rgerraty

<p>I know this will be heresy, but one of the regular posters to the W/NW picture of the week agreed with me: the M9 black and white jpegs are very nice. I used these plus raw one evening and some grizzled grey hair of an older colleague at a dinner looked great and I just could not emulate it whatever I did with the raw file. In Lightroom I usually increase contrast a little, lower the black slider left to deepen the blacks, raise the shadow slightly, depending, and maybe push the highlight slider to the right too, depending on how I've exposed it. I sometimes fiddle with the curve. The colour sliders will sometimes make a big difference to certain images. There is a great thread on Rangefinderforum entitled something like show us your M9 black and white conversions: worth a look.</p>

<p>Such jewels. My humble offering...</p> <p><a title="The 109 Tram by Richard, on Flickr" href=" src="https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7283/16188551814_9ffe1889a9_z.jpg" alt="The 109 Tram" width="640" height="426" /></a></p>

<p>As well as the 35, the 21 4.5 is a stunning lens, no distortion, and the C Sonnar 50 is other worldly. My only indispensible lens.</p>

<p>Yes, yours is a beauty Jim. Knut's reference to Gibson is not out of place. It satisfies that criterion of an image that is no longer a depiction of something. Here's one that's the exact opposite.</p><div></div>

I have a number of Zeiss lenses and they are simply great. I too have the C Biogon 35, f2.8. It is bigger than the Summarit. You will get lovely photographs with negligible distortion-- great for buildings. The Bayonet mount metal hoods are great, but cost extra. Look on Flickr or Rangefinderforum. On RFF there is a long running thread of photographs with the C Biogon, and a plaintively titled thread in response for the f2 Biogon 35. Ergonomics and compactness are important advantages of the Leica lenses. I don't mind a big lens on my M9-P, but do prefer a smaller one. When I pick my M6 and the tiny version 4 f2 Summicron 35 I'm holding the thing in my palm and it slips in a pocket or a bag with ease. I seriously thought of buying the Summarit 2.5 50 just because of how small it is.

<p>Bill, I keep a SBOOI 50mm finder on my Leica II, shimmed in with a piece of film. I can take it off easily enough, but it won't fall off with that shim.</p>

<p>Arts Centre Melbourne, new Hamer Hall renovation</p><div></div>

No. Nothing extra on any of my cameras.

<p>Withdrawn. Resolution too low here for this image.</p>

This also illustrates why a meterless totally manual camera with a shutter speed dial and an aperture ring on the lens is still king on the street. The only 'mode' to muck up is what film is in the camera. And, I suppose, whether there is film in the camera.

This is one of the advantages of the user programmable options. It remembers all settings current. When in doubt you can switch to your favourite Preset and it will be back on ISO 160, standard advance, and set for your most commonly used lens if manual coding is required.

There is a very fine photographers on another forum whose shots fill the frame and balance the elements like a Bach fugue. His signature is visible in the thumbnail version every time. He pointed out to me a flaw in one of my shots where an incomplete digit of a house number on the right edge of the photo constituted a significant distraction. He proposed that one should take great care over what lies at the edge of an image. I'd not seen that enunciated before and found it very helpful.

<p>Aoenium. First outing with the tiny 1951 LTM 3.5cm Summaron f3.5 on the M9. <br> <a title="L9993391.jpg by Richard, on Flickr" href=" src="https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7355/16407190402_02ceb38f18_z.jpg" alt="L9993391.jpg" width="640" height="426" /></a></p>

I don't use it, and most dismiss it as 'wrong'. It certainly has a logic and many M9 and Monochrom users have used it with success. I've used it on the Fuji X100. That camera, on which I shoot jpegs, is very resistant to blown highlights. The Monochrom is the opposite. If you don't mind blown highlights and your situation is very variable and you must stop motion in fast moving subjects then it is useful and I would try it. Mostly I shoot manual in more predictable situations and I don't want to lose the highlights. You have no control over that with certain mainly dark subjects when using auto ISO.

<p>Australia Day in the town near one of the earliest settlements in Victoria, Sorrento. Should have linked to flickr: the wonderful sharpness of this lens at this aperture is completely lost at this resolution.</p><div></div>

<p>Thanks Knut. Some of the Melbourne trams are used for commercial advertising, some for advertising like the Australian Open that has some benefits for Melbourne, and some just decoration like this one. <br> <br> <a title="Arts Centre from Princes Bridge, Melbourne by Richard, on Flickr" href=" src="https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7554/16106482487_848d6ff7b2_z.jpg" alt="Arts Centre from Princes Bridge, Melbourne" width="640" height="426" /></a></p>

<p>Australian Open Tennis Championship starts in Melbourne on Monday.</p> <p><a title="Princes Bridge, Tram, Eureka Tower, Melbourne by Richard, on Flickr" href=" src="https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7580/16291498762_d287b7aca9_z.jpg" alt="Princes Bridge, Tram, Eureka Tower, Melbourne" width="640" height="640" /></a></p>

<p>Gee, some of you guys do a great job of maintaining the photo.net reputation. I think Gregory Simpson is a deeply insightful reviewer, and his long review of the Monochrom was probably the best thing I read on that camera. And he writes well. Thanks to the OP for bringing this to our attention.</p>

<p>I love Emir's and then Richard Brown's follows that theme and is a beautiful image, as is the next one, also an echo in the thread.</p>

<p>Fitzroy</p><div></div>

Jochen makes a great point. That Gossen can be taken from the pocket and an incident reading obtained in about one second. And who knows what you just did. What's a light meter? Is that a mobile.....? Then you set exposure and pre- focus and your candid shot from the hip is well exposed and you never had the camera to your eye.

It's rare to go back. You left Leica behind and have found a satisfactory alternative. I hate the 50 frame lines of my M9 and Monochrom, but moved to those cameras from film Ms, mainly an M5 as the latest of them. I haven't gone back as I never left, and didn't want to leave. For me the digital Ms have been great and I bought the Monochrom after sizing up the M240 and deciding I didn't need it and preferred the simplicity of the others.

A Jewish colleague of mine visited Berlin last year and learnt of this and told me of it. I was pleased to learn of it, and tucked my Leica close in to my hip, never more proud to carry one.

More colour, just. And nice one Barry. Not quite as good as Week 51 last year. Permission granted to post another. <a href=" title="TR3 by Richard GM2, on Flickr"><img src="https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7479/15968624288_f3ea0ea618_z.jpg" width="640" height="426" alt="TR3"></a>

<p>I have the Gossen Digipro F. The advantage of that is the swivelling incident cone. It can be made to face you as you look at the LCD readout, ideal for very quick incident readings. It is shaped similar to Arthur's. It is light and flat and takes a standard 1.5V AA battery. It fits inside, but won't be lost inside, and inside jacket pocket. The tiny Gossen Digisix and Digiflash are very neat if you want something smaller. I have never had any interest in fowling my cameras with attached meters and the power and certainty of incident readings only works best with a hand held, free of the camera. I have an older CdS Gossen meter which I occasionally use, but after using a modern SBC meter, the slowness of CdS is maddening. Although I don't mind the Leica M5's CdS meter.</p>