The GRD was a disappointment for me.  Whilst the images could be stored as .dng files, it took an age to write them to the card and during this period, the camera couldn’t be used.  Shooting jpegs was faster, but I was never really happy with their quality.  Moreover, the files were noisy if anything other than the lowest ISO setting was used.   I bought a Canon G9 as a replacement and whilst it is by no means a bad camera, I was never completely satisfied with the image quality.

My misgivings were mainly due to the small sensor used in the camera.  This has an adverse impact on two important areas, namely noise and depth of field.  I remember thinking that if Canon could bring out a digital camera which was about the same size as the G9 but had a bigger sensor, say APS-C sized, then for me,that would be a winner.

So far, nothing of that ilk has materialised from Canon.  I wasn’t keen on Sigma’s DP1 offering: it just didn’t appeal to me, mainly because I don’t believe it is supported in Adobe Lightroom.  Rather, you have to use the proprietary raw processing software that is packaged with the camera to process the files. I have also read that this camera is slow - possibly slower than the GRD when writing files to its card.

I was never that interested in the Four Thirds standard and to be honest, when the newer Micro Four Thirds standard was announced, I couldn’t really see how it would be relevant to me.  Then Olympus announced their new PEN range of cameras, shortly followed by Panasonic’s announcement of the GF1.  When I started to hear and read good things about the GF1 and the 20mm f1.7 pancake lens, I thought it was time to have a look at one and see what all of the fuss was about.

To cut a long story short, with a significant birthday fast approaching, I decided to buy a black GF1 with the 20mm f1.7 pancake lens, which gives a field of view equivalent to 40mm on 35mm film.  An acquaintance on the Leica User Group was selling a Voigtlander 40mm optical viewfinder for a good price, so I duly bought that too.

For my money I have a compact camera outfit which isn’t much bigger than my Canon G9. The GF1 is compact enough to fit comfortably into an overcoat pocket, though it will never fit into a shirt pocket like a Ricoh GR1 / GRD used to.

This picture illustrates the difference in size between the GF1 (with 40mm Voigtlander finder) and the Canon G9.

When the the lens on the G9 is extended, there really isn’t much in it size-wise.  The bigger sensor in the GF1 means that the body needs to be correspondingly larger, but not excessively so in my opinion.

So, after using the GF1 for nine days, what do I think of it? Well, my initial thoughts are that I am going to get along famously with this camera. Despite what some people say, it’s not a Leica M8 replacement, though it does complement a rangefinder (or DSLR outfit for that matter) very well and I have been very pleased with the results I have obtained so far.

This camper van was a very sorry sight to behold. I used the 40mm optical viewfinder to frame this and was pleasantly surprised at the accuracy. Click on the image to see more shots taken with the GF1 / 20mm Pancake lens.

The 40mm optical viewfinder means that handling the GF1 is very similar to the Ricoh GRD and one area where it is better is that it is possible to switch off the rear LCD display - something that you couldn’t do on the GRD, which was a bit of a distraction when using the accessory viewfinder.  The main advantage of being able to disable the rear LCD is it must improve the battery life of the camera.

Likes:

• overall build quality

• size - not too big, not too small.  Perfect for Goldilocks

• ergonomics - it didn’t take too long to suss out where everything was.  Why though does a camera need a 196-page manual (see below…)

• optical quality - which is what really matters isn’t it?  The first few prints that I have made are nice and sharp. The colour rendition is excellent.

• autofocus - the face-detection and follow-focus features work very well indeed.

• a nice quiet shutter, with no appreciable lag time.
• well-balanced
• a large sensor.

Dislikes:

• the battery/SD card door feels a bit flimsy.  It spoils an otherwise very nicely made camera.

• vertical pictures are not auto-rotated when imported to Lightroom.  I subsequently discovered that this feature which is known as the ‘direction detection feature’, isn’t supported with the 20mm pancake lens.  Not a deal-breaker, but as I like to shoot portrait format quite a lot, it’s an annoyance.

• more modes than you can shake a stick at.  I think the camera was dipped in Complicatonite!
  There are scene modes: 17 of them, plus the usual Program, Aperture priority, Shutter Priority, manual, movie, intelligent auto, two custom modes and one with an artist’s pallette, which I have no idea about.  Then there are the flash modes (which I haven’t looked at yet).  This little camera is very a la mode!   In short, I think it, like many other cameras of Japanese origin, is too complicated.  Features have been added for three reasons: first because the marketers think it’s a good idea, second because the opposition do it and third because they can.

For me, the biggest advantage of the GF1 is definitely the 4/3 sensor. I’ve used it up to ISO 800 and produced some pleasing prints.  Yes, they are noisy, but whether the noise is acceptable is a personal thing.

Battery life seems to  be OK, though I haven’t used the camera enough to make a proper judgement yet and furthermore, it’s been very cold lately - when I took the campervan shot above, the temperature was hovering just above freezing.

I don’t know whether it’s got something to do with the 4:3 aspect ratio, but the 20mm lens (which is equivalent to a 40mm lens on full-frame 35mm), seems pretty wide - probably wide enough for me in fact, so whilst I have heard that Panasonic are due to bring out a 14mm pancake lens, giving a field of view equivalent to a 28mm, I would need to think very carefully about whether to get this lens.

On the subject of accessories, I have a lens protection filter and lens hood on order.  One small problem with the 20mm pancake lens is the filter size.  At 46mm it isn’t that common and consequently it can be hard to get lens accessories in this size.  I have a Lee RF-75 filter kit complete with a 46mm adaptor and I think this will be very handy when I try landscape photography.  I wonder how the camera will fare with my Leica universal polariser?

One accessory I will get for the camera is a decent wrist strap.  Being so compact, the GF1 lends itself well to being carried from the wrist.  It’s certainly less obtrusive that carrying a camera around the neck or over one’s shoulder.  I also think it will be quicker to bring the camera into action: especially with the optical viewfinder in position.  Moreover, it will probably lessen the risk of losing the optical viewfinder.  I have had finders fall out of hot shoes when I’ve carried cameras over my shoulder.  The voigtlander finders don’t have any means of locking them onto the hotshoe.

Overall, the GF1 is a very good camera and it has produced some very pleasing shots.  If you are in the market for a good quality compact camera then the GF1 comes highly recommended.

One of the most desirable lenses for many Leica rangefinder owners has been the 50mm Noctilux. This lens has seen several iterations since the introduction in 1968 of the original f1.2 version. The current version, with a maximum aperture of f0.95, retails at £6181! The reasons for the appeal of these lenses are the ability to take photographs in very low light levels, whilst minimising the risk of camera shake as well as a unique look brought about by the very wide aperture. The depth of field at f1.0 is miniscule and images taken wide-open have a dream-like quality due partly to certain lens aberrations.

Now, there is a newcomer to the f1 club: Voigtländer have recently introduced a 50mm f1.1 lens with a Leica M bayonet mount. It costs a rather more affordable £1092, though this is still a hefty price to pay for a single lens!

Having hankered after a Noctilux for several years, but been unable to afford either a new or second hand lens, I was rather pleasantly surprised when this lens was announced by Cosina in late spring 2009. I was even more pleasantly surprised to see a secondhand, mint example come up on the Internet rangefinder forum and following some financial jiggery-pokery, I was able to buy the lens for considerably less than the retail price.

Description

The Voigtländer 50mm f1.1 lens is a weighty piece of glass, weighing in at 428g. It comprises 7 lens elements in 6 groups.

The aperture ring, which is very smooth and has firm click stops, allows the user to select apertures in half-stop increments and runs from f1.1 to f16.

Focusing is via a thick, scalloped focusing ring. The scalloped surface makes it virtually impossible to confuse the focusing and aperture rings and offers an excellent feel. The focusing action is firm yet silky smooth. In fact it’s impossible to tell the difference between the Nokton and a more expensive Leica lens in this regard. The lens focuses from its closest distance of 1m to infinity in ¼ of a turn.

The lens comes with a fairly shallow threaded lens hood which screws directly into the 58mm filter thread on the lens body. One minor irritation I found with the lens was when I initially fitted a 58mm UV/IR filter, the hood would not engage fully with the screw threads on the filter and it would rattle annoyingly. Thankfully, there is a second set of threads inside the hood itself, which are meant for taking a lens cap. The rather brief instruction manual does warn against using these for a filter as there is a risk of vignetting, but as I am using the lens on a Leica M8 with a 1.3x cropped sensor, this is not an issue for me and the whole thing feels much more secure with the hood directly attached to the lens with the filter nestled safely inside.

Handling

The 50mm f1.1 Nokton handles very well on the Leica M8. Whilst the combination feels heavy, it actually weighs just 75g more than my wife’s Canon EOS350D with 17-85mm lens.

The size difference between the f1.1 lens on the left and f2 lens on the right is striking. In spite of its size and weight, the Nokton handles very well on the Leica M. A handgrip is a useful accessory, particularly with the larger lens.

One of the problems with using physically large lenses on rangefinder cameras is the lens body often blocks part of the viewfinder. The body of the Nokton f1.1 is visible within the frame lines, but it obscures less than 25% of the 50mm viewfinder frame on the M8.

The biggest challenge with any wide-aperture lens on a rangefinder camera is accurate focusing. With the tiny amount of depth of field available, getting the plane of focus where it’s wanted is not a straightforward task. However, it does become easier with practice. One tip I was given by an acquaintance on the Leica User Group was to focus roughly using the focusing ring then make fine adjustments by rocking one’s body backwards and forwards to get the focus absolutely spot on.

Accurate focusing is helped somewhat by using a viewfinder magnifier. I use a 1.25x magnifier and this makes a huge difference to focusing accuracy, though it does make it a little difficult to see the light meter LEDs at the bottom of the frame, especially when wearing spectacles.

Using the Nokton in anger.

My first opportunity to use the 50mm Nokton f1.1 came at the Fairford Steam Rally in August 2009. I knew this would be a ‘target rich’ environment which would be suited to the 65mm effective focal length that the cropped sensor of the M8 gives with this lens.

Wide-open performance

I was delighted with my hit rate when taking portraits of the showmen with their traction engines.  In some cases, I missed focus as the subject moved slightly! As it was sunny, the camera was frequently set with a shutter speed of 1/8000s at ISO 160! In fact it was sometimes necessary to stop the lens down to avoid overexposure. A two or three stop neutral density filter may be a useful accessory for this lens if there is a need to shoot wide-open in bright conditions.

Discussing engines. This shot demonstrates the bokeh of the Nokton f1.1 when shot wide-open. The shutter speed was 1/6000 at ISO 160!

At f1.1, the lens is really in its element. The plane of focus is sharp and depth of field at 1.5 – 2m is no more than a few cm. The out of focus areas are rendered very smoothly and the bokeh of the lens is, to my eyes, very nice indeed.

Showman. Another shot taken at f1.1. The subject is very nicely isolated from the background.

Stopped down

Stopped down, this lens is very sharp and has an almost clinical look to it. Its character is very different to the 50mm f2 Summicron that I normally use, but the end results are very satisfactory.

The "Burrell Road Locomotive. This was taken at about f5.6. I have made an A2 print of this shot, and it's sharp from centre to edge.

Traction engines in the showground. This shot demonstrates the usefulness of the 50mm f1.1 Nokton as a general-purpose 50mm lens. The picture was taken at f8. At a 100% view in Lightroon, the name plates on the tractor and traction engines at the edges of the frames are clearly visible.

Conclusion

In my opinion, the Voigtländer 50mm Nokton f1.1 lens is well made and the results from the lens both wide-open and stopped down are excellent, although the effects obtained by shooting at or around f1 are not to everybody’s taste. This is a lens that requires a bit of work to get the very best from it. Wide-open, the hit rate can be variable depending on how accurately you focus and whether the subject keeps still, but in the right hands it is capable of producing first rate results.

I would love to try the lens out on a full-frame Leica M9, but that will have to wait for quite a long while…

At less than 1/5 of the cost of the Leica f0.95 Noctilux, it represents excellent value for money.

2008 was a special year for my wife Karin and I as we celebrated our 25^th wedding anniversary.

We knew we wanted to do something special to celebrate and came up with the idea of a ‘mini grand tour’ of Italy, taking in Rome, Florence and then a couple of days in the Piedmonte region.

Having taken to heart the notion of trying to reduce our impact on the Environment, we decided to avoid using aircraft and make our way by train where possible.

Our trip had the hallmarks of being quite an adventure and planning started in earnest in the previous October, when we signed up for a GCSE Italian evening class!

In addition to learning a little of the Italian language, we also started to work out just how feasible it would be to travel from our home in Swindon to Rome by train. The answer, it transpired was ‘eminently feasible!’ There is a daily sleeper train from Paris Gare de Bercy to Roma Termini called the Palatino. We booked our Eurostar tickets on-line. Whilst we could have done the same for the Palatino tickets, we opted to let a travel agent sort this out as we wanted to make absolutely sure we got what we wanted.

As we were celebrating a very special occasion, we decided to travel first-class on the Eurostar. It wasn’t cheap, but we would be wined and dined as we made our way through Kent, the Chunnel and Northern France. Now that the high-speed rail link from St Pancras to Folkestone has been completed, the journey time from London to Paris has been cut to about two and a half hours. I think it would be difficult, if not impossible to do the journey in the same time by air once you factor in check-in times, baggage collection and subsequent travel from the airport to the centre of Paris.

Equipment Decisions.

With travel arrangements and hotels booked, it was time to think about luggage and above all, camera equipment. We wanted to travel light, not wanting to have to lug huge suitcases and heavy camera bags through station concourses or on the underground. So we decided to restrict our luggage to a single airline wheeled carry-on sized case each.

Karin had already made a decision to take her Canon G9 digital compact camera rather than her EOS350D . The G9 was until recently, Canon’s top of the range compact digital camera. It’s quite small and light, very well made and has a 12MP sensor, so can produce excellent results. I originally wanted to take a Leica M8 digital rangefinder with 2 or 3 lenses. But in the end, I too opted to take a G9.  It’s much lighter and from a purely practical perspective, it meant we could save space and weight by having just one battery charger for the two cameras. In addition to the two cameras and a single battery charger, we each took a spare battery and eight 2 gigabyte SD cards. We could have saved a tiny amount of space and weight by using higher capacity SDHC cards, but we both felt that 2 gigabyte cards were large enough. Entrusting around 115 raw images to a single card is plenty in my book! For backup, we shared a 40 gigabyte Jobo Gigavue hard drive. Each outfit fitted into a Lowepro ‘bumbag’.

Any initial misgivings about not bringing my Leica outfit were removed when we arrived at Roma Termini. It was 30 degrees and there was a transport strike. Any hope of getting a taxi to our hotel before we melted was dashed as soon as we saw the queues. So we decided to walk to the hotel. It was only about a mile, but it made me very glad that I didn’t have my Billingham bag to carry as well as drag my suitcase through Rome.

Out and about in Rome

Rome is a fascinating city. There is so much to see and do and it was impossible to do the city justice in the three days we spent there. Thankfully, there is a very good underground system and most of the main sites of interest are close to a Metro station or are easy to get to by foot.

The entrance to the Palazzo Barberini - home of the National Art Collection

Apart from the heat, which was often oppressive, the down side of travelling to Rome in July is the harshness of the light. Many photographs were spoiled by hard directional lighting and it was often impossible to capture the full dynamic range of a scene. Many of the best shots were taken in shade.

A couple of things to watch out for were the hawkers around the Spanish Steps and students wanting signatures on petitions. The hawkers would usually approach couples, offering a rose, saying it’s a gift. Then when you’ve taken it from them, ask for money. Another trick was to offer to take a couple’s photo with their camera -  for a fee of course.

The students were everywhere!  They all wanted us to sign a petition and it got very wearing.  We soon learned that saying ‘non grazie, ho gia fatto’ (No thanks, I’ve already done it) was enough to get them to move on to some other unsuspecting person.

Rome to Florence

Karin admiring the Duomo in Florence

Plan A had been to get a fast train from Rome to Florence, but we bought tickets for a slow train by mistake. It didn’t really matter in the end, as taking a train through the Tuscan countryside is something to be savoured, not rushed.

Personally, I think that if there is one place that everyone should visit before they die, it’s Florence. Florence is a much more compact city than Rome and all of the main sites of interest are easily accessible on foot and our hotel was only a few hundred metres from the Duomo in one direction and the Galleria dell Academia in the other. A walk to the Ponte Vecchio took a leisurely ten to fifteen minutes. Again, harsh light spoiled many shots, but with care, it was possible to get a few keepers. Moreover, since we were there in July, the days were quite long, so we could take advantage of the evening light before finding somewhere to have Dinner.

Florence to Alba

We left Florence knowing for certain that we would return when it was not quite so warm! The next stage of our adventure took us to the Piedmonte region in Northern Italy, where we were due to spend a couple of nights with my sister and brother-in-law who have recently bought a property in the region. It was necessary to change trains twice: once in Pisa and again in Asti. Sadly, the timetable did not permit a trip into the centre of Pisa.

All of the trains were comfortable and above all, quite cheap. Again we travelled first-class where possible, though this was significantly cheaper than an equivalent ticket on the UK rail network!

The train from Pisa was an ‘Intercity Plus’ train and we had booked seats in a first-class compartment, which was quiet and above all, comfortable. The three-hour journey took us up the spectacular Mediterranean coast before heading inland to Asti.

Sign showing that hunting for wild boar is permitted on this land.

We had quite a long wait for our last train, a small, brand new sprinter type train which weaved its way through countless vineyards to Alba, where we were picked up by my sister Wendy.

It was very nice to have a couple of days R&R, explore the locality and sample the excellent regional wine, called Barolo. Dave had arranged a tasting at one of the better wineries in the area and we bought three bottles of wine which with some judicious rearranging kit was secreted in our luggage.

From a photographic perspective, the Piedmonte region is characterised by lots of hills. These are like miniature versions of the Alps which can be seen on the horizon. The region is full of interesting hilltop villages, all with colourful buildings, narrow streets and fascinating architecture. Virtually every slope or hillside is covered in either vines or fruit trees. This is also truffle country. Fresh truffle on scrambled eggs is a breakfast fit for a king! I could have done with either my SLR or rangefinder outfit here, along with a set of graduated filters to tame the skies. Maybe next time…

Turin to Paris

Sadly, we only had a day in Turin, another fascinating city with loads to offer the photographer. We took the TGV from Turin to Paris, a five hour journey. Again, we travelled first-class and this cost the equivalent of £39 each! Travelling by train through the Alps was a real treat. The TGV is quick, clean and very comfortable.

Paris to London and then home.

It seemed to take much longer to check in at the Gare du Nord than it did at St. Pancras. The British immigration officials, who man the check-in in Paris are much more thorough than their French counterparts at St. Pancras.

Once we arrived back in London, we took a taxi to Paddington where we took out a small mortgage to pay for our standard-class tickets back to Swindon. The seventy-five mile journey from Paddington to Swindon cost more than our five-hour odyssey on the TGV. How does that work?

Would we do it again?

Would we do it again? Yes, in a heartbeat. In fact we were thinking about next year’s holiday before we had arrived home.

Neither of us have ever been great fans of travelling by air and it seems to be much kinder to the Environment to use alternatives when it’s possible. It’s more expensive and the differential in cost is heightened by the plethora of cheap tickets that are available from the budget airlines. For us though, the train journeys were part of the adventure and it was a challenge seeing what we could do without when making such a relatively long journey.

I didn’t miss my Leica M8 and its superb lenses as much as I thought I would. In fact it was quite liberating only having a relatively compact camera with me. Having said that, if it’s at all possible I will take it and two or three lenses with me next time, probably a 15mm, 28mm and either a 75 or 90mm, plus Lee RF-75 outfit. Either that, or at least get a filter adaptor for the G9 and take a polariser plus some graduated filters.

We have proven to ourselves that it is eminently possible to travel long distances by train and to have a good time doing so. It doesn’t have to be the preserve of the Michael Palins of this world. Our advice is to give it a go. It’s great fun!

Tips.

• Make use of the Internet to plan your journey. It’s possible to book virtually everything you need on line. Make use of sites such as Trip Advisor (http://www.tripadvisor.com) to book hotels. It pays to take some of the comments with a pinch of salt though.

• Try to learn some of the local language. We found that having a GCSE in Italian helped immensely, even in places like Rome and Florence, where many people speak English. The locals are much more accommodating if you make an effort.

• In Rome, guided tours of the main sights such as the Colosseum are very worthwhile, not least because it’s possible to bypass the queues at peak times! Most tour guides will leave you to your own devices once they have finished their session.

• Take plenty of relatively small capacity memory cards rather than relying on a few large cards. Whilst cards are pretty reliable, it’s not worth risking hundreds of images for the sake of a small increase in space and weight.

• Take a means of backing up your cards. We shared a 40gigabyte Jobo Gigavue hard drive. We decided not to format and reuse the cards once they had been backed up. I found that eight 2 Gigabyte cards was just about sufficient.

• Take at least one spare battery and make sure the batteries are charged at the end of the day. I only had one D’OH! moment in Rome. Thankfully, I didn’t miss too many opportunities.

• Have a lens cleaning cloth with you at all times. This is especially true with the G9, as the front lens element seems to be vulnerable to fingerprints and smears.

]]> http://www.monomagic.co.uk/blog/?feed=rss2&p=112 http://www.monomagic.co.uk/blog/?p=145 http://www.monomagic.co.uk/blog/?p=145#comments Sun, 07 Dec 2008 19:47:23 +0000 Popey http://www.monomagic.co.uk/blog/?p=145 Introduction

A few months ago I decided to get hold of an ultra portable PC.  I originally wanted to get an Asus EEE PC with a 9″ screen.  Various on-line dealers had other ideas though.  Try as I might, I ended up being sent versions that ran Windows XP rather than Linux.  I eventually gave up on the EEE PCand noticed that HP had released their offering into the ultra portable space, the Mininote 2133.

The first one I ordered came with (you’ve guessed it) Windows XP.  The second, from Misco, had Linux installed.

Off to a poor start…

The default operating system with the 2133 is Suse Linux Enterprise Edition (SLED) version 10.  All worked well for a while, then I started to have problems getting software updates.  Then after one set of updates that DID come through, the wireless LAN connection failed and resolutely refused to come back up.

Since the Mininote didn’t come with an installation disk, I tried to get one off the HP website.  Sadly, the site was rather lacking in content.  It was possible to get the individual files that make up the distribution, but nobody at HP had bothered to create a proper distribution disk that could be used to take the PC back to its factory configuration.  Research on the Internet indicated that I wasn’t the only one with problems and as I tried to resolve the growing list of problems using SLED, it became clear to me just what an appalling botch-up job HP had done with the operating system.  I suspect the reason was that they felt they had to get something to market to compete with the EEE PC, but at the expense of quality.

Ubuntu beckons

I finally decided to ditch SLED and installed Ubuntu 8.04 LTS ‘Hardy Heron’.  There was even a helpful ‘how to guide’ in the Ubuntu Wiki to help me get the various proprietary components to work properly.  It was a great success, though the wireless LAN could be a bit temperamental. It would often take several attempts to get a connection established. On a couple of occasions, the wireless networks would refuse to come up after software updates had been applied, so I became very reluctant to keep the system up to date.

My wireless problems came to a head when I migrated our internet connection from a Linksys WRT54G router to a BT Home Hub 2.  No matter what I tried, the darned laptop wouldn’t talk to it.

Everything pointed to a problem with the WLAN driver in the laptop as both of the Windows laptops we own and a Palm TX connected first time.  So it was back to the forums and google to search out a solution to the problem.

The 2133 uses a Broadcom chip for the wireless network and it had been necessary to use ndiswrapper to get the chip to use a driver originally meant for a Windows device.  According to the forums, the latest incarnation of Ubuntu, 8.10 ‘Intrepid Ibex’ supported the Broadcom chip natively.

8.10 - a leap of faith

It so happened that I had a CD with 8.10 on it courtesey of Linux Format Magazine, so I loaded it.  Waddya know?  No wireless!  Some head scratching and yet more searching on the web and I had the Broadcom STA driver and managed to get the 2133 to connect to the network.  The problem was, that every time I restarted the laptop, I had to reinstall the 802.11 crypto module for TKIP and the driver.  Whilst this isn’t insurmountable (all I did was write a two line script), it was inconvenient.  But at least I had a laptop that could connect wirelessly to the Internet.

When I started to look through the operating system, I could see that Linux Format had put all sorts of packages in the distribution that were, frankly, a waste of time.  So I decided to download the distribution from the Ubuntu website and give that a go.  After all, I figured I had nothing to lose.

What a revelation!  I loaded the liverun version and it immediately detected my wireless network.  As soon as I entered the WPA key, it was up and running!  No mucking about with STA drivers or anything!  Half an hour later, after having double-clicked the ‘install’ icon on the desktop, I had a brand spanking new system.

I’ve carried out a couple of mods, courtesy of Erik Hess who has done a great job in sorting out the tweaks needed to get the 2133 to work with this OS.

Now, as a I write this, I have installed Unison so I can keep documents in sync with my main Ubuntu desktop machine.  The browser has the same favourites as my main machine and the email accounts are set up (I have an IMAP server which means I can view email from a number of different machines).

All that is left is to import my email address book and I’m pretty much sorted.  Whilst I would love to have an LDAP directory, this is a step too far for my rather simple mind at this stage…though it does look very interesting!

Conclusion

So, to conclude: once I finally downloaded the proper version of Ubuntu 8.10 and installed it, there were a few minor tweaks required to get the HP Mininote 2133 working.  The main bugbear that I had, namely with WiFi performance seems to have been fixed and the system just works.

The laptop seems to load more quickly and the BEST thing is that the wireless network just comes up!

I really do hope this operating system version works well, otherwise, y relationship with what is a very good hardware platform could well be over and I will be looking to replace it with something else.

Here’s the second shot:

Shen Hao HZX45II 150mm Apo Sironar N, HP5 plus developed in Perceptol 1+2, 12 minutes at 24 deg C.

I think I prefer the vertical composition and the post-processing isn’t as harsh as that in the other picture.

You can view more of my large-format work at monomagic.co.uk

Today, I had a day’s leave. I had an urge to use my large format camera. As the weather was appalling today, I decided to stay indoors and turn my attention to the bouquet. I spent a good couple of hours experimenting with two lenses: a 150mm Apo Sironar S and a 90mm Rodenstock Grandagon ‘N’ f6.8. It’s been a while since I have used my LF kit, but it didn’t take long to get back into the swing of things. Though as I write this, my back and neck are a bit stiff from contorting myself to look at the ground-glass.

The shot below was taken with the 90mm lens fitted with a red filter. I wanted to lighten the red of the rose and darken the foliage so I would get a better separation of tones.
It was necessary to factor in some bellows extension to the exposure as I estimate the magnification ratio to be about half life-size.  The shot was taken on Ilford HP5 plus film, rated at EI200. The exposure was 5 seconds at f22.
The film was developed in Ilford Perceptol diluted 1+2 for 12 minutes at 24 degrees Celsius.

This image was originally scanned at 1200dpi, giving me a maximum print size of 20″ x 16″ at 240dpi.
Post-processing consisted of using the history brush to remove any dust and scratches, converting to greyscale (it was originally scanned as a colour negative to maximise detail) then a little adjustment using curves and levels. Then I flattened the image, converted it to eight-bit and then converted it to a duo-tone.

I resized the image to fit on A4, and applied a little sharpening before making a workprint on Permajet Oyster 271 paper.
I’m pretty pleased with the result.
Here’s the jpeg…

Shen Hao HZX45II, 90mm Grandagon, HP5+ EI200, Perceptol 1+2 12 min 24 deg C

It’s inspired me to make more use of my LF kit - though I suspect I will be scanning my negatives now rather than making wet prints. Retouching is just SO much easier that way!

“It’s a bit like Paris Hilton. Expensive, quite nice to look at, but what does it actually do?”

I guess it’s possible to make a similar observation about Leica M cameras and lenses. Sure, they are expensive. Arguably, they are nice to look at. But what do they do? Well, they enable the photographer to produce absolutely stunningly sharp images with beautiful bokeh. Or in my case mediocre pictures that are stunningly sharp with beautiful bokeh

Take the new 28mm ASPH Elmarit lens for example. I bought one for myself as a special treat a couple of months ago. It makes the perfect partner (in my view) to the M8, as it more or replicates the field of view of a 35mm lens which is my preferred focal length on the M6TTL or M2.

This lens is bitingly sharp - almost too sharp for some things. Its rendition of detail is incredible. I think this is definitely my favourite lens on the M8.

Another lens that I am coming to love is the wonderful Voigtlander 12mm Ultra Wide Heliar f5.6. I managed to get an ex-demonstration example of this lens from Robert White in Poole, Dorset. It gives a field of view equivalent to a 15mm lens on the M8, which is pretty wide by anyone’s standards! In fact you have to be careful not to include feet, errant fingers and any other bodily protuberances out of the shot!

This lens isn’t rangefinder-coupled. Mind you with the sort of depth of field that you get using a lens like this, it’s hardly an issue. For landscapes and some interior shots, this lens is pretty hard to beat. Whilst it’s not exactly a ‘body cap’ in the same way as the 28mm Elmarit, it’s a damned useful lens to have when you’re out and about.

One thing that I haven’t tried with it yet is my Lee RF-75 filter kit. I have a feeling that the filter holder will vignette. If it doesn’t then it will probably be worthwhile having another custom filter adaptor made by Lee. It would probably be worthwhile as the lens lends itself to using ND grads to tame skies.

Wind-blown grasses and young oak trees in Savernake Forest, England

I’m in two minds as to whether use this shot for tomorrow night’s “Trees” competition at Shrivenham Camera club. The alternatives are:

Avenue of trees, Coate Water, Swindon

or

Horse Chestnut, Lydiard Park, Swindon

They all look lovely as prints. The last two by the way, were taken with a Leica M8 and the superb 28mm Elmarit ASPH lens. I treated myself to this lens in September and I have been blown away by it’s sharpness. It has become the ‘body cap’ on my M8.

The Horse Chestnut is my favourite of the three. This was quite a tricky shot, as I was shooting into the light. Rather than use the camera’s meter, I opted to use a hand-held meter and take an incident reading.  It took very little post-processing in Lightroom to produce what I believe is a “fine” print.  There were no blown highlights and there’s oodles of details in the shadows.  This is definitely one for the wall!

There are times when I detest working for a large organisation and not surprisingly, today was one of those times.

You can imagine how happy I was when lunchtime came around and after a quick sandwich, was able to take a walk outside with my Canon G9. The light was pretty awful. Yesterday was what I call a ‘glad to be alive day’ owing to the crisp air and blue skies. Today was an altogether greyer affair.

Just as I reached the end of my walk around the perimeter of my workplace, I spotted a single leaf stuck in a chainlink fence. The camera was out of my pocket in a flash. I had in mind a monochrome image with the backlit leaf standing out from the hedge behind and the tones and hardness of the chainlink fence contrasting with the delicacy of the leaf.

The exposure was made with -1EV worth of exposure compensation to tame the highlights at the top of the picture. I didn’t want to go any lower as I wanted to keep the noise levels down to a manageable level as I was already shooting at ISO 200 to make sure I could use a decent shutter speed.

I processed the image in Lightroom. There’s quite a steep curve - partly to emphasise the mid-tones and also to lower the values of the darks tones and shadows. I also played with the contrast a bit to harden the image and accentuate the chain link and make the leaf stand out a touch more. Finally, I tweaked the green and yellow channels to bring out the leaf a bit more.

The final image is shown below.

Leaf in Chainlink Fence.

If you want to see more pictures a week taken in 2008, please visit Mark’s Picture a Week Pages

I felt much, much better for my walk and knowing I had a reasonably good shot in the bag made the afternoon a much more pleasant proposition.

A decent swim after work helped too!

The final print, made onto Permajet 271 Oyster paper shows a full range of tones and there is plenty of detail in the leaf structure.
I’m in two minds as to whether it’s worth putting on to fibre paper. I think I’ll mull that over with a glass of Speyside Single cask whisky.

I’d completed the database design a couple of weeks back.  Whilst I had stated coding the new pages, I was having trouble with the AJAX code.  So, this morning, I simplified the code and now everything that I had planned to write works properly.

Once I had finished coding on David’s site, I turned my attention to another problem that I had experienced a few months ago, namely how to resize images to make a thumbnail gallery.

The O’Reilly book ‘PHP in a Nutshell’ showed the way, but I was having real problems getting my head around the header() function and how it works.  I took a look at the HTML specification, but I could feel my will to live ebbing away as I read.

A quick Google search brought up a plethora of php examples.  I took the simplest code and within a couple of hours had modified it to enable me to produce a resized jpeg image which had the same aspect ratio of the original file.  I also added code to enable the size of the final image to be varied.

To test the code fully, I knocked up a PHP script that produced a thumbnail gallery from any jpeg images that may be in a directory.  In total, it took a couple of hours to produce a working gallery.  All that’s left to do is to do some styling and then work out how to roll it out on Monomagic.

A damned good day’s coding, which was just as well as the weather has been atrocious today. Time for a glass or two of wine!