = prosumer, Dx = pro. Oh, hang on, what about the D90?

Meanwhile, £16,000 gets you a Leica S2 medium-format DSLR. I wonder why they've gone with focal-plane AND lens-based shutter options? To allow the use of third-party MF lenses?

Yes, I was wondering about that. It must be an all-bases-covered type of thing.

Hah joe I dunno if my shots would be all that interesting!

NYC camera store hours are pretty awesome - not to be sacreligious/demeaning, but jeez, aren't any big ones not opened by orthodox Jews? I'm looking to arrive in the afternoon and both B&H and Adorama will be closed by 2, and closed on Saturday too.

ok guys i am in no way good at photography nor do i really know anything about it, but having used an M8 for the last month (borrowed from my dad, who can afford these things) i can say that i never want to use anything else ever again

(braggin 2009)

Pictures please!

gonna try and upload some, but i think my ugandan connection blows. i'll be back in the states in a couple days, so they'll be up then

i was actually gonna ask you guys about things like color correction, etc, etc, because i know nothing. or you could just do it for me :D

We could all have a bash. I for one would be delighted to have some Leica M8 images in my Lightroom...

great. will upload soon. --ish

so i have hte originals in iphoto, and there are a couple up on my africa thread

many of my favorites need to be cropped/color-corrected---should i just used iphoto for this, or should i try and get learn how to use something like aperture/lightroom (which i can get student prices on)

(full disclosure: i'm not even sure what color-correction MEANS, just that Michael Jones' pics always look so lush while a lot of mine are a little blown-out looking. due, likely, to wide-open apertures (i like narrow depth of field for portraits) and equatorial sun

They look pretty good to me. What lens is on there, btw? Lens info isn't showing up in the EXIF data. (Just curious).

If I get 5min this afternoon I'll do what I reflexively do to most things I import into Lightroom (this is only the 640x427 images from the ILE thread, mind) and stick 'em up here. See what you think.

I'm no expert, I just generally fill in the blacks on the histogram, brighten a little, add clarity* and vibrance*, knock out colour noise in the shadows, maybe a gentle film-like S-shape on the tone curve if appropriate. But I do often shoot quite saturated JPEGs to begin with, so this is all kinda moot. (* LR terms that don't necessarily translate to other retouching software).

Lens: Leitz 28mm (wanted to bring a 50mm, but the mere fact that my dad was letting me borrow his bazillion dollar camera in a thirdworld country seemed like enough to me).

should i post up bigger/original size versions? i just sent them from iPhoto to Flickr in the interests of getting them on the web for other's perusal. i'm hoping to make prints of the ones i like, and to include them in a piece i'm writing, so that'll probably require the real-deal 4000xwhatever versions

and thank you!

Here you go - S-curve, bit of (attempted) recovery on some blown-out highlights (clothing, mostly), vibrance/clarity/(very slight) saturation boost, bit of bottom end on the histogram, brightened things (identical treatments to both):

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3515/3819993663_5c3ee10f44_o.jpg

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2437/3819993617_505dd4efa2_o.jpg

(Are you a Flickr contact of mine?)

oh yeah, they're definitely warmer looking, i like

and no, i don't think so---i've just seen the pics you've posted here on ilx

Would love to have a bash at the originals - Leica does .dng rather its own proprietary raw format, is that right? Or did you shoot .jpg? YSI, perhaps?

This is me (and my wife) on Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/pernfors88/

You could probably get similar results to the above with iPhoto though. I've never used it but I didn't do anything particularly fancy.

I made sure to shoot with the high-rez JPG, not DNG

i'm going to upload the full-rez versions when i get home from the cafe, can also zip and YSI, if you like, too

I'll just grab the originals from Flickr, no worries. May not have a chance to do anything this weekend but it'll make a nice change from photos of the kids and grimy old London.

that would be dope, imo

like, see, this one definitely needs cropping. get out of the frame, nathan!

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2539/3820979518_ca016e6360_o.jpg

Ah, cropping. OK - that's a bit more subjective. Happy to have a bash anyhow. What's yr Flickr details?

ok so apparently iphoto won't send the fullsize versions to flickr, what the heck

http://www.dpreview.com/news/0910/09100603leicax1preview.asp

http://a.img-dpreview.com/previews/LeicaX1/images/frontpage.jpg

high ISO performance looks great, makes the EP-1 and EP-2 look cheap though.

yeah the high ISO shots had that 'film-grain' look to them, at least at web-viewing resolutions.

I'm extremely puzzled by the Ricoh system that was just announced - who would ever pick it over M4/3 or an entry level Canikon DSLR, especially when in its large sensor configuration it's actually bigger than a E-P1 or GF1?

according to Michael R.'s take at LL, the X1 has a nearly silent shutter - but about a quarter of a second shutter lag. why can't you get it right Leica????

so i think i'm getting a cam for xmas

but which one????

http://www.blogcdn.com/www.engadget.com/media/2010/09/9-19-10-finepixx1002-1284941430.jpg

*swoon*

Was completely psyched til I found out it's not a real rangefinder (ie Leica killer at $1000-1500).

Still kind of psyched if the autofocus is fast. A camera like that needs to have excellent reaction times. The fiddliness and slowness of the E-PL1/etc. turned me off of them.

yeah that thing looks RAD

does it shoot RAW?

It does.

lately I've found that I've become pretty good at guesstimating focus. so if it just has a real focus scale on the lens I'd be happy.

or, even if there was some way to set hyperfocal distance through the menus. and then just frame using the (optical) viewfinder. swoon

What camera is that pic of?

fuji x100

http://www.dpreview.com/news/1009/10091910fujifilmx100.asp

http://a.img-dpreview.com/news/1009/fujifilm/X100_top.jpg

external EV dial = swoon

That is p. nice. Would like changeable lenses, tho

It's exactly the FL I'd choose to shoot with 90% of the time, so I'm okay with fixed. The old Konica Hexar fixed lens film cameras were A+, as were really old-school Canonets and such.

Hmmm... I should find a nicely refurbed Canonet (I've got one on my desk but it doesn't work) and load it with Tri-X.

the new TOP post about the Pentax K-5 has put some gear lust in me. apparently the best performing APS-C sensor with the widest dynamic range, put into a body with a relatively quiet shutter sound. best of all, great selection of pancake primes:

http://photo.net/equipment/pentax/pentax-limited-lenses

Probably a bit over my budget but I wouldn't mind shiny new pentax dslr action of some description.

new nikon mirrorless out today. 2.7x crop factor?! I know Nikon has the best noise-reduction algorithms in the industry, but...

only one prime out at launch - 10mm 2.8 (27mm equiv.). not bad, not bad...

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f0/Sensor_sizes_overlaid_inside.svg/550px-Sensor_sizes_overlaid_inside.svg.png

so the nikon sensor somewhere in between the 4/3 sensor and the 1/1.6" sensor. it'll be nice, and a change, for m43 users to lord over nikon mirrorless users for having smaller sensors.

I don't get the Nikon mirrorless strategy at all. Pentax tried to go smaller than 4/3 and got laughed at - people have come to expect at least the quality of 4/3 files, if not better (ie new NEX model that has the same sensor as the D7000)

2.7 is like some comedy joke. I half expected them to say "and in stunning 1mp vga quality".

I mean look at this http://www.blogcdn.com/www.engadget.com/media/2011/09/nikon-1-system-vs-nex-c3-sensor.jpg

yeah that's p dumb

priced similarly to its competitors, no discernable advantages besides the nikon name. ok, there's a nikon f adapter, but then you've got a 2.7 crop factor, m43 is already pushing it as far as those things go. idgi.

either
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/31ABC3yb09L._SL500_AA300_.jpg
Fuji 6x6 rangefinder

or

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2233/2109255147_1664c78391.jpg
Minolta Autocord TLR by jonathan ponce, on Flickr
Minolta Autocord

I love the idea of medium-format rangefinders, but I almost always used MF on a tripod back in the day, I'm not sure how 6x6 would work (for me) casually.

have always sorta wanted a Bessa R3M tbh

but dayo: how do i shot used Leica?

gbx looking for a leica enabler

p much

think it is a good plan, buy a leica already versus spend a lifetime wondering. was it you who said you maybe had access to some that were in an attic, or?

that too

my dad's a "leica dude" and has an m6, an m8.2, and an r-something-or-other at home. but basically all he ever takes pictures with now is a little point and shoot

sure. a guy in a store saw my camera recently and was all ah!, back in the day i ..., i sort of skipped ahead in my head and started imagining being bequeathed his old, dusty, long dormant leicas (this wasn't the point of the story, but remembering it i realise it was the time i left the store without the paracetamol i was buying, maybe such was the depth of my reverie); would be great to get to play around with something without necessarily having to jump right into making your choice. it's nice to know that there's some flexibility in still being able to trade up and down once you have one, though.

I have a M7 and had a R2A - tbh, I'd go Bessa or Zeiss Ikon over a Leica.

gbx I would borrow your dad's m6!

milo I have an autocord - bought it used off eBay, sent it off to an autocord export for a (reasonably priced) CLA. great camera! there slight differences in all the variations, such as what company did the shutter, but they are all pretty much the same. great build quality.

for used Leica, I would break it down like this:

meter or non meter?

meter, you're stuck with an M6 or newer, probably at least $1000, maybe $900 if you're lucky.

non meter, you have M2, M4, M4-2, M4-P. lot to be said for all of them. depends on what you're looking for. measure twice, cut once as they say!

oh i'm totally gonna borrow the M6. and i was thinking if/when I buy a RF for myself, i'd get something non-metered. the R3M is appealing for the 1:1 viewfinder, all manual-ness, and price. plus, i have a sneaking suspicion that it'll be easier to borrow lenses from my dad than bodies.

but i guess my q to you was: you said in the other thread that ebay leicas are overpriced, and that privated dealers were the way to go. but....which dealers?

hmm, well it depends on how much of a risk you want to take... on eBay, check out the seller wye7, who is a pretty well regarded leica repairman who sells CLA'd leicas on the side. all the bodies he sells have been CLA'd by him and he's pretty good at standing by his work.

other than that, private deals rangefinderforum.com and getdpi.com are the way to go. that's tougher though, because the good deals usually get snapped up quickly. and people get burned on those sites too. and it can be a huge timesink, spending every hour refreshing to see if what you want comes up, and trying to be the first in line.

if you want to go this route, look for ads done by "honest abe" types of people - people who make full disclosure, go above and beyond what's necessary to provide a surfeit of detail about their cameras, and who have good feedback.

other than that, you can try KEH, which *had* a good reputation but people have been questioning them lately. and they tend to be above the market price by $1-200 in most cases, at least on leica bodies.

you can still get good deals on eBay, but there'll be big risks. the worst that can happen is you buy a leica, find out it has a problem, and have to send it in for repair, which can be $2-400. (otoh a repaired leica, assuming good internals and no abuse, will then be bulletproof for at least 10 years, or so people say - I haven't owned one for more than a year yet!)

and if you ever decide to sell, you'll probably get most of what you put in - I'd figure about $1-150 in losses at most after factoring shipping, paypal fees, etc.

I've had very good luck with KEH for used stuff, but it's been a year or two since I bought anything from them. Probably going to order a NIkon FE2 pretty soon, though.

If you got a meterless Leica and decide you want some kind of meter, Voigtlander makes (or made) a hotshoe meter that was affordable - imperfect (you can't really see exactly what's being metered) but good enough for negative.

I guess the main thing to emphasize is that, buying a leica will be a money-losing proposition, in some way or another - just depends on where you'll take your lumps! you can buy a bargain leica and later discover that it'll need repairs - that's a lump. you can buy a priced higher than average leica that's guaranteed to work - but when you sell it, you'll take a lump. if you happen to drop that leica or break some part of it, that'll be another lump. and of course you'll be spending money on film and processing and scanning, which will be a big lump.

it does help to think of the money that you lose as akin to a 'rental fee', and that compared to the initial investment, it's not big. and sometimes you break even when you sell, or you can even sell at a profit. those are good scenarios. if you happened to buy a lot of leica equipment about a year ago, you're grinning right now, because leica prices have gone up in the past year, sometimes by 50-100%. this is because of the success of the m9, and because of the rising china middle class. I don't think prices are likely to come down soon unless something like, say, the death of Kodak happens in the next year. which is very likely. then, body prices will likely fall, but I see lenses as either stable or growing, since there will always be digital bodies to use them on.

and that's not to say digital doesn't have its own share of lumps - digital bodies are almost guaranteed to lose money as soon as you click the purchase button. digital lenses are better in this way.

I bought a used M7 and used 35 Summilux ASPH in early 2003 from folks on the Leica User Group mailing list - my total expenditure was under $3k.
Thanks to Leica's absurd price increases over the last decade, I can probably get $4k for the lens and almost $2k for the body.

That is nuts

a 35mm summicron v4 used to go for $1000-1200 a year and a half ago, now they regularly go for $1600-2500 depending on condition

>:|

30 years ago you could kick a leica down a street

I think it's going to be all I can do to gather a little extra cash and get myself a Leica 50mm (probably an Elmar or something) before just writing off purchasing new gear. Oh well, guess film will die and I'll be using a 5D in a few years anyway?

collapsible summicrons are usually pretty cheap, $2-300, because the front element is really soft and is usually scratched up and they are prone to haze. otoh the collapsible 50mm 'cron was HCB's primary lens. shrug!

30 years ago you could kick a leica down a street

kinda thought that was one of the selling points tbh

http://www.bobbyleephoto.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/bresson.jpg

I love the look in his eyes - the gaze of a hunter!

HCBs "primary lens" was his ~eye~, man

I also want to share this picture of Eggleston

http://i.imgur.com/OCikR.jpg

what a gentleman!

btw even tho I think the whole thing is ott and ridiculous, the weird holster thing leica ginned up for that special edition M9 is kind of a good idea?

I mean with a name like Eggleston

what weird holster thing?

holy shit

http://www.shanelavalette.com/images/journal/egglestonandlynch.jpg

O_O

I'm on IPHONE but they did some dum limited run thing with the M9. some VW designer refashioned the body and instead of a neck strap they put a hand loop on the right side of the body. they then matched it to a shoulder holster deal, like the cam is a 9mm or something. I think it looks whack, but the idea isn't a bad one

oh yeah I think several companies make straps like that - they call them like quick...something.

btw that looks like a... contax g2? that lynch is holding.

http://www.louisck.net/2009/03/uso-tour-weblog-kuwait-iraq-af.html

lol louis ck uses a leica. is that good or bad?

obv its good. like, as a huge louis ck stan, i actually swooned a bit when i found out he was a leica dude.

he got some good shots imo. i think you can see his visual sensibilities reflected in "Louie."

haha I dunno anything about the dude, never seen his work

his setup is like $3.5k between the mp and the summilux. O_o

also he has the same light meter I use

not counting his 35 and 90!

also O_o at using a lens w/o a protective filter in iraq

obv its good. like, as a huge louis ck stan, i actually swooned a bit when i found out he was a leica dude.

he got some good shots imo. i think you can see his visual sensibilities reflected in "Louie."

so otm, both points. some lovely pictures out of helicopters on the blog. the pictures of army dudes i find too hard to judge but are neat. visually louie is beautiful - i've read him enthusing about lenses and on stuff like the episode with the neighbours & his pregnant sister you can see how much it pays off.

i think more about the compositional similarities & diffs between photography and cinema than i used to, recently, like i was to play with a film camera to see how it relates

also, all of his prologuing about the leicas - this is awesome, but you can try this one cheaply instead, putting up 'this is a shot taken on film', 'this digital', comparison shots etc are pretty great.

yeah I really appreciated the comparisons. and I think the shot on the helipad is gorgeous

got the go ahead on the M6 btw :D

neat! come with any lenses?

prob at least one. 28mm

When I was an art major, I wanted a Hasselblad XPan so I could approximate Cinemascope on 35mm film.

I mean, I'd still love an Xpan, but it's a lot less doable these days.

Just bought a M3 from someone on RFF - recently CLAed by Youxin Ye at a good price. Realistically I'll come out even on the deal in a worst case scenario.

nice one!

sweet - what's your 50mm?

I don't have one currently. Going to initially try a 35mm (I've got a 35 Nokton SC coming) and use the whole viewfinder, if that doesn't work out I'll probably look for a deal on a used Zeiss 50/2. Before Zeisses got scarce, I was seeing those for $550ish, which might be the best cost to lens ratio going.

the planar or sonnar?

Planar, the Sonnar is pretty expensive.

May not be going that route, just PMed someone on RFF about a Canon LTM 50/1.4. I'll just have to order a LTM-M adapter somewhere.

chinese made ones are cheap and match up pretty well with 'official' ones if you use a digital caliper to measure the thickness

The Voigtlander Nokton (35/1.4, SC) came in the mail today. It's crazy, crazy small. Pictures don't do the size justice.

Hi dere M3
http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6156/6256050987_4d4c8364c7_b.jpg
Leica M3 w/ 35mm Nokton by celluloidpropaganda, on Flickr

The modern M grip I found used looks kind of goofy on it but there's a vast improvement when it comes to holding the camera.

i want that

sweet! what kind of softie?

Abrahamsson original. Also got a mini-SR for my X100, the Match Technical I was using on it was wobbly.

Need to get a 50mm (probably Zeiss Planar, if I save the $$$), seriously considering trading my Ikon for a M2 or M4 to use with the 35mm mounted on the M3. The Ikon is a great camera, and the meter/loading are way more convenient obv, but guessing exposure and shooting with the M3 is more fun - and if I want convenient, I've got digital.

I bite my nails so I've got to rig something on the bottom plate so I can open it to reload without pulling out a knife.

I want this. It's low-res, and doesn't work great in low light, etc. etc., but it is the first camera of its kind, and its ability to choose the focal point of DOF AFTER taking a picture is pretty much mind-blowing.

yeah those things are crazy. see also the photoshop motion blur elimination thing

I haves it, it's mine

(the m6 i mean)

:D

w/28mm elmarit. it's so quiet dang

haha yeah it sounds so quiet after any digital that's not a compact. omg @ 28mm elmarit

^_^

Lomokino Super 35 - camera that shoots 144 frames on a regular 35mm roll for a (very) short film. $100 for camera and projector, looks pretty awesome.

http://www.photographyblog.com/images/sized/images/uploads/Lomokino_for_package1-449x400.jpg

http://usa.shop.lomography.com/lomokinoscopepackage?utm_source=microsite&utm_medium=www&utm_campaign=lomokino

24fps? 6 seconds?

new technology for the gif generation

so from the vid it looks panoramic which means the film gate is very wide but narrow; probably much less than 24 fps, more like 8?

24mm x 8.5mm frames, hand-cranked ~3-4fps

http://microsites.lomography.com/lomokino/

apparently they're going to have some kind of processing/scanning situation set up so you can get them easily digitized. I suspect that will be pretty expensive.

film school is going to get 90% more annoying when intro classes require everyone to shoot a short on these and then the artsy kids keep doing it for the rest of their education

http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6092/6335764646_cbd539b2df_b.jpg
Leica M4, Voigtlander 35mm f/1.4 Nokton SC by celluloidpropaganda, on Flickr

traded the M3 for a M4 - I prefer 35mm or wider and it didn't make sense to buy a 50mm for the M3 right now and then need a body for the 35mm

should be the last M you'll ever buy!

I dunno, I'm in negotiations to part with a kidney for a M9.

film M, I should say

Yeah, I've got to figure out a setup for developing my own B&W at home. Maybe a DIY drying cabinet in the laundry room (with air filters) and a not-temp sensitive developer like Diafine.

Or I could just take Photo 101 at a community college for lols. Photograms!

ilford dries pretty flat imo - heat actually curls the acetate ime!

why do you want a non-temp sensitive dev?

Or I could just take Photo 101 at a community college for lols.

^^^this is kind of an awesome idea!

That camera's a beaut! I am a *little* jealous of people who have a rewind crank.

I'm just not sure how easy it will be for me to keep water temps stable out of my tap and in the kitchen (it's cold in my kitchen and bathroom in this old house). May find it's a non-issue.

Photo 101 is a distinct possibility. I could use my uni credits to jump to higher-level classes, but I kind of want something remedial so I could get back in the hang of developing and printing without it being an architecture or alt processes class.

You can buy add-on rewind cranks for M2/M3 bodies - ~$100 or a bit less used.
http://www.cameraquest.com/LRWlev.htm - near the bottom of the page is one sold for $99.

i am totally in love with this m6 right now

haven't seen any results, prob won't for a while, but man it is just a joy to ~hold~

that's a KEH BGN-grade M4 btw - $820, leatherette is all grand, the only marks are on the top of the top plate. EXC rated bodies were $300 more.
The marks would bother a collector, but there are no dings or dents anywhere. Even the paint on the back door is good.

heh my M4 has dings and marks from a MR meter and the strap lugs are brassed. but everything else is fine. I swapped out the plastic tipped lever for a M2 style one.

chinavision! I have a rewind crank, generic aluminum one, that I don't use anymore - would be willing to part with it at what I paid for it.

youxin ye (leica repairman) says that use of a rewind crank is bad for the rewind, but otoh leica sells an official one, so..

I'm just not sure how easy it will be for me to keep water temps stable out of my tap and in the kitchen (it's cold in my kitchen and bathroom in this old house). May find it's a non-issue.

people say rodinal is best for developing under 20 C.

I developed a lot of film in HK, the water out of my tap was 28 C sometimes, would just chill everything in the fridge beforehand. a digital thermometer (I bought a waterproof one from amazon for like $10, best develping investment I ever made) keeps ya honest.

use a higher dilution to keep dev times in the 8-15 minute range, that way temp/time variations won't affect the final output too much - a minute here or there is not likely to have much effect on the final product

Youxin Ye is the bro who just CLAed this M4 - I mailed it last Wed-Thurs and already had it back yesterday. A+++ would CLA again

If I'm honest with myself, I'm actually ok without the crank. Just that it was finally cold out today so I froze my fingers rewinding a roll on my lunch break.
I think I might need to get a CLA at some point soon. How much is Youxin Ye? I also hear of a guy in Queens, but I dunno what kind of job he does. I think my shutter still has older lube that can freeze up a bit in the winter that I'd like to change out. Lens is a little stiff too and I'm still toying with the idea of modifying it to bring up 35mm framelines on my camera.

$130 with return shipping

Good deal! I'm sold.

Technically I have sold enough of my worldly belongings to afford a M9.

I will not be doing this.

If this Fuji X1 Pro is as good as the x100 I'm going to struggle to have reasons not to buy it.

link?

Link. http://techcrunch.com/2012/01/05/fujifilms-new-x-pro1-leaked-along-with-some-lovely-lenses/

If I can afford it, want. Love my X100, but I do find myself wishing I could go wider (28 is okay, would be happy if there's a 24 or 21 down the road).

Being announced f'real now:
http://www.photographybay.com/2012/01/09/fuji-ces-2012-press-conference-liveblog/

the new canon thingy looks kind of stupid

new canon 5d mk iii thingey

It looks like the mk II with all the stupid cheap bits removed - now w/decent autofocus is the biggest thing for me.

5D3 is pretty much exactly the camera people wanted the 5D2 to be (pro AF, etc.), but now it's too expensive and doesn't have enough megapixels. People are weird.

If I had anyone paying me to shoot their buildings and houses right now, I don't know which I'd buy between the D800 and the 5D2.

semi-appropriate thread: Lightroom 4 is out and retail is half of what Lightroom 3 was. Maybe Adobe is finally figuring out that their audience is wider than pros with business budgets now.

I briefly had a demo version of Lightroom on my computer but its workflow was a bit foreign to me. Does it offer advantages over Photoshop for working specifically with photographs?

Image cataloguing and organization and some of the streamlining of websites/Flickr/books, I'd say. More important if you're shooting digital and have thousands of files to work on/keep track of.
I have CS5.1 and the Camera Raw/photo interface is very confusing to me, but I've been using LR alone for several years now.

I think I should just give it a shot again. I'm not doing digital at the moment, but I still have a large archive of scanned negatives (whose physical counterparts have FINALLY been properly sorted and filed). My basic tasks are color correction, dust and scratch removal, cropping, etc. Usually means a couple of curves/levels/color balance layers.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/hjm_s/

Fuji XPro-1 + the Fuji negative film simulation - I think the look might be right up a few ILPers alleys.

looks like the 5D3 is only half a stop better than 5D2 in low-light, and most of the image improvements came in video. disappointing! otoh if I ever felt the need to jump into digital full-frame, 5D2s will be cheaper and just as good

As someone who still rocks the 5D-I... I want this

I want a D800 w/ the new 28/1.8 that Nikon is releasing

but not really. so big, so heavy, so little desire to carry one around

http://us.leica-camera.com/photography/m_system/m_monochrom/

depending on what the files look like... might sell everything I have + my kidney and get this

I haven't kept up with the 'state' of digital photography so I dunno what current top gear setups are capable of but the detail in some of these shots is pretty staggering

http://www.dpreview.com/galleries/reviewsamples/photos/1950531/l1000272-dng?inalbum=leica-m-monochrom-preview-samples

#11 - level of detail in the corners is pretty out of this world

http://i.imgur.com/hy22n.jpg

make sure to enlarge!

oh wow

http://i.imgur.com/Yh59Q.jpg

the cars in the bottom right corner - that's what I would expect from a medium format camera. wow

just had a look at some of the samples from the d800 over at dpreview and to my eyes the monochrom shots blow the d800 out of the water w/r/t detail and resolution

I guess they should, seeing as every pixel in the M-Monochrom is a luminance-capturing element whereas colour sensors are split up into Bayer RGB mosaics. I've gone from thinking this was a daft idea to...er, yeah, wanting one.

by the way it looks like imgur adds compression to the photos - the original ones downloaded from dpreview gallery are much cleaner (and bigger - the one with the cars weighs in at 8.8 megs.)

at one eighth the price I would be interested, but still couldn't afford one.

The M9M is kind of interesting, but some of the examples I saw (girl holding a Nikon) had some bad highlight blowouts, no better than your average 35mm DSLR - I'm less interested in a mono camera for resolution than for dynamic range that comes closer to Tri-X/HP5.

yeah I've heard the sensor being used is not current-gen tech. otoh it seems even canon can't really squeeze any more DR out of sensors - the new 5D Mk III, for example, doesn't really seem to have improved DR. or maybe you need some kind of fuji EXR tech.

looking at the shot of the girl with the nikon from dpreview, I don't mind the blown sky that much. the resolution w/ which you can see the strands of hair, and the lint on the jeans, is pretty spectacular, imo.

I mean, the shot of the space needle is so much better than this MF scan using very good equipment! http://www.dantestella.com/technical/gsw690iii-res.html

The girl with the Nikon bothers me more on her hands and jacket - blown skies are part of the game, but losing skin and clothing detail is pretty frustrating. Just read the photographer comment that he blew the exposures the first day, because he was relying on the rear LCD too much to judge exposure. So that one probably isn't the camera's fault anyway.

Apparently I'm getting a OM-D E-M5 for work (documenting construction projects) whenever the kit comes in to my local store.

blown away that Leica has had these in the hands of a number of photographers already without any legit information leaking or anyone being spotted

haha because its waterproof?

Partially. I wasn't keen on carrying my XPro-1 in my truck all the time and needed something that could make nice 12x18 prints. If the E-M5 gets jacked, I'm not out any money, at least.
I picked it because I want to try the Olympus 12 and Panasonic 25 for myself.

was there an ILP thread in which we argued basic digital versus film stuff? i don't have the vocabulary but still feel there are real broad differences in how each handles light (that feels like the biggest?), renders depth, &c.

the detail thing here is really interesting. sort of in the spectrum of those google videos in which you can infinitely zoom into any angle of a museum panorama.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Um1FjRFzJWQ

X100: y/n?

The X100 is fantastic. The XPro-1 makes some improvements (sensor, quick menu, etc.), but the X100 is just the right size for what it is and the image quality is A+ since the whole camera is built around the lens's interaction with the sensor.

I downloaded one of the M Monochrom JPGs from Steve Huff's site and made some adjustments in LR4. Even the JPG is very malleable without losing detail, I imagine RAW is A+.
Would definitely sell everything to get one if they were 1/3 the price.

so uh... got any X100 pro tips? : )

:D

never having owned a DSLR idg the AF complaints; camera is snappy as all hell and super silent. MF + AFL is god mode. OVF is def going to be a learning curve; EVF is better than that on the wife's pana G3

need to learn how to lightroom now

turn on the corrected AF frame, turn off any power saves and turn on quick-start mode. Invest in a 95mb/s UHS-1 card, invaluable to the camera's responsiveness.

Gorgeous first few images on Flickr with the X100, Cozen.

thanks!

milo: done, done, and done. superfast SD card is on next month's shopping list

do you shoot RAW or jpg, milo? read the jpgs are stellar from the X100 so tempted to ditch RAW

(would that increase speed/write-time?)

I always shoot RAW, I want the full set of data for playing with in LR/PS - and as a personal thing, JPGs don't feel finished. Shooting JPGs will make write-times much faster, the files are ~1/4 the size.

JPGs from the mirrorless cameras (Fuji, micro-4/3, etc.) usually seem better than DSLR JPGs, I guess the assumption is that more people will be shooting them so they put more effort in.

Meant to say the JPGs are very nice even though I stick to RAW. If you want to shoot B&W JPGs, monkey with the settings - everything at standard makes for very flat files with almost no whites or blacks.

http://www.dpreview.com/previews/canon-eos-m/

can't believe the uk price. $799 = £560 including vat, not £750.

Pretty outrageous pricing. Panasonic Lumix GF-3 + 20/1.7 still some kind of high-water mark for this sort of camera system, I think, based on price.

Amazon US has been running some crazy Panasonic deals - basically, buy the 20 or 14 and get a free GF3 body. Must be clearing out inventory in advance of the GF5.

I don't want it, but the Sony full-frame compact w/ fixed 35/2 lens is a bold move. I'm shocked they didn't figure out how to include an EVF or OVF to really fuck up Leica's world, tho.

yes. and ovf and evf will be available at launch for an extra $450/600.

but... three grand to start? three thousand dollars? what's up with that?

FF SLRs start at $2200, this includes a top-shelf lens, etc., I guess

and its small

*everybody throws their leica x1 into the trashcan*

is it missing the point to bring up in this conversation all of the cool fixed focal length p&s cameras already out there that aren't digital?

http://japancamerahunter.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/0011534-811x1024.jpg

Not missing the point at all, IMO - enthusiasts have been pining for a true digital Contax/Canonet/Hexar AF since the first DSLRs. Micro-4/3 got closer, the X100 got closer still, there have been awesome small-sensor compacts, but this is the closest anyone's gotten to the fanboy's wet dream of a 36x24 sensor in a T2 package.

it's gorgeous, too. this is fixed lens though, right? boo.

The RX1's 35mm lens offers two control rings. The aperture ring offers click stops, but given the lack of an 'neutral' position on the ring we assume there is no mechanical connection to the aperture blades. Nevertheless the dial's operation feels very nice, with very well defined clicks, pretty much the same as on a mechanical lens.

The second ring lets you adjust the minimum focus distance, which basically makes it a macro-mode switch. The third ring, the furthest form the lens mount, is the focus ring. It's nicely dampened and moves very smoothly, but has no mechanical connection to the focus elements of the lens as the RX1 uses a focus-by-wire system.

=(

Leica M (M10), 24mp yada yada yada price of a good used Corolla etc.

suddenly so many cameras around that I want. The d600 and 6d both look pretty nice, too.

what are the differences between the M-E and the M9?

Got excited about the D600, remembered that I don't have £2,000 kicking about and I don't really *need* it.

m-e has same sensor as m9, doesn't have the EXCITING NEW "features" of the m10 (lol video), $1500-2000 cheaper?

see I would be down with the m-e if it was the same sensor as the m10

what's wrong with the m9 sensor, though? i think the m10 sensor is sorta chosen to optimize video... but i don't understand digital sensors so

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n_4xHIqU4t8&list=UUVmgQawOcdeA9v9o0aukV7A

"here we have the leica menu: space age! new typeface!"

Probably not to optimize video, but CMOS makes video possible, where it wasn't with CCD. And since that's a new feature, they're selling it - presumably the idea runs along "Leica M = photojournalist history = documentary footage shot on the spot!"

I just assumed new sensor tech = better lowlight performance which is all I really want from a digital M

lol http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/20/fashion/leica-cameras-favored-by-celebrities.html?_r=3

As if the base model is not exclusive enough, Jonathan Ive, the Apple designer, reportedly will produce an ultra-limited edition (one unit) to be sold at a charity auction by Bono, the company announced.

def gonna buy that if it's < $250

lol @ that article btw. i don't quite have the energy to rewrite it as an indictment of leica weilding ilxors but just imagine it. leica as jewellery.

i just threw mine away in a fit of pique

I gave mine to my butler

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2012/09/20/fashion/20zLEICA3/20zLEICA3-popup.jpg

"nice voigtlander, newb"

BONO SELLS LEICA ACIEL SLLES ONOB

Correction: September 20, 2012

A previous version of this article was accompanied by a picture of Emmy Rossum holding what was incorrectly identified as a Leica rangefinder. It was, in fact, a Fuji digital camera whose design was inspired by classic rangefinders such as the Leica.

how EMBARRASSING how GAUCHE

lol, it would have been fine if they hadn't tried to defend it, whose design was inspired by classic rangefinders such as the Leica HENCE THE CONFUSION

price on used x100s seems to be steadily dropping ...

600?

roughly, yeah. i'm trying to hold out for $500.

i like the idea of just shooting what i see and not constantly fucking with zoom (something i tend to do, mostly to my detriment) and also having a camera that facilitates doing what i like to do with digital cameras, which is to do as much stuff as i can in manual mode. and having an aps-c sensor. on the other hand, i'm not a particularly competent photographer so i worry it's not necessarily the best choice.

your thoughts?

iphone 5

?

u want an iphone 5

my iphone 4 does take better pictures than my current finepix

could you elaborate though? would you recommend the will.i.am camera accessory?

I was just being facetious - the x100 is a fine camera, go ahead and dip yr toe in the water

X100 sounds great.

Autofocus on all the X cameras has improved dramatically with the last firmware update.

Alas, there isn't good (any) third party support for underwater cases, so the X-E1 (which really seems like the perfect digicam) was out of contention for me.

Colleague of mine sold his X100 as he just couldn't live w/the user interface.

I tried an EOS M again the other day. Autofocus seems comically slow, even in bright light, and it's a pain to use the manual features. Gah, so close to what I want, which is basically a 5D sensor w/1D2 focus, in my pocket. (I'd also like Galaxy Camera-style connectivity, but that can wait)

sony rx1 mayne

I have an X100 which I use mainly for street shooting and I absolutely love it. Having said that, Stet's colleague is sadly otm about the interface; the menu system has improved a bit via firmware updates but it's still a pain in the arse.

However, the physical dials for shutter speed, aperture and exposure compensation make the actual work of making a picture very easy and you can create wonderful images in a vast range of shooting conditions. If a 35mm-equivalent lens suits the kind of images you want to shoot then I'd say you should absolutely go for an X100, especially if you can get one relatively cheaply.

If they're hitting $600 that's definitely low enough to make me overlook some shitty interface. Has anyone used the x1?

The X-Pro1? A friend of mine has one and I've played with it a bit. I really liked it - if I had the money I'd definitely consider buying one. The 50mm-equivalent lens is stunning.

X-E1 is basically the X-Pro1 without the hybrid optical/electronic viewfinder (just an electronic one), and $400 less expensive. You still have to really want the Fuji sensor to get one over something like the Sony Nex-6 or Olympus EM-5 at that ~1k price point.

But they really did address the autofocus issues (which were the camera's biggest fault):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tuSmD71lu5I

The X100 menus are no worse than anyone else's IMO and the XPro-1 is better than anyone. The Q menu on that one is fantastic and the best implementation of that kind of system.

Aside from formatting cards, once I have a camera set up I never really use the menus anyway.

$700 off the Nikon D600+24-85 package - basically makes the package the same as the body only.

bought an x100 :-(

craigslist seller called me just now about a lens i emailed him about.

he's been talking about lenses for 15 minutes straight. like, i don't think i'm going to be able to get this lens until i hear the story of ever lens he's ever owned since 1980. its 8:46 PM on a saturday.

not the same class of eq as a bunch of stuff you all are using, but today i ordered a Canon EOS 60D with an EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6 IS USM lens. pretty excited!

sweet what ar eyou gonna shoot mayne

i'm actually probably going to use it mainly for HD video. i didn't really want to invest in a huge camcorder and i wanted to have the functionality of a decent camera as well. i don't know what i plan on filming. really, really cool stuff is the tentative plan!

maybe i'll just film people while i tell them that i'm trying to correct the focus on a still shot. just lots and lots of videos of people staring blankly as i try to focus

it's a metaphor for my liiiife

I want to order a D600, but that would be dumb.

X100S specs rumored - 16MP, super-fast AF, digital split-image focusing (ie digital rangefinder)

I'm wary, I wound up selling the XPro-1 because the files were less detailed than my X100, no one has been able to convert the RAW files from Fuji's X-Trans sensor (that would be in the 100S) very well.

I'm a bit dubious on the digital split-image focusing. It works in rangefinder optics because there are two hyperfocal/fixed focused optics and a mechanically linked mirror/prism calibrated to superimpose already focused images in the viewfinder when the primary lens is set to that focal distance. But on the digital sensor, only the plane in focus is in focus, so there's no focused image to superimpose on the optical viewfinder of the XPro and X100.

Anyway, "focus peaking", as on the Sony NEX lineup, the Panasonic GH3, Pentax K DSLRS, and Magic Lantern firmware for some Canon DSLRs (as well as a undocumented hack on OM-Ds) works great, IMO better than old-school split-image focusing, and it would work nicely on both the pure digital viewfinder of the X-E1 and the hybrid digital/optical viewfinders of the XPro and X100. That would be a neat upgrade for Fuji, as would a better filter to address X-Trans sensor chroma smearing.

Looks like the X100S has peaking. Not brutally important for the fixed-lens body but since they're probably using this as a test-bed for the XPro-2/XE-2, I guess they're serious about catering to people with M-mount lenses who can't afford a digital M.

Used M8s go for ~$2300, M9s for ~$4500, both less than the fast M lenses (even used). Sell a lens, buy a body, if you must have the Leica cache.

Devil's advocate: There are some great Zeiss and Voigtlander lenses for well under a grand - the Zeiss 50/2 is every bit the equal of a Summicron, etc., and if I'm someone who primarily shoots a film M - and may only own one or two lenses - but wants a digital body, better to drop $1k on a Fuji XE-1 or Sony NEX-16.
(I don't know why anyone would drop $2k+ on a M8/M8.2 - serious concerns about future serviceability, technology equivalent to a circa-2004 DSLR, etc..)

I don't have the lens adapter urges - I'd rather Sony/Fuji/Olympus/etc. focus on making great native lenses for their AF bodies. But I get why others might.

yo check it out nyc people:

http://newyork.craigslist.org/mnh/pho/3535631744.html

craigslist seller called me just now about a lens i emailed him about.

he's been talking about lenses for 15 minutes straight. like, i don't think i'm going to be able to get this lens until i hear the story of ever lens he's ever owned since 1980. its 8:46 PM on a saturday.

this guy and i met over breakfast the next day and he brought soooo much gear and wanted to show it all off and tell me all about it and at first it was a little annoying but I eventually relaxed and just let him rip and it ended up being a pretty great experience. i bought a nikkor 28mm-105mm off him that I'm really loving.

then last week he sends me a three paragraph, perfectly punctuated email saying he's got a Nikon F100 he wants to unload. He bought it from a guy only because he wanted the lens it came with, and guy wouldn't sell them separately. Since he's not interested in film at all and I'm now his "film guy" he says he'll give it to me for $100.

so yesterday we met up again for breakfast (he apologizes twice for being tired because he was "up till 2am looking at gear on eBay" lololol) and he tells me he actually has TWO F100's but one is having some auto-focus issues so he'll give them both to me for $135. so I took his offer.

I've only shot 2 rolls on it but I love the feel of it, such a great camera. I feel like once I get good w/ a flash on it I prob won't fuck with anything else for a while.

and, if I can get the autofocus figured out/repaired on the other, i can probably sell it for way more than $35. Or I can just hang on to it for parts 5-10 years down the road.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/lomography/the-lomography-smartphone-film-scanner

gimmicky but I kinda want one

I considered it as my girlfriend gave me a Lomokino for christmas, but will see how I get on just doing normal scans.

I liked that the people at lomo were probably like "okay, how can we make lomography more like instagram... gary, lock the doors. nobody leaves this room until we have a schematic."

http://cameraquest.com/voigt_5015_nokton_classic.htm

Pricing "not announced" uh huh

lomo are introducing some aerochrome-esque film btw. i sorta think of their film as just weird rebadged bait or people who don't know you can just buy film in regular camera stores but i will play around w/some purple-making film.

anyone ever made redscale film by flipping it backwards?

i think i'm gonna pick up the new richo gr d with the aps-c sensor

:)

*ricoh

:)

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/peak-design/the-everyday-messenger-a-bag-for-cameras-and-essen

I was looking for a bag and then I found a bag, and heaven knows I'm miserable now.

oh that does look nice

This looks pretty interesting: https://light.co

Yeah, I was looking at that the other day. Don't doubt the tech, or that something like this is probably the future, but do you think the gallery pics are up to much? They look like superior iPhone snaps. And the chess piece macro shot has got some major artefacts on it, probably a result of all that image combination.

Yeah it seems like whenever some company tries something new (Foveon, Lytro for example) in digital photography, the results don't live up to the hype. Nothing really beats one big-ass sensor (yet).

Quite a markdown!

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1134592-REG/hasselblad_1100182_lunar_camera_brown.html

I've got that Peak Design bag now and blimey it's nice.

https://www.keh.com/226529/fuji-medium-format-gw670iii-90-f3-5-67

only then I'd have to buy a scanner and expensive film and processing and yada yada yada

I don't even want to know how much film has gone up since the last time I bought any (2011ish)