New York NYC March Meet-Up

So NYC Fashion Week ends this Friday, and the bummer is that I have to return the 24mm-90mm I borrowed from Leica. Ahhhh.

So this lens is kinda porky, but the results are worth it. The image stabilization is really amazing, and I can see when I finally get my 50 Lux-SL that I will have a really great night rig for shooting urban nights.

So my spring fever suggests I need to do something very crazy, so I refreshed myself with my Pentax 67 II. I confirmed that all my lenses are the latest SMC versions (best). Rigged the camera for M5 style carry, and decided to empty my freezer of all 120 film.

I still have a mucho big stockpile of 120 Acros and 120 Tri-X, and I also have a new gallon kit of Diafine I need to mix. Somehow I have some Delta 100 and 400 to experiment with, but I have Microphen to develop those.

So the ugly is that the new 50 Lux-SL is only 2.6 ounces lighter than the porky 24-90, and perhaps only a half inch or centimeter shorter. Somehow I found a used Heliopan 82mm "Digital" UV filter at B&H which was a very lucky find that saved me about $100.00.

I'm thinking of shooting slow color slide film with the Pentax and see how that goes. Remember I also have the most powerful dedicated flash for the Pentax 67 II so I can also set it up as a stun gun to blind people. So the idea is to not be so lazy and use my least used camera the most this spring, summer and fall.

Cal
 
Calzone said:
So NYC Fashion Week ends this Friday, and the bummer is that I have to return the 24mm-90mm I borrowed from Leica. Ahhhh.

So this lens is kinda porky, but the results are worth it. The image stabilization is really amazing, and I can see when I finally get my 50 Lux-SL that I will have a really great night rig for shooting urban nights.

So my spring fever suggests I need to do something very crazy, so I refreshed myself with my Pentax 67 II. I confirmed that all my lenses are the latest SMC versions (best). Rigged the camera for M5 style carry, and decided to empty my freezer of all 120 film.

I still have a mucho big stockpile of 120 Acros and 120 Tri-X, and I also have a new gallon kit of Diafine I need to mix. Somehow I have some Delta 100 and 400 to experiment with, but I have Microphen to develop those.

So the ugly is that the new 50 Lux-SL is only 2.6 ounces lighter than the porky 24-90, and perhaps only a half inch or centimeter shorter. Somehow I found a used Heliopan 82mm "Digital" UV filter at B&H which was a very lucky find that saved me about $100.00.

I'm thinking of shooting slow color slide film with the Pentax and see how that goes. Remember I also have the most powerful dedicated flash for the Pentax 67 II so I can also set it up as a stun gun to blind people. So the idea is to not be so lazy and use my least used camera the most this spring, summer and fall.

Cal
Click to expand...

NYC is rather dark and stark at night, but real fun to shoot at those times and rather special. Specially in winter with the early sunset.

Ektachrome effect is having some people return to Slide for a while. :p I was thinking to be more gung-ho with things too.
With slide I feel that the act must get tight metering and was thinking to swap my Autometer for a smallish Sekonic 308.

I really like the crazy color and contrast of slide, even of tame film like Provia.

Actually the ergonomics of the GW690III, and perhaps the P67II (plus weight) are rather comfortable, thanks to the grips and hand molding. Just large and heavier... Though I saw a Nikon F5 with a small prime clicks in at the same 1.5kg of the Texas Leica and a Hassie.
 
Prest_400 said:
NYC is rather dark and stark at night, but real fun to shoot at those times and rather special. Specially in winter with the early sunset.

Ektachrome effect is having some people return to Slide for a while. :p I was thinking to be more gung-ho with things too.
With slide I feel that the act must get tight metering and was thinking to swap my Autometer for a smallish Sekonic 308.

I really like the crazy color and contrast of slide, even of tame film like Provia.

Actually the ergonomics of the GW690III, and perhaps the P67II (plus weight) are rather comfortable, thanks to the grips and hand molding. Just large and heavier... Though I saw a Nikon F5 with a small prime clicks in at the same 1.5kg of the Texas Leica and a Hassie.
Click to expand...

Jorde,

The Pentax 67 II has amazing 6 segment matrix metering that is deadly accurate. One Fashion Night Out I shot Velvia 50 using flash and the TTL worked perfectly. Not really hard to get perfect exposure.

My F5 has the 28/1.4 AF-D for my fast street rig. I plan on using this a lot with Tri-X at 800 ISO and using "Slacker's Brew" (Diafine) as a developer.

The idea is to use all the film in my freezer and have fun like the good old days before I bought my Monochrom and SL.

Cal
 
Lately I've been printing either night shots or high ISO (up to 3200) with impressive results. The image stabilization available when using "native" SL lenses works remarkably well and for me is a game changer for night shooting. Also the files are so clean at even 3200 so I end up using F2.8 instead of F1.4 for higher IQ and more detail.

I have a remarkable print of the side profile of a 4-door black 56 Chevy taken near Cooper Union at night. More or less this is a black on black photograph taken with my 50 Lux "E60" that displays enough resolution to be able to read the registration sticker in the windshield, even though the shutter speed was 1/15 second.

Another night shot utilizing the image stabilization allowed with the 24-90 zoom only used 400 ISO, yet displays remarkable resolution, granted I shot at 24mm.

Anyways I'll be bringing some new prints.

Cal
 
Yep that image stabilization is a great feature, I have it in the Pentax so that
every lens is stabilized, glad it help you get those shots.
 
Does the SL have IBIS or was it just the 24-90 that has it? You mentioned in the Piezography thread that you had a mucho sharp image of a car at 1/15 with a 50mm, so that is handholding credit!

Such capabilities are fantastic for NYC night shooting, as you observed.

I was thinking that somehow (on paper) I find that most systems have a strong and weak poing (duh) but on my bias towards mirrorless I was liking the Fuji X, but but, no IBIS to stabilize everything. m43 seems greatly balanced and small. Low balanced is my bank account to not get into any GAS :D Sooner than later, my bargain m43 will have to be upgraded though.

It is amazing what most camera systems can accomplish nowadays.

Today I photographed an alleyway with a wide angle and was thinking... How great it would be if handheld cameras had shift capabilities for keystoning correction. Post can do a nice job though. Never been much of an architectural photog, but a mere observation.
The oldschool approach is a truck and/or ladder, which I have yet to try.
 
Prest_400 said:
Does the SL have IBIS or was it just the 24-90 that has it? You mentioned in the Piezography thread that you had a mucho sharp image of a car at 1/15 with a 50mm, so that is handholding credit!

Such capabilities are fantastic for NYC night shooting, as you observed.

I was thinking that somehow (on paper) I find that most systems have a strong and weak poing (duh) but on my bias towards mirrorless I was liking the Fuji X, but but, no IBIS to stabilize everything. m43 seems greatly balanced and small. Low balanced is my bank account to not get into any GAS :D Sooner than later, my bargain m43 will have to be upgraded though.

It is amazing what most camera systems can accomplish nowadays.

Today I photographed an alleyway with a wide angle and was thinking... How great it would be if handheld cameras had shift capabilities for keystoning correction. Post can do a nice job though. Never been much of an architectural photog, but a mere observation.
The oldschool approach is a truck and/or ladder, which I have yet to try.
Click to expand...

Jorde,

It seems that in Bob's Pentax the IS is in the camera, but in the Leica SL design one of the elements in the "native" lenses is manipulated to stabilize the camera. Perhaps the Germans built in a gyroscope into the AF lenses. The body, the size and the large 82mm barrel certainly is sized for one.

I own a Plaubel 69W that features a 47/5.6 Schneider Super Augulon lens that offers a 21mm FOV on 6x9. The Plaubel offers shift capabilities, and what is so cool is that the external VF'er periscopes with the movement for accurate framing. As far as I know it is the only 120 camera that offers shifts.

I have only owned my SL since September of last year, but as time goes on I'm finding out how remarkable this camera is. Now that there is a M10 it seems that many who object to the design, ergonomics, and size of a SL have another choice via the M10, but the SL has more capabilities: image stabilization; matrix metering; weathersealing; and autofocus that should not be discounted. Not sure if the M10 can be tethered like my SL?

Anyways my advice is buy the camera you intend to keep. I think even a decade from now my Monochrom will still be a great camera, and so will the SL. With this in mind the initial outlay of big dollars is economical.

Sometime later this month I should be getting my Monochrom back fro Leica with a replaced sensor, and my Monochrom will be 4 years old. I figure if I get another 4 years of trouble free service the camera kinda paid for itself, and more years beyond that is basically a free camera. So what it cost me $8K four years ago...

Cal
 
I had to return the Leica 24mm-90mm zoom to the Leica Store. Borrowing the lens cost me nothing, not even shipping. In the end I will miss this lens even though I'm not a zoom kinda guy.

Now I really have GAS for the AF 50 Lux-SL that is already pre-paid..

I did an inventory of my film stockpile last night. I have about 60 rolls of exposed film to develope, and about 60 rolls of unexposed film to expend. The idea is to deplete my current stockpile because most of this film is old and was purchased when film was a lot cheaper. Most of the film is 120 Acros and 120 Tri-X and there is only about 20 rolls of 135 to shoot.

Anyways over the weekend I blew through 3 rolls of 135 in my Wetzlar M6 with the 35/1.8 Nikkor in LTM mounted. I kinda forgot how much fun shooting film is because I have been so digital.

If Maggie gets this next big gig it will involve another plane ride, but this time to another country. I hope to take advantage of the sit-che-A-tion and develop film while she is away. Anyways Maggie seems to have made the big-time. This next gig I hope happens. Right now it is "optioned" meaning save the date, but has not firmed up yet. The gig is huge.

The last big gig that involved a plane ride and limos happened two weeks ago, and Maggie didn't find out that the gig got booked until a few days before. Anyways I suspect the same...

So she is at this level where from the first gig that sometime in March she basically will have to fly to attend a party, and will be paid. How crazy is that? Also know that everything is first class, and all the arrangements are all taken care of.

Over the weekend we went to Dover Market and ran into one of Maggie's followers. It was really cute how this guy kinda couldn't contain himself, did a selfie with Maggie, and later apologized for being intrusive. It was really cute. 88K followers and none of the big stuff has been released yet.

Cal
 
So Christian informs me he saw the shot of "Maggie" taken by Terry Richardson for Valentino Eyewear on Instagram.

Cal
 
Went down to the City today to B&H Thursday's a good day not to crowded, purchased
a extra battery for the fuji and like Cal came across a Heliopan filter 52mm UV multi-coated.
These are sweet little filters should be good on the fuji.
 
Calzone said:
I did an inventory of my film stockpile last night. I have about 60 rolls of exposed film to develope, and about 60 rolls of unexposed film to expend. The idea is to deplete my current stockpile because most of this film is old and was purchased when film was a lot cheaper. Most of the film is 120 Acros and 120 Tri-X and there is only about 20 rolls of 135 to shoot.

Anyways over the weekend I blew through 3 rolls of 135 in my Wetzlar M6 with the 35/1.8 Nikkor in LTM mounted. I kinda forgot how much fun shooting film is because I have been so digital.
*
So she is at this level where from the first gig that sometime in March she basically will have to fly to attend a party, and will be paid. How crazy is that? Also know that everything is first class, and all the arrangements are all taken care of.

Cal
Click to expand...
That's a lot, but not a lot! I did take a look about doing B&W in some near future, but gotta go industrial for a Slacker's brew to work. Fomapan is nowadays the most economic film, $3.75 a roll 120. Diafine seemed not very available in Europe.
I did some archive.org browsing and Foma basically didn't rise much. Acros doubled price, and depending on distribution it is priced like Ektar, and Tri-X rather so. 220 Ektachrome, we know the history, but 220 was the price of a 120. Wow! Should have been richer at the end of the past decade. The slow films and specially B&W should keep very well frozen.

Since I began to shoot until a couple of years ago I rationed film being very selective in shooting. I think it did me good to visualize and think scenes instensely. Then came Fuji 6x9 because I thought 8EXP was a lot. Lifting up the embargo did great and made shooting even more fun. Digital gets the quantity part. Great to hedge both.

Checked up the IG post. The world of celebrity is quite crazy, and great to see Maggie doing well and having the brains too. Too many kids that IMO, the hell they do there?
As a member of the entourage, try to get some of those First Class flights :D

I Finally will have "that friend in NYC", admitted for a PhD in Columbia.
 
Range-rover said:
Went down to the City today to B&H Thursday's a good day not to crowded, purchased
a extra battery for the fuji and like Cal came across a Heliopan filter 52mm UV multi-coated.
These are sweet little filters should be good on the fuji.
Click to expand...

Bob,

Is your filter marked "Digital?" The Heliopan filters marked Digital have both UV and IR filtering that removes these non visual frequencies from the image capture.

My friend Willie says that I incorrectly call this IR and UV noise, but to me they are unwanted signals that do not contribute to IQ, and I inappropriately still use the term noise.

Anyways I found that even on my SL the Heliopan filters marked Digital clean up the histogram, reveal more detail, and add to contrast and saturation.

If your filter is not a Digital version I would return it.

Cal
 
Calzone said:
Bob,

Is your filter marked "Digital?" The Heliopan filters marked Digital have both UV and IR filtering that removes these non visual frequencies from the image capture.

My friend Willie says that I incorrectly call this IR and UV noise, but to me they are unwanted signals that do not contribute to IQ, and I inappropriately still use the term noise.

Anyways I found that even on my SL the Heliopan filters marked Digital clean up the histogram, reveal more detail, and add to contrast and saturation.

If your filter is not a Digital version I would return it.

Cal
Click to expand...

Okay thanks Cal I'll check, I've been reading and they say the Heliopan
uses Zeiss Glass?
 
I checked mine out tonight and it's not a digital, but a nice filter none the less, besides
it's hard finding these Heliopan used and in great shape!
 
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