Leica M9-M: First impresssions
The new Leica M9-M
I’ll be honest, I love to look at camera gear so when the chance to see the new Leica M9-M in Malaysia presented itself, I leapt at it.
Thanks to Paul who let me tag along to the latest unveiling at the Leica shop in Avenue K. It was mostly an invite only event. A lot of rich and powerful people were there and like any events with lots of rich and powerful people there was food and wine along with a lot of showing of camera bling bling. Needless to say I wish I was a grifter so I sucker them all but I disgress, the camera is the main topic.
Actually, they were unveiling 2 cameras! The Leica M9 Hermes edition and the Leica M9-M camera both at the sametime, oddly it wasn’t going sale yet. It was just an unveiling for people to looks and hopefully, reach deep into their pockets and place pre-order.
So what’s so special about the Hermes edition? It was basically a Leica M9 that comes in a nice box, has a very nice lens, and a special vulcanite and wiz bang! Here is the making of video
So now you know why they’ve justified the price tag of USD25,000 (no that’s not a typo).
But anyway, getting back to the Leica M9-M, what about this? what’s so special about it? Well, it’s basically, Leica M9 that only shoot’s black and white but because of this and thanks to some engineering feat, it can be pushed up to ISO 10,000 (my D700 can only go up to ISO6400 as one of the regular settings but then it’s more than 3 years old). Some interesting tidbits as we were hovering around it as it sat inside it’s glass casing for all to see, they mentioned that this camera was designed to match everything Henri Cartier-Bresson would have wanted in a Leica camera (well I don’t know about that since he died more than 6 years ago and had stopped shooting photography long before then). But what would he have though of this camera? They believe so strongly that he would have loved this camera so much they even gave it the project name Henri as I was told by one of the Leica staff.
As luck would have it, I was the first one who managed to get a feel and hands-on experience after someone had accidentally spilled some wine on the glass casing and some of it was starting to seep into it so cleaning was in order and while they were doing that, I was handed the pleasure of holding it and shooting it. I noticed the shots seems to show jagged edges when you zoomed in close enough (actually, not that much) so I supposed the sensor doesn’t have anti-aliasing filter like the D800 and Xpro-1.
The camera has literally no distinctive marking to indicate a Leica but anyone who has read about camera should more a less be able to tell that it’s a mile away. Aside from that, body wise, the handling is the same but I think it’s my imagination but the body felt lighter than a regular Leica M9 even when using the same lens.
So what is my opinion? Does it justify it’s price tag? Does it mean it is the pinnacle of a black and white camera? Hard to tell without extensive testing and the fact that the unit I was holding now was actually heading off to China the next day. The serial number on it was “007″ (heh, you really need to be Bond to own one, matches the style). Anyway, if you love black and white and have a great liking to perfection (along with heaps of cash) then yes, otherwise look else where or even the Leica MP which I had a chance to hold and try as well while I was there. Felt much nicer than the Leica M7, more heft.
Seeing 2 sides of the same photo from the same person.
A funny thing happen to me last night, well actually it started a week ago when I downloaded my latest copy of American Photo from Zinio.
Happy New year 2012!
Now I know I’m late in posting this but I was just sleeping off 2011 and kinda overdid it. So once again, another year comes to a close and as we welcome another new one 2012. I bet everyone had a fun night on the end of 2011? Me? Zip, just stayed in and had dinner with my family. So let’s recap with 2011
January to April
Was jobless from November 2010 till March 2011. It was pretty boring except for a CNY and a Rei figure shooting. In March I had finally found another job. At first it felt like another mundane desk monkey duty, I spent most of it rewriting manuals and doing minor tests. But surprisingly, they were willing to invest in their employees and so I was sent off to Cyprus for a 2 weeks training course though that didn’t mean it was a cakewalk as I had exams and tests to complete and I literally hit the ground running when I came back. But as a result, I had to cancel all my plans to go to Bangkok for the Motorshow with studio rojak.
May to July
Now this period was rough, I remember spending most of my bloody time carrying out even more tiresome regression tests by hand instead of using some sort of test harness. Had I thought the assignments been tough with their short 3 days period for each of the 3 assignments, this was nausea inducing at best.
But fortunately, I had my own things to do by scanning in all my film while at the same time reworking how I stored data on my imac .
Then in June, it was that time of the year again, Super GT 2011! And this year we managed to score a media pass! Finally, after all these years! But sadly, at the same time, the quality of the queens were evidently in much great decline.
Then after coming back from that, it was back to newer assignments! I had the chance to work on…..(drumroll!)…..tech support (crap!) and the company ban all non-essential company internet activity (the only thing we could access was the major news websites). But fortunately, one caveat was discovered initially, while personal notebooks or netbooks were banned but tablets were not yet included so lo and behold! I went and got one. Although a month after that, the company banned tablets in the end XD.
During that time, I only reviewed 1/7 Rin Tohsaka figure.
August to December
Now August was really dry, it was right after Super GT and Bon odori 2011 which I didn’t go because of work. I think all I did was just work, this lasted until October as if to re-state itself as the month of Halloween, the world lost great men, Steve Jobs and Dennis M. Ritchie.
After that, something happen at work. There was a major restructuring, as a result I was literally shifted around teams and groups every few weeks as management were trying ideas. As a result, I spent October till December doing absolutely nothing. I kept pestering my manager about this and I must have annoyed her so much that she sent me and a friend again to Cyprus for advance security training since no one had the knowledge here. Luckily this time, there wouldn’t be any assignments nor exams.
In November though, there was AFA11! My friend and I had a good time especially at the Miku concert. The events were great and the cosplay were beautiful! I also wanted to attend the final event of the year Comic Fiesta 2011 but it fell on the very weekend I came back from my overseas training, I knew I wouldn’t be able to make it.
So what did I do after that? Well because I still had a lot of leave left, I decided to take them till the new year which brings us to this entry. I’ll be heading back to work on the 3rd of January and hopefully to a better year.
Happy new year!
1/4 Nanoha Takamachi Swimsuit Ver. PVC by Good smile company
I'll be honest, I don't really like the idea of buying reissues so whenever a figure I want completely sells out, usually the only other way to get a copy is to wait for one to show up on the second hand market. It has something to do with my mentality of getting the first one, that being said it really stinks up whenever I found out after searching how and low for something, I later find that the company has made a reissues, it totally invalidates all my previous effort and sort of cheapens the figure I spent so much trying to acquire.....
Finally here in Singapore!
I’m finally here in Singapore. The flight was alright although the toilets in the waiting area weren’t working at the airasia airport aka lcct.
Kodak portra 400 new version 2010
I finally had the opportunity to scan them in and work on them. I had a lot of initial problems scanning them in using the default canon scanner software even though Kodak claimed that this film was designed specifically for scanning instead of printing.
Magical girl lyrical Nanoha: Takamachi Nanoha school uniform by Alter
When I first saw this go up for preorder at play-Asia, I knew instantly I had to have her in my collection! No, I’m not a lolikon! Though this is rather different from the usual figures I have collected as it’s modest figure but that is what makes me want it even more!
1/7 Tosaka Rin “Unlimited Blade works” by Good Smile Company
I finally have time to do a proper review of this figure and I’m so glad I spent the whole day doing the photo shoot properly. For those wondering when did I get this figure, refer to here. This figure so far in my opinion is well worth the extra effort although I couldn’t find a good background to shoot with it.
A little background on how I came by this figure, when it was first announced for pre-order I gave it a pass because I knew the price would be well out of my range but then a Hobby Search offered a 20% discount for it and I leaped for it and the rest as they say is history! So how much did I really save? When compared to local price of RM400, after conversion to Ringgit from Yen, I got the figure at Rm350 inclusive of shipping! So yeah! I really am glad I did get this one!
Though I do find one thing odd, most PVC figures comes in the usual sizes of 1/4, 1/6, 1/8, and some even in 1/12 but 1/7? Whatever the reason, the important thing is GSC did the figure justice!
Kodak Portra 160VC
I picked this up during a visit to Keat Cameras in Pudu a month ago for a bargain. It came in one of those 5 roll packs, it’s cheaper to buy them like that and it makes storage easier instead of individual boxes.
My test so far puts this film strictly as a portrait film although it can be used for landscape but you need to really know how to use lighting or else your shots are not going to turn out well. Portra is the other end of the spectrum when compared to Ektar it seems. Where shooting people using Ektar is a waste of a good landscape film, shooting landscape with Portra is an experiment like washing a car with a dishcloth, it can work but it sure as hell is not the best way to do it.
Trouble is, I thought with the moniker VC (vivid colors) this was something with higher saturations and hence suitable for landscape and tried to used it for landscape shooting. So my shots turned out weird….
Fujichrome Trebi 100c
I don’t know what to make of this film, it doesn’t seem like any of the other film though I have read reviews saying it’s like sensia 2 (I never tried that so I can’t comment on it). The colors so far are soft and not very strong, while the contrast is is above average. Sharpness is very good while grain is really fine! I’m not kidding when I say they are fine! But what I like about is that it’s slide and I always prefer slide over negative film any day!
Here are some of the shots I’ve been meaning to upload for a while now. (more…)
Ilford HP5 plus 400 some of Pudu prison
Here is my next installment for HP5 I recently had developed. I only get all my film developed after a while. Due to the hassle of bringing them to the shop and then picking them up follow by scanning and editing. How many of you do your own b&w film development at home?
I know I can probably do the same thing and it’s not hard but since I’m staying with family for now still I can find a better place, I’ve decided to hold off doing my own development till then.
Though what I really want to do is have my own dark room and hand print my own photos but it’s still too cost prohibitive for me. I could just get a printer but I’ve always wanted to do it the old fashion way since it seems a lot more fun and you appreciate the artwork you produced as well as the work of other people who similar hand printed their own photos.
Fujifilm Superia x-tra revisited
When I last used this film, I swore I would never used negative ever again until I came across Kodak Ektar 100. Which forced me to reevaluate whether or not color negative provide a cheaper and effective film solution aside from the more expensive and difficult to find slide film, I decided to look back again at the many roll I had cursed into the box of despair and see if all of the shots were shit. Most of the shots were actually good but the color and sharpness were completely shit, and I know it was not the gear or skill because at that very same shoot, I used slide and they turned out quite well. Hence my reluctance to use color negative ever since.
So I decided to rescan the same roll of film carefully this time and maximise all the details I could obtained from the film and some unsharp masking, see if I could wring out any usable shots at all. Sadly I could only wring out 2 “passable” shots. Though whether or not this will change my opinion about using Superia ever the jury is still out on that one. But at least I know my scanning skill has improved if I could wring out something this time when compared to my previous efforts.
Some of you may remember this is from my Leng Yein shoot so pardon me if this bores you.
Though I have admit, the colors are much nicer this time around.
(more…)
Fujifilm Neopan (Presto) 400
I started shooting b&w with this film since I bought a batch from my first trip to Japan back in 2007. In Japan, it’s called Neopan Presto 400 while it’s just Neopan 400 every where else. I don’t think it’s a different film as there doesn’t seem to be any difference at all. Anyway here are some of the latest shots using it.
Some of the shots I’ve posted previously as part of a composite photo so here are the non-composite version.
Kodak Ektar 100
First up, I finally had the opportunity to get some of this film which many have claimed to be the color negative answer to Fujifilm’s Slide velvia. So far though I not sure if this assertion is true or not as my test of this film have yet to yield nothing coming close to slide level though I’m not saying it’s rubbish at least until I can do some more test with this film. Though I will say one thing, the grain on this film is really good so far and the colors are actually very pleasing and avoids the one main problem I faced when using velvia and that is it’s use under artificial light. Ektar performance is much better so far from what I’ve seen.
(more…)
Medicom toy RAH Ayanami Rei (Evangelion 2.0) 1/6 scale.
For the pass few weeks, its been raining sometimes for the whole day which is why I haven’t done any outdoor photography for a long time now.
Though that doesn’t mean I’m not doing anything at all. Instead I’m taking it as an opportunity to brush up and clear out the backlog of figure shoots that’s been slowly increasing. So I figured let’s try something different and shoot a posable figure this time.
Neon Genesis Evangelion 1/6 Scale Pre-Painted PVC Action Figure: Asuka Langley (Plug Suit Version)
This will be the last figure review of 2010 and what better way to end the year with then with the final Asuka figure I have that has yet to be reviewed. Truth be told I still have a lot of figures I want to do photo reviews for, but I just haven’t been able to motivate myself into getting around to them.
Alter Kos-Mos swimsuit version 1/6
I know this is long overdue but I had some time recently so I decided to finally do a short photoshoot for this figure. I also decided to try something new by using skylight bulbs for this shoot along with my flash. In retrospect I should have gone with the old light tent I usually use. But heck it was a good learning experience.
Creators Labo #026 Neon Genesis Evangelion Pre-Painted PVC Figure: Soryu Asuka Langley
Here's another figure review, this one came during the weekend I was in Singapore for AFA X (so I guess that technically makes it 2 Asuka on the same weekend). I'm starting to see a very dangerous obsession with Asuka.
Asuka Sohryu Langley Maid version by Kotobukiya 1/7
Today I'll be reviewing one of my purchases from AFA X. I had been looking for this Asuka for a while now when I came by it during AFA X. This is the original red maid outfit version which I feel was a lot better than the yellow outfit that was later released as a special limited edition. As it keeps in line with the Asuka's fiery temper. The yellow one felt like it lacked the associate of the outfit with the personality of the wearer.
Simply Beautiful photographs
Here is something different for a change. I picked this some a few weeks ago but only got around to reviewing today.
But of course anything by National Geographic is always good. I’ve been a big fan of their work as well as they contribution to charity as well as environmental work.
This is one of their latest coffee table photo books show casing another dazzling collection of photos from the archive chosen by Annie Griffihs. Each work is commented by her and credit is given to the photographer.
Yoshiyuki Sadamoto Collection “Carmine”
Now this one is currently selling at Kinokuniya with a 20% discount with another item of any price. So I just couldn’t resist buying this!
Though whether or not you should buy this is matter of opinion, first of all this is an artbook consisting of most of Yoshiyuki Sadamoto‘s anime artwork whether its was artwork mean for the actual anime or promotional poster. If it was done by him, its probably in here.
“Cica loves you” from Kinokuniya
You know what I love about going to Kinokuniya? Even though its about an hour’s drive from where I live?
Getting some great books but you know what is even better? Getting great books that haven’t been censored by the black marker pen of doom!
Gear review: Square light tent
Today I'll reviewing my latest purchase. A square light tent measuring at 80cm which I bought from aiphos in photomalaysia. Its pretty cheap at only RM100, other places were selling it for RM350++ for roughly the same size. Here's a shot of the light tent with a Nikon SB-600 just to give you a rough idea of how big it is...
Rebuild of Evangelion 1/6 Pre-Painted PVC Figure: Makinami Mari review
Makinami Mari illustrious
Okay for those who missed the arrival story of this new figure, you can check it out here. Anyway moving on, now that Gainax have decided to “rebuild” their much loved Evangelion series with 4 new planned movies (2 have already been made with the third one soon), they hope to re-work some of the element to further improve what was already a wonderfully told story. Among these improvements planned was the introduction of a new characters named Makinami Mari.
Recent Comments