Leicameter

Hardware, Leica

As hood ornament.

Spotted on Harrison Street in the Mission District the other day:

D2X, 16-35 AF-S lens.

One of the more unusual hood ornaments but irresistible given that a like device had found a home on my Leica M3 for some 35 years while I struggled with exposure before the days of automation. It never let me down, and as it used a selenium photovoltaic cell which needed no batteries, it never ran out of juice either.

Here’s mine just before I sold it in 2006, in rather better shape. These were made by Metrawatt under contract to Ernst Leitz.

I recall paying GBP 7.50 (ca. $18) for mine at the Wallace Heaton store on Old Bond Street in Mayfair in 1971, and sold it in 2006 for some $50. Mustn’t grumble. The store to the gentry, Wallace Heaton is long gone, but I’m sure my Leicameter is making a Leica M user happy to this day. Contrary to popular opinion, selenium cells do not die from too much light exposure. Their biggest killer is moisture seeping in past cracked rubber seals in the innards. A fine technology.

A few more with the 180mm Nikkor

Photographs

One lens only.

Because I tend to concentrate on a style I find it impossible to take a lens like a 180/200mm street snapping along with something wide. The style of seeing and thinking is so different it’s all long or all short for me. I am intellectually incapable of suddenly switching from long to wide, a process I have found results in mediocrity at both focal lengths. I don’t know, but would be prepared to bet that prime snappers have a far higher success rate than zoom users. For the former, economy of expression and intensity of focus come with the territory. For the avid zoomer everything is possible and all is mediocre.

Here are a few more from the outing the other day with the 180mm Nikkor which may explain what I’m rambling on about:

There’s this silly rocket at the old customs house on the
Embarcadero, aptly converted to good use by the lone gull.

This lovely oriental girl, dressed in high style, was there
for a moment. I looked down to check something and she was gone.

Mysterious shadows in the style of the great Saul Leiter.

The waiter was polishing glasses for the evening’s festivities.
In deep shadow, the f/2.8 aperture sings here.

From any angle in any light, impossible to resist.

The Portside building, framed by the Oakland Bay Bridge.
Two Art Deco masterpieces, built 50 years apart.

The Christmas calendar

Photographs

Never easier.

I wrote a year ago how easy it is to create gift photo calendars using Lightroom and a tailored plugin with the estimable Shutterfly online service. That linked plugin remains as effective in LR4.2 as it was in LR3.x.

So the other day I decided on a theme for this year’s gift calendar. Using keywords in LR to find the images I wanted, I put all like-themed pictures into an LR collection and then narrowed that down to 13 favorites – one for each month plus one for the cover. Invoking the plugin in File->Export I dropped the RAW files, converted to 5meg originals on export, into Shutterfly and some fifteen minutes later a dozen or so calendars were ordered for direct shipping to their lucky (?) recipients.

This year’s single theme idea came about when it dawned on me just how many snaps of the Transamerica building – 40 years old this year! – I had taken over the years in all light and weather conditions.

The 2012 calendar, featuring the Transamerica Pyramid in San Francisco.

The city has architect William Pereira much to thank for.

Calendars make great gifts – time to make yours!

Out and about with the 180mm Nikkor

Photographs

Trivially easy to use.

I wrote about my bargain basement used 180mm f/2.8D Nikkor here, appending a few quick snaps at the time. Having now had a better chance to wring the lens out I can say with great enthusiasm that this is a dream lens on an FF body like the D700. The focus automation makes picture-taking exceptionally easy, despite the very shallow depth of field at f/2.8, and the balance and handling on the big Nikon body would be hard to improve. I use a first pressure on the shutter button to lock focus, recompose, then click. Center rectangle focusing is bang on every time; I do not believe in cockamamie concepts like Nikon’s matrix focus technology when one critical, know focus point is called for.

Here are some snaps from yesterday (hey, the markets were closed so I got out!), all at f/2.8 or f/4 and all (minimally) processed in LR4. Taken on and around San Francisco’s Embarcadero. On the D2X the lens has an effective length of 270mm, a little too long for this sort of street snapping.

Spare the rod and spoil the child. Mahatma lays it on.

Umbrellas.

Lunch nap.

Pier 14.

Embarcadero tower – a poor imitation of the classic RCA building in NY’s Rockefeller Center.
They leave the Christmas lights on all year around, with the back lighting making them look lit.

Joy. This lasted all of one second and autofocus made it possible.

Lone. At the Hills Bros’ building.

Oakland Bay Bridge.

Speed Limit.

I trust the azure sky is not lost on east coast dwellers!

I so like the handling of the D2X with the built-in battery grip that I have bought a used Nikon MB-D10 battery grip for the D700, to confer like functionality. It adds the advantage that regular AA batteries work fine. I’ll report back later.

Meanwhile, it bears repeating that even duffers will find their snaps improved with a lens of this calibre.

Hurricane Sandy

Photography

Live image

From the New York Times comes this live image from the 51st floor of the NYT building, in what is still very much the center of the world as we know it. An intensely dramatic image of Hurricane Sandy rolling in at 12:05 am EST, October 29, 2012:

Best of luck, New York.

For some great photojournalism from America’s newspaper of record, click here.