[Leica] Leica gear from yesterday's shoot - bags, cameras, assessments & results

[afirkin at afirkin.com (afirkin at afirkin.com)]

Great fun, plenty to read into these images. Stories everywhere.

Cheers

Alastair

> Went out on a big all-day shoot yesterday with my Leica gear and it was
> refreshing that everything was so small. I was carrying two bodies plus
> cards all in one WWII era map bag I'd gotten from Sportsman's guide for
> $10. It was definitely "back to basics" photography.
>
> GEAR: here for the technically minded:
>
>          http://www.kylecassidy.com/lj/2010/digilux-saturday.jpg
>
> IMAGES: For the artistically minded
>
>         
> http://kylecassidy.smugmug.com/Art/absurd-equipment/LeavingDakota/14749038_ZKvqm#1099240670_UAFDg
>
> SHOOTING: I had five 8mb Smart Media cards with me which meant I could
> take a maximum of 55 images before I had to return to base for refueling.
> Two things I noticed -- one is that it takes a Very Long Time for the Ur
> Digilux to turn on and it's prone to false starts -- push the on-button,
> hold, wait five seconds, sometimes it comes on, sometimes it doesn't.
> Secondly, while picture taking was relatively quick, the write time might
> be 7-10 seconds. I had brought the second camera as a backup but wisely
> got into the flow of having an assistant hold one camera while I
> photographed I'd shoot, hand it to the assistant who would hand me the
> second camera and keep the first one awake -- rinse, later, repeat. Even
> swapping out cameras on quick-release tripods this was faster than waiting
> for the camera to write. Another thing I discovered is that the Ur Digilux
> often turns the flash on by default with no indicator in the LCD window.
> Annoying. So very often my first photo would be blo
>  wn out with flash until everyone was yelling at me "DON'T FORGET TO TURN
> OFF THE FLASH!" every time I set up a shot. The fact that I couldn't
> shoot more than 55 images (without deleting stuff) was a bit daunting
> going in, since I usually shoot about that many photos in three minutes
> but it wasn't a huge problem here since everything was set up. The
> problem was arranging things in my head first to make a scene.
>
> POST PRODUCTION: Once I got the images back my process involved mostly
> using the unsharp mask and "reduce noise" -- the sensor is VERY noisy.
> Sometimes I'd combine both filters multiple times on different parts of
> the image. Lastly I used the add noise filter on several images after
> they'd already been softened by reducing the original noise. I found the
> actual camera generated noise to be much less pleasing than artificially
> added grain. I also noticed that at least one of the cameras is relatively
> unsharp along the left hand side of the frame. This causes some "modified
> rule of thirds" framing where the edges are a bit verboten in favor of a
> slightly more centered frame.
>
> ASSESSMENT: This is the second more or less "involved" project I've shot
> with the Digilux. I find I enjoy the challenge of using a camera with
> 1/5th the resolution of my telephone. I like having a two camera setup
> that fits in a tiny little bag. I like coming up with a bunch of images
> that you can't print larger than 4x6 because it means that there are
> alternative venues for displaying them. It's not bad. I'm still looking
> for a second Ur Leica for the Stereo Image Project. Seeing though as that
> they're about as rare as M6J's, that may not happen.
>
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