allan_crook1

my M5 is the best available-light camera for me. SL metering with 50mm summiluxm, allows A.L sensitive portraits, with emotional impact. great design. pluses for me, include: larger shutter dial, rotates proud of camera body, operates with side of forefinger, while camera is at eye-level. - no distraction from framing subject. compares to M2,M-4.2,M6 I've owned has quietest shutter, least flare-prone viewfinder (clear rangefinder spot). fastest film loading. fast film rewinding. great shape for holding steady. best metering system on a Leica M ever. (SL concept similar to that on Leica SL fit SLR camera) MINE IS 2-LUG. OWNED SINCE LATE 70'S. TOTALLY RELIABLE. saw old newsreel, Vatican photographer used one to photograph Pope, in a.light. - its quiet! read it was last camera to be constructed using fit and adjust assembly technique at Wetlar. fit and detail finish superb on mine. I cannot fault it. takes my later1979 purchased 21mm f3.4 super angulon ok - see above for serial no. advice or better contact Leica A G. tip, use silver-oxide cell, adjust ASA/DIN to calibrate in standard exposure conditions for film being used.

probably performance related. in testing - development, the combination of the two features, indicated this arrangement necessary. the fact that Sony offers these useful features, aiding versatility, is one reason Sony is years ahead of every other maker.imo.

no, N system not around long enough, I guess. if yused on other camera bodies, maybe use an extender from the cmera's maker. I switch from FF to app-c capture to achieve 1.5x mag, as todays big mp sensors, allow extensive cropping, which of course can also be done in post-processing.

no. te N system's short- life availability, meant that Ziess never got around to it. no.

the TLA200 worked perfectly on my G2, ttl mode selected. clean flash &camera contacts with isopropyl alcohohol, (from chemist - drug-store)dry, leave for a little while(to ensure it all evaporated). try with good batteries.if you get perfect exposures, everything is aok on ttl setting, compared to manual, maymum power flash, which might have overexposed the same scene, with hotspots.

hi all, war and politics - the entire contax camera factory was moved to kien, ukraine by the russians, at some point. I have no knowledge of lenses being made in kiev. obviously viewfinder/rangefinder optics built there. later, the Kiev cameras were produced, contax designs. after the ravages of WWII, soviet oppression, it is amazing that the workers at Jena, produced anything- material shortages, the need to prioritize the s.union market - due to russian priorities, when they needed to earn hard currency from sales to the more prosperous west. I remember looking at photo mags in the 60's seeing the ultra-wide 20mm flektagon avertised, I think for the Exakta, still being produced in DresdenI wonder if anyone has a7'd one of these? due to Comecon (the S.U's common market), I guess much of the output from Kiev and Jena, went to markets in the soviet orbit. poor old Meoptam in CZ(THE COUNTRY), had the same situation. they all survived, because they had to, to live. so quality-control is likely to have suffered. however at the time, they re obviously not in the same market sector as the contarex/contaflex cameras, from the west. 50-60 years later, we are all expect top QC. we have the luxury and time to experiment with such equipment. prewar and post war, ziess were about 20 years ahead of anybody else, in lens design, including leica. who caught up somewhat, when CAD became available in the70's.remember most early leica lenses were based on ziess formulae, elmar - tessar, summicron - planar,sonnar, biogon, distagon - elmarits.- imaging progress owes a lot to ziess. their designs helped to rebuildjapan's ecomy, of course.

weflickr has V.1.05 ! search for it, as I could not sucessfully copy link. has explanation -instructions in english V 1.0 and V.1.05, so you can go back to 1.0 if 1.05 not to your liking.

hi contax tvs-d fans, found this on flickr: search flickr for 'contax tvs digital firmware' I'm sticking to 1.0 personally. my two work just fine.

well, he thinks he is well-informed(KR). I found his non-photographic stuff more interestng, cars,homes,cd,dvd, light-saving light bulbs. leicaman piece is funny. he regards himself as a phtographer, an artist, self-proclaimed, of course. as he says , do not take kr too seriously. he is a chancer, con-artist. he will love this, as all publicity is good. oh, if you lve outside the USA, ordering equipment via his site, is a bad idea, because you will pay dealer pricewhich includes USA duties. that plus shipping costs willincur your country's import duty and taxes. - so very expensive route. you may have guessed, I have not donated, he threatens a growing family, I would not encourage him and his morticia, to produce another pugsley. oh, he is wrong about the nikon FA - crap leica M5 - brilliant camera. his suggestion to shoot film, is not what he does, of course buying any leica will mean paying $$$ + for a CLE- mantenanc, every 5-6 years, even then the speeds will be inaccurate, mostly. overall a walter mitty camera bug. he likes disneyland colors. test charts would be more artistic. - all IMO.

<p>talking to a onsultant to ziess, in another optical field, he told me agreed wih me that ziess is a grat company, but sometimes suffer from NIH (not invented here) syndrome, to play catch-up, is not there histotical modus operandi. - the are innovators. maybe germany's senior optical brand/company,most of leica lenses, were leitz takes on ziess optical formula, elmar = tessar, planar = summicron. sonnar = elmarits.sfter the 1972 contarex electronic, there failed negotiations with asahi, sucess with yashica - the latter, were one of the few producers of optical glass and increasingly expert in electronics technology for integration into cameras,<br> as of november, 2016, nothing for ziess enthusiasts, other than buying ziess lenses with popular mounts.<br> contax ended in 2005. boils down to whether ziess will do what leica did with panasonic, ask sony to make a body - A7 with upgraded features? - sony always keeps to using its own name, tho, on products, to take advantage of its brand power .with plenty of used leicas arund, demand for a top-grade 35mm film body is not really there, never was. sony has sensor technology.I doubt if ziess would view the return on auge launch cost as worthwile even with a digital body. too late methinks.I hope not, timed with the next global economic upturn., when that can be predicted.</p>

<p>the main cause of vignetting is due to the shutter being of the behind-the-lens leaf type.<br> the shutter blades position and varying open/close speed through out their travel, are the culprit.<br> I expect similar effect on the kodak retina-retina reflex cameras, but have no direct experience.</p>

<p>I have done the dirty deed, left 35mm behind.<br> I always thought kodachrome would be a hard aact to follow, in 35mm. but idigital capture can pretty much match it now, I hink. even some of the smaller sensor formats can impress when used for large prints.</p> <p>the advantage to professionals, of immediately being able to review their images, must be immense.<br> most 35mm cameras with pedigree will end up in glass cases,imo. sad. Isay use your F100, as someone will cntinue tomake movie film. how good it will be,is anther matter.<br> more important than digital v.analogue film is the quality of images - compositioetc. looking at 1950/60s' leica photografie magazines, standards have not been maintained.</p> <p>I also like agfacolor ct18 film</p> <p>I windered bout the ld eastg erman ORWO brand of film. I looked at that mine of misinformtion,wikipedia. in its latest incarnation, its still producing film, whether putting it into 35mm cannisters, 70m onto 120 rolls, not menioned.ORWO -OriginalWolfen, had access to agfacolor clour film technology, the transition to digital might be slower<br> for secialist use, like aerial photography the transition to digital might be slower</p> <p>I also like Agfacolor ct18 reversl film.</p> <p>the issue ofarchival qualities of film v. digital. the former will require the hardware of the future to be cmpatible. I think it is wrong to rely solely on one process<br> as for</p> <p> </p>

<p>my FA, for which(along with 2 nikkor lenses),I pxed a perfectly good spare leica m4-2 body. big mistake</p> <p>KR may wax lyrical over it, but I had a dud. parts fell off it - rear control and front control.<br /> made in taiwan, nikon qc apparently left behind in japan<br> IT WAS AN EXPENSIVE -(particularly as it is plastic)</p> <p>FE much superior. </p> <p>m</p> <p>exposure control nothing special in AE, using the computer-generated- designed metering pattern.</p> <p><br /> in fairness, I found the 2 lenses poor too.<br /> this coloured my thinking, probably.</p> <p>a well-respected 85mmm AIS nikkor, was soft, even stopped down.</p> <p>the 35mm nikkor E, admittedly a budget lens, was poor too. KR likes the E range too.<br /> <br /> my wish was to have a compact 2 lens outfit for casual use.<br /> nikon does occasionally drop the ball. a 50mm el-nikkor enlarging lens was far worse than the s. s.componar, it was to replace. I still rate nikon above canon, in manufacturing - usually.<br /> <br /> I have only recently forgiven nikon, buying a nikon. made at their new wuxi factory, in china, it seems good, so far. the camera is disliked by kr, another plus factor :).(kr= ken rockwell.)</p> <p> </p>

<p>my F1n, had an annoying tendency. the rewind clutch button on baseplate would fail to stay locked in. adjusted by canon, but it still was unreliable, failing to lock (always when I was in a hurry, it seemed.</p> <p>the AE winder would stick, failing to wind-on. stopped using it.</p> <p>I was pleased to find full AE mode works with plain-standard prism fitted.<br /> learnt this from watching a tv documentary, about national geographic staffer.</p> <p>I still think the film transport system is suspect in the F1n. the manual wind-on, is not the best, in throw angle,effort,smoothness.</p> <p>the original f-1 had a marketing boast - it had more parts than any other camera.(maybe 10,000!)?<br /> was the F1n more of a cost-reduction (in production terms) exercise?</p> <p>as I use Leica M, I am spoilt, over many decades, from faultless operation.<br> <br /> my favourite lens is the 80-200 fluorite L zoom. great colour reproduction, balanced performance characteristics,I understand the non-L 80-200 is excellent too.(think that has built in hood.?- nice)</p>

<p>asa late-comer to the nikon 1 system. i'd like to comment.</p> <p>my 30yr interest has been mainly served by leica m.<br> due to disablement, unable to load film, focus safely, so on seeing a v1 in a shop window, curious.</p> <p>toinserte my sd card, tested, and was impressed enough to buy, it came with 10mm -fx equiv 27mm - about my favourite m-lens focal length - 28mm.<br> the wrong way around, researched on internet, and discovered quite a lot of v1 lovers.</p> <p>the jpeg files it producesare excellent, the automated systems seem well implimented.<br> with a good degree of manual control. mine came withe dedicated bounce flash and nikon grip, both useful and effective add-ons.</p> <p>in an interview the designerresposible, highlighted the reason for performance. compared to their top dslr - the d3, at the time of the v1 launch, the v1 leap-fogged technically. having the a d conversion doneon the imaging chip. then transferred to the spu on 24 channels. - faster and less noisy. the d3 used 12 channels of low-level analogue sgnal.</p> <p>the v1 uses 2 pipelines, faster again, so writing to card and ievf-lcd magesimultaneously fast.</p> <p>it feels like a III series leica in solidity, size and shape. as dslrs large size is a legacy from film era slrs, nikon made the right move, its a classic,I use adr on, all nr off, mostly on apeture priority, f4.5, where the lens performs optimally.gives highish shutter speed. base iso of 100 available, which I like. going higher gives a still good result, at 3200 sort of tr-x film-like, when shooting BW , but with less grain. nice big battery. movie mode excellent.intervalometer works well.<br> the camera is inconspicuous, quiet. switching from the mechanical shutter to the electronic shutter, it is silent, of course. an act of faith , after having a dud film FA and 2 indifferent lenses, I am glad I own the V1. sports, landscape,people all genres seem to benefit from its colour rendition, overall performance. printing to A4. mostly. by now current, good dslrs have its same technical inovations, so performance gap must exist, but in travelling, the V1 is tops. photography is about enjoying it, not being a ^'packhorse'</p> <p>differentiating DOF needs forethought, and is limited. Oscar B, if he were alive, would be mightily impressed.</p> <p>I am only interested in end results, </p> <p> </p>