Category Archives: Gear Talk

When the mirror-less cameras started coming out a couple years ago, most serious photographers said, “Meh, interesting, but no thanks”. The idea was sound, but the features just weren’t there. The smaller sensor size, and resulting crop factor kept most people sceptical, and the lack of viewfinder scared the rest away. Panasonic made some progress with their G series, but it still wasn’t a serious workhorse; at best the Micro 4/3rds cameras were considered nice snapshot tools to take on vacation when you didn’t want to lug around your Canon or Nikon gear. Continue reading →

Last week saw the release of yet another technical marvel in the world of photography, possibly one of the most important photographic inventions since the digital sensor. Behold the Lytro, the worlds first commercial camera capable of recording depth in a photo, allowing you to change the plane of focus after the shot. I’m not going to go into details on how this little gadget works, there’s a ton online already for those that are interested. It doesn’t really matter, let’s call it Wizards and forget about that for now.

At the moment the technology is too knew to be even considered for professional work. It hasn’t been confirmed yet as the Lytro company has been pretty dodgey about releasing actual technical specs for the camera, saying only that it has an “11 Mega-Ray” sensor, which is exactly what it sounds like… techno-babble to confuse the masses into buying into a big number in front of an “M”, because no self-respecting consumer would buy a digital camera with less than 10 M’s… M’s are good right? That’s where the Jiga-Pixels come from right? One of the pro-photogs that was given a pre-release sample said the actual resolution is somewhere between 1-2MP, so good enough for the web or a 4X6 print.  I knew something smelled fishy when actual resolution numbers where nowhere to be found in any of the press material. Continue reading →

After almost a decade of shooting rangefinders on a regular basis, I’ve gone through my share of 50mm lenses. My first was a junker Russian copy of the WWII era Zeiss Sonnar, a good little performer but not terribly sharp. Next came a couple older Leica’s, an Elmar and a Summar; great lenses but still not quite what I was looking for. I really needed speed in a 50mm as I use it almost exclusively at night; f2 is the standard “fast” rangefinder 50mm aperture, going faster usually means forking out a lot more money… then along came Voigtlander. Continue reading →

Every time I travel I end up taking way more than I need, lugging it around and cursing the day I thought I needed all this gear; but camera gear’s like rental car insurance, I’d rather have it and not need it, not need it but don’t have it. I think I’ve finally paired my travel camera bag down to just the essentials, it’s still a bloated list, but it’s the least amount of gear my “what if I need it” mind can handle.  I used to bring my DSLR rig on most trips, but my back just couldn’t hack it, it’s not a gear bag you want to walk any length of time with and still enjoy yourself.  With the addition of the Nex 3 to my rangefinder kit, I have the flexibility of digital with the compactness of my Leica gear.

Major Gear:

• Grafea Photo Camera Bag
• Leica M2 (primary film body)
• Sony Alpha NEX-3 (w/ M Mount Adapter, primary digital body)
• Voigtlander Super Wide Heliar 15mm f/4.5 M Mount
• Voigtlander Color-Skopar 25mm f/4.0
• Voigtlander 35mm Ultron f1.7 (discontinued, sorry no link)
• Voigtlander 50mm Nokton f1.5 (also discontinued)

• Olympus XA (secondary film body)
• Gossen Digisix Exposure Meter
  
• LensPEN
  
• ASUS 1215P 12″ Netbook
  
• Leicatime neckstraps
• 2 x 16GB SD-Cards
• Kobo E-Reader

I usually have one of the wide angles on the Nex leaving the 35mm and 50mm lenses on the Leica.  The XA is a great backup film camera, it’s really small, really sharp and can fit in any pocket.  I picked the Asus 1215P because it’s one of the few netbooks with 1024×768 resolution; I can’t stress how important this is if you intend to use Photoshop CS3 or newer on your trip.  The more recent versions of Photoshop have a really annoying “feature”; some of the most important windows like the Camera Raw dialog and the Save As window either render with buttons off screen or not at all if your screen is smaller than 768 pixels tall.  The Leicatime leather neck straps are the most comfortable and stylish straps I’ve ever used.  And while not strictly photo gear, the Kobo e-reader now comes with me everywhere, especially on vacation.  One constant no matter where you travel is waiting.  You’re going to wait for hours at various airports and transit stations, wait in line for hotels, attractions, food… you’re going to spend a good chunk of your vacation with nothing to do and always having hundreds of books at the push of a button really helps.

I usually end up filling up any nooks and crannies left in my photo bag with any gadget that will still fit, but that’s the important stuff.  What’s in your travelling gear bag?

About two years ago, after a long and exhaustive search, I finally found the perfect camera bag for my rangefinder kit from a company called Grafea out of the UK. Well last week Grafea was kind enough to send me a sample of their newest camera bag to review: the Grafea PHOTO. It’s very similar to their previous bags with one very important addition, a padded and removable insert. The bag pictured in this review is their “Caramel” color but I’ve been told it will be available in dark brown and black very soon.

My original Grafea bag has been on my shoulder almost every day since I bought it, so I had pretty high hopes and equally high expectations from this new bag. It’s slightly taller but with slightly less room back to front, roughly the same internal volume. I was excited about the added height as there are a few items in my kit that where a bit too tall for my previous bag; my netbook for one, it would fit but protruded a bit above the top. It has the same side pockets and zippered back pockets as the original camera bags. The stitching and construction is great, and it’s made from the the same type of high quality leather as my old bag. I was a bit disappointed when I first picked up the bag as the leather felt stiffer than my old one, but on reflection that’s not surprising; it’s the difference between a brand new baseball glove and one that you’ve been using for years that’s become an extension of your hand. Like any quality leather product it’s going to take some breaking in, I’d just forgotten the mileage I’ve put on my original bag. One thing this has made me realize though, is that while all my other camera bags are looking worse for wear after even occasional use, my Grafea bag looks better and better as time goes on, acquiring the character you expect from well used leather. Continue reading →