So, those of you who've followed me here and/or on dearsusan.net are familiar with my recent format change.

Well, 'change' is probably a bit strong, but I'm seriously considering a new camera format. I very seldom shoot professionally any longer, and even less often feel like hauling around a 20lb backpack of pro gear...hoping for a shot worth stopping the car, and inconveniencing the family.

With this in mind, I recently began looking at a smaller format camera for travelling, and chronicled that decision on dearsusan under the guise of 'A Camera For Paris'.  The article is here: 

We are indeed planning a trip with the boy in 2020 to visit my wife's favorite European city, and I immediately started making my plans from a photographic point of view. Something small, light, and unobtrusive was clearly called for.

Fast forward a month or so and I'm now shooting with a Panasonic Lumix GX85. I bought it mainly because it was on sale, with two lenses to get started. I figured that if major issues surfaced early on my exposure [ha] was small.

Turns out I'm fairly well impressed. The kit 12~32mm came highly recommended, and for good reason. I'd gladly take it on any venture, and the pancake design makes it perfect for travel.

The kit telephoto was less impressive but perfectly serviceable, so I had a full e-24~300mm system for not much more than $400 all in. Pretty sweet.

Results were positive enough to add a Leica 15mm f1.7 [e-30mm] lens to the nacent m4/3 collection, and the results above speak for themselves.
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Looks like I've finally found my new, digital, Leica-esq walk-around camera. I will likely add a couple of zooms to round out the kit, but this combo alone is just fantastic. And, add to that, I'm able to fit my two existing Leica M-mount lenses to this body very easily! More on this later, but so far, so great.

I sold my Leica D-Lux Typ 109 to fund this as chronicled in the article above, as well as the X-Rite ColorMunki. Full comments available to anyone who's interested in that decision.

It's very possible that a 'full sized' Lumix body [ha, they're pretty small] will join the stable, and someday [perish the thought] the heavy-iron 5DS and L lens collection will go up for sale.

​We'll see.

Ran out to the water this morning, dodging rain drops as seems to be usual this Spring.

This image represents in many ways exactly what I'm usually looking for...a unique take with some depth and intimacy of a scene that could easily be a simple snapshot.
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Loving the new way of seeing that seems to be developing [ha, almost said 'focus', didn't, and came up with 'developing' later in the sentence anyway.]

My little man doing his best music video impression.

Early morning light. Pretty boats, and a working waterfront.

I'd taken off early, before sunrise, with just the camera and one lens. It's liberating.

Looking forward to the coming warmer weather here in Maine. :)

Golly gee, guess who finally got out of his winter rut?

After months of navel gazing, lens fixation, and a general malaise, I finally got out of the house this morning and took the camera for a drive around town. Wow. Turns out it's beautiful out there.

These panoramas are a new thing for me. And, much as I hate to admit it, it's all thanks to technology. Time was that stitching together digital images required specialized software, and the results were still kinda iffy.  Nowadays Lightroom just takes care of things for you, and the results are really spectacular.

It's not apparent viewing these images on the blog, but they are comprised of up to seven 50 megapixel files each, resulting in .dng's as large as 900MB. The detail is fantastic. 

Great. Got over any urge to purchase lenses, and now I *really* want to consider a bigger printer. Stay tuned. :)

Two posts ago I referenced an article on dearsusan.net by my friend Pascal, where he discussed his recent platform switch to the estimable [and uber-expensive] Hasselblad.

As I sat house-bound and cabin-feverish his discussions had me thinking of past loves. The quirky primes of my misspent youth. The Leicas, Zeiss T*'s, Bronica-mounted Nikkors, the Schneiders on Koni-Omega Rapid bodies. The list is goes too far back in the mists of time to recall.

So as I said, I did the obvious. I re-purchased a Voigtlander 20mm lens I'd loved in a past life. I've posted about this. I'd owned it, loved it, sold it in a purge, and missed it.

How did it go? Not well. The lens was great at first, and there was a lovely reunion. Then the aperture blades started sticking, error codes popped up, and that was that.

Buying and selling through Amazon is bittersweet. As a seller you accept predatory pricing; and unwarranted, at times, returns. OTOH as a buyer you have the full faith and credit of the corp. That's what happened here. The lens failure was within their 30-day window, and I returned the lens and received a full refund.

Full. As in Full Stop. Done. 

Repeat after me. The. Lens. Doesn't. Matter.

​The photos above were taken with a 30-yr old Canon 20-35 zoom. Film era. No longer supported on their site, nor recognized in Lightroom. I love it. It's fine. More than fine. It's perfect.

Get out and shoot. Practically any lens and camera you have up to your eye will produce a good image if the scene is worthy.

That's where you come in. Get out there, and put yourself in front of some great images. The hardware will take care of the rest.

We here in Maine are coming down with a bad case of Spring [or 'Cabin'] fever. We can feel that Spring is just about to be sprung.

Temps over the weekend reached into the 50'sF and the annual great melt is underway. It's still below freezing most nights, so we have a ways to go, but we can feel it coming.

On Saturday we cranked up some jazz, got the wood stove blazing, and opened up one of the French doors to the backyard for the afternoon to let in some fresh air. It was exhilarating.

My son enjoyed it so much that he asked to do it again today. But we only got to 33F, so the window has passed. 

Photo/technical notes: These images were taken with my 'poor man's Leica Q'. aka my Canon with a 20mm f3.4 Voigtlander manual focus lens. It's not the fastest lens, and not the fastest to use either. I'm still re-learning the predictive manual focus skills of my youth. The shot of him dancing is not as sharply in focus as it could be, and the shutter speeds as the light faded got pretty long. But I really enjoy the image quality of this setup, and you'll probably see a lot more of it in weeks to come.

Funny thing. I owned this lens for a while up until two years ago, and took many of the photos on this site with it. At that point I went through a cleansing, I've spoken of it often, where i came to the realization that 'equipment doesn't matter', and so forth. With this in mind I got rid of all the oddballs in my kit and attempted to focus on a few core, flexible, pieces of kit. But I missed this lens for it's unique qualities, and jumped at the chance to re-aquire one.

Hmmmm. I remember an old axiom that said something like 'If you love something, set it free. If it returns, it's yours forever.' Guess that's apt here. :)

You'd never get away with telling a Leica or Hasselblad owner that 'the equipment doesn't matter'. Maybe they have a point. I do enjoy this particular lens quite a bit. We'll see what else, if any, returns to the flock.

I have no one to blame but Pascal. 

Oh, OK...and me.

Well, me.

I've been re-evaluating my position lately. On many things, which is healthy. But on my previously held discovery that 'equipment doesn't matter' in particular.

I've re-purchased an old love...a Voigtlander 20mm f3.4 Skopar. 

It's been fun. The way this lens handles light is amazing. Stellar. Liquid?

Not sure what words to use, but I love it.

There has been a lot of conversation in the forums [fora?] lately about sensor size. We've long recognized that basing electronic sensor sizes on old film sizes was specious at best. But there was one good reason for it...backwards compatibility with existing film-era lenses. Fair enough.

Who, especially at the dawn of digital photography, wanted to invest tens of thousands of dollars on both new bodies *and* lenses designed around what *someone* thought the new optical sensor size would be for ever and ever? No one. 

OTOH, manufacturing costs in the early days dictated that a 4x5" sensor, should that large a chip be necessary, would be prohibitively expensive. Likewise a medium format [120 film] sized sensor for all but the very few working pros. 

The full frame [FF] 35mm sensor was also really, really pricey...but offered image quality [IQ] that every year came closer to, and finally surpassed, film. Albeit still at a price only pros and well-heeled amateurs could consider.

Enter APS-C and other crop-sensor formats. I, for one, could not consider these hell-hound bastardized formats as a replacement for my beloved Canon, Bronica, Hasselblad, and Leica cameras. Adding insult to injury, Canon abandoned the breech-lock lens mount I'd invested so much in, so my 35mm lenses were worthless overnight. Instead, much to my later regret, I threw up my hands and went with tiny-sensored pocket cameras for a decade.

As expensive as they were, had I simply bought a Canon D30 or 10D and and a couple new EF lenses, my early 2000's images would still, if barely, stand the test of time. Instead I have two and three megabyte mush of some really great scenes.

Fast forward to 2019, and I have just two cameras. A 50MB FF Canon with a handful of carefully curated, first gen L lenses, and a Leica D-Lux Typ 109 4/3 sensor compact. Long way around the barn, but this brings us back to the sensor wars. 

There are many who say that 4/3 or even 1" sensors are enough for images viewed on the web and printed to A4 or A3 sizes. And they're not wrong. In fact, the three winning images mentioned in my last couple of posts were all taken with the Leica. Not because that camera produces images that are spectacularly better than other cameras, but because it is small and light enough to be the one have with me [and, it also does a fantastic job.]

But when I bring out the FF camera with some 20yr old vintage L glass something really great happens. 

Next time I talk about ditching it all and buying a flavor-of-the-month Fuji, Olympus, or Panasonic crop-sensor camera, just slap me. I see the difference between these crop-sensors and FF in the files and in the 17x25 prints. There's no substitute for sensor acreage.

My only challenge will be not to sell everything, and a limb, and move up to medium format, a la my friend Pascal. If that happens I won't be able to afford internet, so this site will go dark.

​You'll know what happened. :)

Really fun to receive more positive feedback on my black and white work. This time it's by having two images (!) included in Black & White magazine's 2019 Contest Winners issue. I'm amazed.

I'm also somewhat surprised to see how vibrant the publishing industry remains for photography in general, and b/w in particular. There are actually quite a few titles on the rack at Barnes & Noble where I picked up my copy of this issue.

I've been doing [for me] a lot of printing, showing, and contest entering over the last 6 months or so. Think it's time to slow down and take stock...maybe head off in a new direction with my work? Not sure, but I'll certainly let you all know what I decide!