Even at first glance, it is obvious that the Leica X Vario contains the DNA of the Leica M.
The utterly stupid Leica X Vario
This line comes from the official Leica Website page on the Leica X Vario. Someone wrote this line. Then someone approved it. They had a good chuckle. Then probably a good cry. Then they published it.
The Leica M is a system defined by simplicity, a quality optical rangefinder, manual focus, interchangeable prime lenses and has become known for high quality glass, stellar low light performance…
The Leica X Vario is point and shoot camera with a crop sensor no viewfinder, a fixed, bulky, slow zoom lens, autofocus and a movie mode. Almost every camera company out there has something analogous or better in their lineup, some have for years.
So, I have to review this camera. This is the easiest review in the world to write. Takes only two words and I am inspired by Spinal Tap.
Other famous 2-word reviews
Leica X Vario Two Word Review:
SHIT SANDWICH
That’s right. We just got served a shit sandwich by our friends in Solms. $3,000 for a stupid fixed lens camera a with a slow kit lens and no viewfinder in a fat, cumbersome looking monstrosity of a package. The only “M” DNA in this thing is the little bit of excrement that splashed onto it when the Leica brass decided to pee all over its customers with this embarrassment. Shame on Leica – we won’t eat your shit sandwich.
Posted by Leica BOSS on October 10, 2012 at 10:43 am
A popular technique for getting a wide field of view but with a very shallow depth of field involves taking many photos and stitching them together – this “Brenizer Technique” is named for wedding photographer Ryan Brenizer. (He’s a bit of a strobist too!)
It’s not always practical or possible to stitch many photos together – so this photography and photoshop shortcut is a nice way to emulate this effect using only two images – without the hassle of stitching many photos together. Sorry about the screen capture this time, folks… it’s a little lo-fi. (more…)
Posted by Leica BOSS on October 2, 2012 at 12:25 pm
Honey-Do Lists and Photography – can they work together?
Frank the Tank from Old School knows a thing or two about a wild weekend for the wild american ex-bachelor. It must include a trip to the Home Depot – a staple of weekend Honey-Do lists.
Well, um, actually a pretty nice little Saturday, we're going to go to Home Depot. Yeah, buy some wallpaper, maybe get some flooring, stuff like that. Maybe Bed, Bath, & Beyond, I don't know, I don't know if we'll have enough time.
Sometimes life doesn’t leave as much time as we’d like for photography. That gap in time between one’s bachelor days and retirement can present a potential black hole of creativity and opportunity needed to exercise one’s Photography muscles and shoot like a boss.Do you turn to exclusively photographing your cat and kids?
Hell no!
You take your camera to the Home Depot and give it hell!
Leica M9 + Summicron 35mm f/2 at Home Depot
I like having either a little mirrorless or Leica rangefinder camera with me when I go to photograph at stores or other places where a camera doesn’t quite fit in. Some dude with a big ass DSLR and a zoom lens raises suspicion at a big box retailer. Even moreso at Victoria’s Secret (I can only surmise… not by experience).
So for this trip – it was two things. 1) Leica M9 + Summicron 35mm f/2 and 2) A concept for some shots.
This concept was “form within pattern” – the challenge was to find pattern an repetition that had some second level of form through variation of pattern. Sure, it’s a little more abstract and lacks narrative… but the results do capture the place fairly well and were fun to capture.
I chose to shoot for black and white due to the terribad quality of the lighting that would require shooting at higher ISOs and just destroy the blue channel if I attempted to get nice colors.
Posted by Leica BOSS on August 27, 2012 at 1:41 pm
Shooting Leica Boss doesn’t always require holding a Leica camera. Even the Boss of Bosses knows that you can get Leica goodness from a number of camera bodies.
So the 90mm Summicron f/2 is an amazing tool. This is an early 1980′s Midland version. It’s compact, beautiful, sturdy, & deliberate. The problem is, on an M6 or M9 camera, the tiny and somewhat inaccurate frame lines and iffy focus (holy craptastic backfocus, Batman!) really hold this lens back in terms of shot reliability when the details matter.
Posted by Leica BOSS on August 14, 2012 at 2:57 pm
Heading back from a meeting in beautiful Buena NJ (home of Blackwater Pond Park and a big ass WAWA) I was happy to have my Leic M9 and Summicron 50mm f/2 in the passenger seat.
I knew that I was in a beautiful part of the state on a bright sunny day but had that nagging question “what do I take photos of?” Having a camera and no sense of purpose can leave you with bland photos. Creativity bears more fruit when focused.
Creating an impromptu “photo project” can quickly motivate and excite your photomojo. A project can be incredibly simple – I chose “Jersey Fresh” as my theme. “Jersey Fresh” is a logo and slogan that highlights the proud agricultural roots in the Garden State. Sure, it’s really broad for a theme, but gave me a clue as to where I might stop to take a photo and what I’d like it to convey.
Here’s a few images from the set.
What are some other ideas for mini projects you may try when exploring a new place or rediscovering a familiar one?
Place X – a bug’s eye view
Roadside eats in Place X
Color-based themes
Behind popular establishements / alleyways
Fences
Landscaping details
Infrastructure details (great for the Leica black and white crowd)
Give it a go – next time you’re shooting without a cause. give yourself a bit of a unifying assignment or theme. You may be pleased with the results.
SnapSort.com is basically an aggregation site that loads camera stats into a database and “scores” them in relation to each other based on those stats. they rustle my Jimmies.
Users can then pit two cameras against each other and the database gnomes at SnapSort.com will tell you which camera is better. Here’s a little example for you, clearly indicating to the camera-buying public that the Canon S100 point and shoot outclasses the new Fuji X-Pro 1:
Clearly the S100 is a better camera. In the realm of utterly stupid comparisons, this site really takes the crown. Even the BOSS of BOSSES knows that photography is not simply the “application of technology” – but the general camera buying public actually uses sites like this to make decisions.
Ahhh, the beauty of mirrorless cameras… all that wonderful manual focus glass comes back to life. There are also quite a few amazing bargains out there to be had. Now that I have this one – I don’t mind sharing
Canon FD mount lenses represent some of the best bargains in the world in terms of optical quality and price. One gem in the lineup is the FD 28mm f/2.8.
Canon FD 28mm f/2.8
One reason it’s such a gem is the price. For $30-40.00 this lens can be yours.
The Canon FD lineup had a number of 28mm lenses – which are often overlooked in favor of the 24mm and 35mm focal lengths. There was no “L” series 28mm either, taking some of the enthusiast spotlight away from the lens. While a few versions exist with an f/2 maximum aperture, there happen to be some rubber bushings that can deteriorate over time and make focusing a hassle. The f/2.8 lenses do not appear to suffer such a fate.
So, here are a few impressions and important facts about the Canon FD 28mm f/2.8 in particular with the Sony NEX-7 that I tested it on: (more…)
So, I have been transitioning to Adobe Lightroom 4. There are certainly a number of significant changes in the new version of Adobe’s image organization and “digital darkroom” software – but ultimately a few are not for the better. The updated “clarity” slider is one change that can hardly be called an improvement. No, folks. The new clarity slider is a bucket of fail. More after the video:
I’ve slowly been evaluating some of my manual focus lenses with the NEX-7. It’s important to get a good feel for how a lens handles on a new camera body because the whole “previsualization” thing isn’t just a buzzword. It’s important to understand how depth of field, colors, overall rendering, sharpness at various apertures, lens flaws, etc. all work with the marriage of a camera and lens. Then you can intuitavely make decisions when it comes to shooting time without having to do much conscious thinking. (more…)
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