Christmas comes early - new Toy

Could not resist the temptation and got myself a Leica ... well not the digital M9 but a old classic Leica m6, I still has alot of love for film photo. After off loading quite a fair bit of redundant stuffs, I bite the bullet and succumb to a LEICA camera.

This is my first rangefinder and it's like a expensive toy camera to me, everything look small compared to a DSLR or SLR. Leica gave interesting name to their range of lens too...Summilux (f1.4) , Summicron (f2) , Elmarit (f2.8) etcs to differentiate based on the aperture size. I am quite amazed looking at the 50 summicron f2 lens that i gotten, in a way it look so cute and really well made as compared to my relative big size Canon 50 f.14 lens. Operation is very simple and fundamental-> Metering, Focus, Shutter speed and Aperture, so it's back to basic that I am familiar.

Just couldn't wait to fire off my first roll of film and I did that in a hurry the next day. As usual, when you don't think and shoot, you get crap photos, so it no different with whatever cam I have used. First 2 rolls of film yielded poor result, lots of OOF (out of focus) shots as I am not too good with the new type of focusing from RF cam. It's from my third roll of firm that I can really see the Leica effect and I love it to bits.

I am still fiddling with the camera and is still very slow in my focusing but given the right setting the result can be amazing! I started to shoot a lot in very low light and low speed! 1/15 secs and below, something i will never do with my DSLR.

The love for Smaller Camera

Given the many chances to travel around asia and there are times when I really wish for a small handy camera with me to capture that moment. While I love my Canon 5Dmk2, it can be quite troublesome to bring along such a big work horse everywhere I go.

Imagine bringing out a dinosaur size DSLR and expose yourself with this intimidating big lens that can look like a big cannon. The size of point and shoot camera is actually best for photojournalist style of photography but unfortunately, I can't stand the image quality of most of the PNS.

A couple of friends has been asking me about cameras and what they are looking for are small, light and most of all with DSLR image quality cam.... that can produce nice "BOKEH" effects! (the quality of the blur background). Everyone thinks BOKEH is everything and only professional cam can do that :)

This led me to try out some really nice camera available now -> Olympus EP1 and Panasonic GF1. They have almost the best of both world, small enough to be inconspicuous and IQ to be much better than PnS. EP1 and GF1 belongs to the Micro Four Third Standard which uses sensor that is smaller than the typical DSLR but bigger than a PNS. The best part of these type of camera is the flexibility of able to interchange with better lenses.

But for many pro photojournalists and even collectors, the holy grail of small unobtrusive digital camera should be the Leica M9 digital rangefinder. Only in my dream can I afford one now.....

Back to Film

Got a very good bargain for a old but well taken care Nikon FE2 that I could not resist, the camera is estimated to be more than 15 years old. Am toying with the ideas of shooting some Black and White photos with film for clients, there're still some magics left with old technology.

Still remembered those were the days when everything were made to last. You can just feel in your hand how solid the FE2 was made, this reminds me of my trusty Nikon FM that I have regretted selling it quite some years ago.

Just can't wait to load my first roll of film and fire away...

Images of my New but old toy :)