90mm tele-elmarit-M vs 50mm Elmar-m and a school boy error

It's Sunday afternoon and the sun is dropping, not even evening  just the afternoon and the sun is off to bed.

But not before bathing the MR2 and local Leicestershire countryside is bathed in some lovely warm rays.

Took the Voight 15mm out the other week, this week, have gone the other end and brought out the 90mm to mix things up, fancied some compressed perspective and all that. Nice smooth focus and image looked good in the rangefinder, good clean crisp lines using the number plate to focus on, but on closer inspection on the big screen at home, the focus was off.

Made bit of a school boy error. I had checked focus with live view, then put back to my eye and had to re-adjust, for some reason thinking the live view was off, No the live view was fine it is the lens that is out.

I say the lens is out as when I swapped over to Elmar and carried on rangefinder focusing images are fine.

Pleasant enough but not what they could have been. Hey ho.

The 90s

The 50s

Late afternoon sun

Despite the title of the post, my ramblings will be a thinking aloud type of post.

Do I need six 50mm lens (not including the elmar) as I keep comming back to the Elmar as my go to 50mm lens. It just works. Compact design when not in use. Colapsible, 1/4 turn of focus ring covers .7m to infinity, 2.8 is quick enough for day time shooting. Plenty sharp enough for my needs.

I keep thinking it is time to sell the Summar, Summitar and Summicron. I just don't use them. Yet, the moment I bolt them on and see the way they render images I end up keeping them. I then bolt the Elmar back on. Ahhh!

What to do?
Do I use them? No.
Do I "need" the money. Not right now, no.
Do I like having them. Yes.
Does that make any sense? No.

Glad to have got that off my chest.

So, out and about yesterday in my beloved MR2 driving into the setting sun. Stopped off to take a pic or two.

Pentax ME Super smc 50mm F1:1.7

Bit random, well, that's me.
During a bit of experimentation I ended up the Pentax 50mm  F1:1.7 lens that came with the Pentax ME Super bolted on to the Leica M-P

This is very far from the street as to where this blog is supposed to be shooting, but, that said, the resultant image just reminds me how good Pentax glass can be. This is what would now be called a kit lens, it came with the camera. A bog standard 50mm F1:1.7. But what, a standard lens. I really like how it renders the image. Odd that the lens is now bolted to a Leica M (typ240) P and taking pics of the cam the lens is normally bolted to. Whatever. Is it the cam? is it the glass? or, both? Yes would seem to be the answer.

Nothing special as images go but it talks to me.
Some kind of old, meeting and working with the new. Bit like some sort of  selfie. The lens missing from the cam is the one taking the shot of the cam it is missing from. (if that makes sense)

Leica M-P Pick n mix

Like a pin ball, this post is likely to bounce from one thing to another and back again in no particular order.

So lets open the post with the camera in use. All the images presented here have been taken with the
Leica M-P type 240. And very nice it is to. Slimmed down menus from the M9. More back to basics. Having wanted the M-P since I found out about it. The big thing is the 2mb buffer, as small an increase as it is, it makes such a difference in real world shooting. I do like the minimalist front, no red dot. But lets face it, a Leica M with no red dot, is as invisible, as a Mercedes without a  Tri Star. Yeah right. But, nice non the less. So having wanted the M-P over the M9 for the buffer benefits, I am already looking to the M10.

Is that because the M-P is no good? No. Far far from it. I thought going to CMOS from CCD would be an issue, it's not. The M9 CCD produced beautiful images. The M-P CMOS produces beautiful images.

So why the desire for the M10? Human nature I guess. The biggie here, is the slimness of the body harking back to the M3 (my first Leica) and no video. Have I used the video option on the M-P? Yes.
More just to see how it works and how well. All quite acceptable and novel. But the likelihood is I would whip out the mobile and use that.

 Where the CMOS really scores is the live view mode. Realy like that. Just brilliant for those critical focus shots.

One thing I would like to see is the option for a second type of live view focus as found in the Ricoh GXR.
You really can pin down the focus and the depth of field. (dear Leica firmware upgrade?)

Unlike a lot (most/all) Youtube reviews of Leica cameras. I'm putting my own hard earned cash on the counter. No freebies or test pieces here. (yes, I'm open to offers. but not holding my breath)

So as happy as I am with the M-P, as I was (and still am with the M9) I'm working my way towards an M10.

So what have I been shooting with it? Nowt special. All very boring with little technical skill, but I'm shooting for me, not commercially.

As ever, no fiddling about, all straight off the chip. No cropping, curves, contrast, sharpness, brightness or owt else.

Testing out the 90mm 2.8 in table lamp lighting. iso 2500 @1/8

Grain. Grain what am I talking about. Noise. Not bad for a handheld shot.

Brook side path (Elmar 50 f2.8)

Parallel lines (Elmar 50 f2.8)

More parallel lines (Elmar 50 f2.8)

Happens (Elmar 50 f2.8)

Bench (Elmar 50 f2.8)

 Berries (Elmar 50 f2.8)

 Tree (Elmar 50 f2.8)

 Delicate (Elmar 50 f2.8)

 Bowl

 Black and white (Elmar 50 f2.8)

 Or, Colour (Elmar 50 f2.8)

 

 2 front (Elmar 50 f2.8)

 2 rear (Elmar 50 f2.8)

 

Voight 15mm Selection

 Skyscape