Leica M9 Photography

The Honeymoon is Over

Wednesday, January 27th, 2010

Well, Actually it Never Started for Me

Okay, I admit it. I really, really wanted an M9. I love my M6 and M3. They are wonderful cameras to use. I think an M9 would be the digital equivalent too. And the M lenses are amazing.

I almost sold my Canon gear, to get an M9. I even signed on to a waiting list. While I was waiting, I reconsidered. $7K is a lot of money. Way too much money for me right now. Even if I sell all my Canon gear (which would have gotten me over half-way there). I have this belief about cycling that applies to photography. For bikes I say “It’s the engine first then the bike.” For cameras that translates as “It’s the brain first, then the camera/format.” The camera is only a tool, and an M9 just wasn’t going to make that big of difference in my photography. No matter how much I loved the gestalt of the camera.

And so, I still don’t have an M9. Maybe I will buy one in the future, but maybe not. In fact, to keep myself from thinking about the advantage of shooting digital w/ Leica lenses I decided to buy a Panasonic GF1 (at roughly 10% of the cost of an M9) and an M-lens adapter. Now the advantage of digital is gone — though the lure of a full frame sensor is still real. I’ll just have to use my Canon 5d when I want digital and wide angles. I would probably do that anyway because I have the lenses.

The Honeymoon Really is Over

Michael Reichmann at Luminous Landscape is a self-professed Leica fan. His role in the industry as a photographer and writer puts him in the position of getting to use, and justify buying, some pretty amazing cameras. Including the Leica M9. He has been shooting M9s since before their launch, and he has been doing some raving. But he recently posted An Open Letter to Leica on what he sees as the shortcomings of the M9 in its current state, and what needs to change when the M10 is designed. It’s an interesting read.

In addition to Michael’s essay, he has posted a couple of other opinions that differ from his own, but also include criticisms of the M9. More interesting reading:

• The Next M Leica, a Different View – by Mark Dubovoy
• Thom Hogan Considers – What’s Next For Leica?

Enjoy!

A Good Place to Be

Friday, October 23rd, 2009

I wasn’t sure how things would turn out here when I decided to create this site. Flickr doesn’t give us direct access to pictures taken from a single camera make or model. That meant I had to figure out a way to capture Leica M9 photos to be viewed here. Well, we seem to be doing okay, though I know I am missing some photos. All I can say is if you are shooting with a Leica M9, you should tag your photos with M9 or mention the camera in the text of your photo. Or, join an M9-oriented group. If you do that, and your pictures are good enough, they will show up here.

Ranking the pictures; deciding what is good enough,is also not an easy matter. So far, I like my buzz index the best, which is based on the number of views/hour since the photo was uploaded. It is simple, and it makes sense. The problem with that model is that there are good photos that are not seen very much. The buzz index gives those flickr members that have developed a large network an advantage over other, probably equally talented, photographers that haven’t figured out the impact of doing that, or those that are not interested in developing that type of network. I understand and respect the latter group, but I don’t know how to capture their pictures easily. One of these days I will figure out a way to at least see them…

Speaking of seeing them, I have found the Leica M9 Buzz page to be a lot of fun to surf. Most of the pictures are amazing. All of them are interesting. And we have them all in one place to enjoy. I like that, so I’m glad I put the effort into the page. It’s a good place to spend some time surfing Leica M9 photography. I hope it’s working for you too.

Finally, today’s photo is not from an M9. I shot it yesterday at the John Heinz Wildlife Refuge near the Philadelphia airport with my Leica M6. I had a little time to kill before my flight home, and it was a very worthwhile stop. Plus, it was a very beautiful morning with the colorful leaves, warm weather, and mostly cloudy, but occasionally sunny, skies. The picture is a bit of a brain teaser, so you may have to get out of the box a bit to figure it out. I hope you like it!

Noctilux Revisited

Monday, October 19th, 2009

Ah, well, Masa@ has made his photo of the Noctilux .95 private. Not sure why, as I did not hear any concerns mentioned from him/her. Maybe there was another issue elsewhere. Coming to our rescue is futureancient with another great view of the M9 and the Noctilux. Plus, Matt’s photo has taken off with rocketing buzz. Great work again Matt! Thanks for sharing.

“Most Interesting” Leica M9 Photos

Sunday, October 11th, 2009

What is an interesting photo? I started the Leica M9 Page of Fame with the thought that the pictures that get the most views on Flickr are the “most interesting”. Then I reconsidered and decided to use Flickr’s interestingness rating. Their argument is that it’s not just the number of views that makes a photo interesting. It is comments, people selecting the photo as a favorite, or putting it in their gallery. Okay, I buy that.

What I can’t figure out is why pictures with fewer views, no comments, a longer time since uploaded, and no one choosing the photo as a favorite, are more interesting than any photo with more views and a more recent upload time (ignoring any other factors). That just doesn’t make sense to me.

So now I’m torn. Do I stick with Flickr’s concept, go with “views” only, or come up with my own system? The problem with my own system is that there is no efficient way for me to get the “views, favorites, and comments” information out of the Flickr database. It takes a lot of work (for their server) to combine all of those details so I can calculate my own index.

So, what should I do? If you have an opinion, feel free to weigh in with a comment. I am leaning towards using their index, and my own index using total views in combination with upload date to create two lists. Then compare the two and see which version looks more right to me. While I’m working on that though, I guess I will keep Flickr’s index for the moment.

The Leica M9

Friday, October 9th, 2009

A few weeks ago I was out walking Cookie before work.  We had walked down into Muir Woods and, as usual, I had a camera with me.  On this particular day, I was carrying my Leica M6.  After taking a few pictures, I had the thought:  “I will never sell this camera.” The Leica M-series rangefinder cameras are in the sweet spot of smooth-handling, fun cameras.  I’ve only known this fact for a short time.

For the past 10 years or so, I have been in digital-only-land.  I’m a huge fan of the ease of use, instant feedback, and ever more flexible digital processing capabilities of digital cameras.  But an experiment in medium format (using a Mamiya C33) threw a spanner in the works of my digital loyalty.  Like anyone my age, I have used plenty of film and film cameras, and they didn’t have a lot of appeal.  But the Mamiya and medium format were a different world of “think, set, frame, think, shoot”.  And I liked it!

With a rekindled interest in film cameras I have been experimenting with a number of other 35mm and medium format cameras.  Let’s face it, when you can buy a pro-level Canon SLR for a couple of hundred dollars, or a Hasselblad kit for way less than a thousand dollars, and then turn around and sell them for no-loss (and sometimes a gain), it’s easy to get caught up in the film fun.  I finally convinced myself to buy my Leica  M6 earlier this year, figuring that I could always sell it if I decided it didn’t work for me. 

Well it works. But I digress…

After realizing that I loved my Leica, I began wishing that Leica would fix the flawed M8/M8.2.  At the prices they were asking, there was no way I would touch one of those cameras — not even used.  Not even for a quarter of what they were asking.  Leica has said that they couldn’t produce a full-frame digital camera, and I kind of looked like they might not even try.  Thus, my thinking that since I would never own a digital Leica, I would certainly never sell my M6.

Now all that  has changed.  What am I to do with the beautiful M9 now available?  Well, at least it is available to be ordered, though not available to the “average” person selling all his other camera gear to buy one.  My answer at the moment is to dream, and to build this website to facilitate that process.

The first addition to this website is the “Leica M9 Page of Fame”.  On this page you can see the 90 most popular photos posted on Flickr over the last 7 days.  I will also be tracking the top three over the last 48 hours and the top three over the last 30 days.  That’s the goal, but I still  have some work to do.  Sooooo, back to the coding and testing…