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Author Topic: Three Leaves - A Wonderful Photograph  (Read 4407 times)

Slobodan Blagojevic

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Three Leaves - A Wonderful Photograph
« on: December 14, 2009, 08:50:38 pm »

So radiant and three-dimensional! So abstract and so realistic at the same time! Hats off!

Ray

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Three Leaves - A Wonderful Photograph
« Reply #1 on: December 14, 2009, 09:15:15 pm »

Care to provide a link? Michael's current photo is a rather grim industrial scene.
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Bob Peterson

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Three Leaves - A Wonderful Photograph
« Reply #2 on: December 14, 2009, 09:45:03 pm »

Quote from: Ray
Care to provide a link? Michael's current photo is a rather grim industrial scene.
It is the second image in "A Landscape Photography Experiment – On the Trail With the Leica M9" (or there's the context-free larger version).

Bob
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soboyle

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Three Leaves - A Wonderful Photograph
« Reply #3 on: December 15, 2009, 08:10:49 am »

Having just picked up a Leica M8, I can see the attraction for using the M for landscape work. I've been shooting with my M while hiking, and it works very well, you hardly notice it around your neck. Framing is an issue, especially if you are used to exact compositions in the viewfinder. With the M, the framelines are ballpark, with the lens I have I get image area that is outside the frameline, so a bit of cropping brings it back to my original composition.  The Lenses are small, and superb (I'm shooting with Zeiss ZM lenses currently); the sharpness and contrast of the images from the camera, without sharpening, is astounding. I'd never shot with a camera that didn't have a AA filter, the difference is remarkable. So, in 3-5 years, when the M10 comes out, and the M9 is more affordable (for a Leica), I'll be upgrading.

canlogic

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Three Leaves - A Wonderful Photograph
« Reply #4 on: December 15, 2009, 11:04:23 am »

Last year on a fall trip to Baxter state park in Maine I shot landscapes with my Canon 1dsmkIII and Leica M8 and liked the M8's renditions much better. Of course for wildlife the 400DO on the Canon was the one to use. This year I was a able to get my M9 just days before the september trip and used it exclusively for landscape work.
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Tom Montgomery

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Three Leaves - A Wonderful Photograph
« Reply #5 on: December 15, 2009, 01:53:50 pm »

I purchased an M4 in 1969, and from that time until I switched fully to digital three years ago, it hung from my right shoulder always. I really felt incomplete on the few occasions when I had to leave it at home.  My DSLRs are wonderful, but they're just too big and cumbersome to have with me ALL the time. Cameras sitting at home aren't taking any pictures...

 I'd love to get an M9 body - I think all my old M lenses will work - but the price still gives me heart palpitations!

I'm thinking an M9 could be a good choice for shooting handheld stitched panoramas, which would make the lack of a zoom less problematic. And I could get away with carrying maybe only one additional lens.  

T.

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soboyle

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Three Leaves - A Wonderful Photograph
« Reply #6 on: December 15, 2009, 02:57:02 pm »

FWIW, used M8 bodies can now be found for about $2K. Not cheap by most standards, but for a Leica, quite reasonable. I'm finding the quality I can get from the M8 to be equal to my 5D at lower ISO's, say up to about 800, anything higher is very grainy on the M8.

It is a superb travel camera, compact, the lenses are small little jewels, shooting with it is more deliberate, slower to use and focus, but I'm warming up to it nicely. The image quality is superb. I think uprezzing well exposed shots 300 percent is not out of the question.

I had been looking at getting a Panasonic micro 4/3 sytem, but thinking about it, it seems like a system destined to be orphaned by the march of technology within a few years.  Better, I thought, to invest a bit more money, and get into a system that has some of the best lenses and bodies ever made. It just seems like money better spent.

MarkKay

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Three Leaves - A Wonderful Photograph
« Reply #7 on: December 15, 2009, 07:41:42 pm »

One issue that has not been mentioned is the AF capabilities of the DSLRs and micro 4/3rds system. As Michael mentions we all get older. While i understand the issue about hiking with all that heavy gear, one must not forget that our eyes also age. By mid to late 40s usually pretty static unless one has a  specific disease.  However, at age 50,  I find that it is not as easy as it once was to do manual focus-- especially with the wide angle lenses.

Quote from: soboyle
FWIW, used M8 bodies can now be found for about $2K. Not cheap by most standards, but for a Leica, quite reasonable. I'm finding the quality I can get from the M8 to be equal to my 5D at lower ISO's, say up to about 800, anything higher is very grainy on the M8.

It is a superb travel camera, compact, the lenses are small little jewels, shooting with it is more deliberate, slower to use and focus, but I'm warming up to it nicely. The image quality is superb. I think uprezzing well exposed shots 300 percent is not out of the question.

I had been looking at getting a Panasonic micro 4/3 sytem, but thinking about it, it seems like a system destined to be orphaned by the march of technology within a few years.  Better, I thought, to invest a bit more money, and get into a system that has some of the best lenses and bodies ever made. It just seems like money better spent.
« Last Edit: December 15, 2009, 07:42:29 pm by MarkKay »
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Tom Montgomery

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Three Leaves - A Wonderful Photograph
« Reply #8 on: December 15, 2009, 08:30:53 pm »

Quote from: MarkKay
However, at age 50,  I find that it is not as easy as it once was to do manual focus-- especially with the wide angle lenses.
Having used Leica M rangefinders for 40 years in every situation from dim recording studios to bright high altitude glaciers, I can attest to how easy it is to quickly focus, especially with the wide angle lenses.  Not as fast as good AF, sure, but very close!  

And with a rangefinder, if you can see anything at all through the viewfinder, you can see enough to focus!

T.

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Ray

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Three Leaves - A Wonderful Photograph
« Reply #9 on: December 15, 2009, 08:54:15 pm »

Quote from: rwzeitgeist
It is the second image in "A Landscape Photography Experiment – On the Trail With the Leica M9" (or there's the context-free larger version).

Bob

Thanks!

Can't say it appeals to me. Too many white streaks and the leaves are not detailed enough. One of them doesn't even look like a leaf.

Of course, printed large, I might change my mind.
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John Camp

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Three Leaves - A Wonderful Photograph
« Reply #10 on: December 16, 2009, 02:44:38 pm »

The critical problem with the M9 is that it's almost impossible to get one.
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image66

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Three Leaves - A Wonderful Photograph
« Reply #11 on: December 16, 2009, 04:41:55 pm »

Worlds are colliding. Michael and Ken Rockwell agreeing about cameras and form-factor.  

I believe we've finally seen the maturing of the digital technology to the point where it is now about the camera and lenses again and not so much about one sensor over another.

DSLRs and Minivans have so much in common. Just because they have the most cupholders doesn't make them any nicer to drive.
« Last Edit: December 16, 2009, 04:42:49 pm by image66 »
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