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

[leicaslacker at gmail.com (kyle cassidy on the lug)]

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 blown 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.