Leica M-D: Pure for the sake of . . . purity?

[rhl-oregon]

Thanks, Vince. I prefer your dragonfly.

But I do have something I’m working at with the fast/wide open lens. The Bertha image is about a dynamic tension of abstraction and representation—a plane that is smudged, scumbled, smeared behind, beside, before one or two things in focus. The abstract plane, or fields of light and dark tones, interest me as much or more than the recognizable thing in their foreground or background. The challenge to me is to keep finding subjects

Of course it also makes me think about the concept of bokeh. Bokeh seems to me a photographic variant on Leonardo’s sfumato, to progressively defocus a deep background going toward a vanishing point, and in that functional sense, ornamental or therefore secondary. Bokeh has been enormously trivialized, not just by software tweakery on iPhones and consumer camera modes, but by “users” who fetishize and commodify without thinking about why or wherefore.

Anyway, this is just to put into words an emerging understanding or interest this image exemplifies. And probably I should use the A7Ii Kolari instead of the M-D, so I can judge the effect in the field rather than waiting until I next upload the Leica SD card into LR, sometimes weeks later (in this case, weeks after I’ve moved 3000 miles from the ‘experimental site’ that is the Ferndale Cemetery, with all its different levels of stone and cement walls and borders....)

 

[DwF]

Tribute to this Thread

Tribute to this Thread

I've enjoyed this thread, and I've been curious to get hands-on to an M-D 262. I had an opportunity last week while in NY (at the Leica Store on lower Bdway). This was taken with a used one they had (priced nicely), and using my X Vario as a prop/subject.
David

 

[Godfrey]

Some lovely photos in this thread!

Ach, my CL has obviated and replaced use of my M-D, and my next camera has been announced, so I sold the M-D and the WATE to fund it and put in a preorder.

My only M left is my faithful old M4-2. It's enough. 🙂

G

 

[Vince Lupo]

Some lovely photos in this thread!

Ach, my CL has obviated and replaced use of my M-D, and my next camera has been announced, so I sold the M-D and the WATE to fund it and put in a preorder.

My only M left is my faithful old M4-2. It's enough. 🙂

G

What's your next camera that's been announced?

 

[Godfrey]

What's your next camera that's been announced?

Hasselblad 907x Special Edition

The back updates my 500CM to a full modern digital camera. The body will take the new Hasselblad XCD lenses and lets me use my Leica R lenses as well with an adapter.

G

 

[Vince Lupo]

Hasselblad 907x Special Edition

The back updates my 500CM to a full modern digital camera. The body will take the new Hasselblad XCD lenses and lets me use my Leica R lenses as well with an adapter.

G

Oh yeah that's a nice one -- I briefly contemplated it myself, though currently I can't see the need for it in my lineup. I'd have to get rid of something first! Plus I keep hoping that someday they’ll come out with a full 6x6 digital back.

Still at our Canadian wilderness property -- shot these about 30 minutes ago through the window of the RV with the 400 Telyt. I have a bunch more from this interlude to go through -- mother with three young ones.


Grey Owl Turkey1 by Vince Lupo, on Flickr


Grey Owl Turkey2 by Vince Lupo, on Flickr

 

[Vince Lupo]

Couple more of the Goldfinches with the 400 Telyt:


Grey Owl Goldfinch1 by Vince Lupo, on Flickr


Grey Owl Goldfinch2 by Vince Lupo, on Flickr

 

[rhl-oregon]

I don’t think I posted these earlier. All with the ZM 50/2, my default walkaround in Firenze. They’re images of women in difficult circumstances. One chooses prostration and abasement, one chooses whimsical humor.

These two Uffizzi plaza mimes have each other during breaks to talk about anything other than holding more or less still to coax Euros from sensory-overloaded visitors.

...And now I’m considering a faster 50 for the M-D—the ZM Sonnar 1.5 (I traded mine to Helen), or cash in gear for a pre-asph E46 Summilux (or cash in even more for the aspherical Summilux). Kibitzers, please offer anecdotal advice.

 

[robert blu]

Powerful image!

 

[Vince Lupo]

That first shot is a real winner Robert. Hope you made a nice print of it!

As far as getting a faster lens goes, what is your thinking behind doing that? I had a late-model Summicron (which was reliably sharp at any aperture setting), then I went to the F/1 Noctilux (which was unpredictable yet produced very interesting results), then to the 0.95 Noctilux (which required extreme effort to get things in focus at wider apertures), and now finally the 50/1.4 Summilux ASPH, which is a great lens but I rarely find myself using at f/1.4. If I had to do it all over again I would have just stuck with the f/2 Summicron and saved myself a lot of money (mind you I’m sure I would have ended up spending it on something else!).

 

[rhl-oregon]

Exactly the angelic advocacy I hoped to hear, Vince.

Walt Whitman told a story about finally meeting Emerson, whose imprimatur he had gotten in a letter; he hoped Emerson would read and discuss (approvingly, no doubt—I know how it goes from experience in both roles) the expanded MS of Leaves of Grass, which included the erotic breakthrough work under the heading Children of Adam and I Sing the Body Electric. He wrote that Emerson argued eloquently and pointedly about not publishing the sexual stuff, but that once he got home he felt surer than ever he was going to do it, though he had been “touched by doubts before.”

I’ve owned the Canon and Sony 50/1.4s, and the modern ZM 50/1.5, and let them go because the work I was doing worked better at f2 and beyond. But now I want a faster 50 for shadowy interiors and evenings and night streets for the M-D and its sidekicks the Leica T and A7II Kolari. So probably I’m going to play Walt to your Ralph, and keep paying attention to what you do in your interiors and evenings while respecting the lessons learned in your fast lens journey.

During this California pack-up, cross-country travel, and unpack/settle in process going on since mid-March, I’ve been consolidating, in actual and virtual fashion, furniture, old family stuff, musical instruments—and camera gear. I wasn’t photographing much for four months. Now I’m settled in enough to resume shooting, scanning, developing (Godfrey, if you glance at this thread, I bought my Lab Box and am paying attention to you). And that time off has also given me a more detached perspective about what I own and what I reach for and what I sentimentally display with long-deferred intent to reach for again.

The list of sentimental and relatively disused gear I could sell or trade would finance a gently used 246 + Summilux, and my meditations and intentions are pointing in that general direction. Maybe by the time I’m documenting what I see from my deathbed I’ll have become a one camera one lens person. Imagine how satisfying it might be to hand over a great camera and lens to someone standing over you just before you close your eyes for good.

At this point, if I sell the 12-18 bodies and lenses and whatnot on my triage list, I still have 12-18 others. So the consolidation is still ambivalent, barely started, and I’m planning to enjoy passing stuff on and rewarding myself for doing so!

 

[Godfrey]

Vince: Yes indeed, I need to sell off some of the excess to afford the 907x. But as I contemplated it, I realized that it fit so much of what I'd like to do better than anything I had... I somehow doubt there'll be a true 6x6 back at any price I can afford any time soon, and actually a square crop to 33x33 @39 Mpixel will do just fine.. and I can use my existing Leica R lenses with that easily. So it all fit. 🙂

Robert: Super photos! Those are the beginnings of a very fine photo book if you care to pursue the notion!

And yes: While I have two f1.4 lenses, f2 is certainly fast enough 99.9% of the time. And the other .1% really isn't important enough to worry about. Heck, I use f8 far more than f2! 😀

G

 

[rhl-oregon]

Godfrey, thanks for the kind encouragement! And the perspective on triangulating 1.4, 2, and 8. I’m just going to apply myself to the heretofore shortest angle in my work.

I was in the middle of another long apologia, disguised as a response, about where book-ambition got me in my earlier life, when the iPad sensed a rant coming on and bonked. I’ll just say that in my case, books and related literary ambitions resulted in achievements and alcoholism and fundamental ego misery. Bye bye to all that, I said on Easter 2011. And during the transition to recovery, the muse of photography invited me on a long long walk I am still walking among friends in the craft like y’all. Thank goodness!

I am learning that most of the RFF photographers whose eyes and minds I admire the most rely on the fewest choicest pieces of gear.)

 

[Vince Lupo]

Grey Owl Moth #2 by Vince Lupo, on Flickr

 

[rhl-oregon]

Posted earlier in the gallery. Last year at the Flatbush Frolic in Brooklyn, ZM 35/2.

 

[Vince Lupo]

Catching a bit of early morning light today.

With the 12.5cm/2.5 Hektor.


Early August Light by Vince Lupo, on Flickr


Peanut Butter and Toast by Vince Lupo, on Flickr

 

[Vince Lupo]

Did a bit of a quick comparison test this morning between the Camcraft Z-Housing and a regular Visoflex III. The Camcraft Z-Housing uses a pellicle mirror in place of the normal flip-up mirror of the Visoflex. This was designed by Norman Goldberg in conjunction with his development of the motor for the M2, yet it was also sold as a separate item (or you could have sent your Visoflex in to have had it converted). I wanted to see if there was any image degradation shooting through the pellicle mirror, so I mounted my 125/2.5 Hektor onto both devices (along with the OUBIO mount) and shot both at f/4.

Here are the results - these are straight out of the camera with no adjustments:


Visoflex III Test1 by Vince Lupo, on Flickr


Camcraft Comparison Test1 by Vince Lupo, on Flickr


Visoflex III Test1 Crop by Vince Lupo, on Flickr


Camcraft Comparison Test1 Crop by Vince Lupo, on Flickr

It's interesting the difference in the colour balance -- as you may know, the M-D chooses the colour balance as you shoot (although it does shoot only in RAW so it doesn't make that much difference) so it's interesting that it chose a warmer balance for the Camcraft housing and a colder colour balance for the Visoflex.

Close inspection of both images show that the Visoflex image is a bit sharper, but honestly not by much. The Visoflex has a bit more 'edge' to it, whereas the edges in the Camcraft shot are a tiny bit softer. Here again, not objectionably so.

One thing I did notice when I was shooting was the shutter speeds -- the Camcraft shot was 1/500th of a second at f/4, whereas the Visoflex III shot was taken at 1/1000 at f/4. So clearly the pellicle mirror causes a loss of 1 stop of light. No wonder I have to crank up the ISO when I'm using the 400/5.6 Telyt with it!

I may try some more tests with both units and other lenses, but the initial results are informative.

 

[Vince Lupo]

The bees are very busy around the Purple Passion Flowers today!

With the 65mm Elmar and the Camcraft Z-Housing. Pretty much full-frame.


Purple Passion Flower Bee by Vince Lupo, on Flickr

 

[rhl-oregon]

New MS-Optics 28/2 Apoqualia, iso1600, 1/750 f4

 

[Vince Lupo]

First shot with the 560/5.6 Telyt. It's a beast of a lens and very difficult to hand-hold (lens and Televit alone weigh almost 7 lbs), but somehow I managed to do it with this shot.


Spider M-D by Vince Lupo, on Flickr