WARREN CONNECTICUT – More familiar ground with my new Leica Monochrom 246. Today I shot some very old lenses that don’t couple properly with the rangefinder but which can be focussed using the camera’s live view feature. The first image is a with a 1936 Karl Zeiss 50mm Sonar f2.0 mounted on the camera with an exotic Contax to Leica adapter from the 1950s. Next is Basil wearing a t-shrt to cover up his stitches so he can’t scratch them.
Day 2039 of one photograph every day for the rest of my life.
NEW YORK NEW YORK – A new camera today. The new version of the Leica Monochrom arrived in my life this morning. I’ve been shooting the original Monochrom for just over three years now. Remember that the Monochroms produce black and white only files; the absence of a Bayer filter over the sensor (which is how cameras see in color) doubles the effective resolution; and the absence of color information leads to a simpler “de-mosaicing” step in in-camera processing, which results in smoother, deeper files. This works for me because I shoot only in black and white.
The old Monochrom produces lovely film-like black and white renderings; based on limited initial experience so does the new Monochrom (which is referred to as Model 246 to distinguish it from the older camera). The new camera doesn’t offer much in the way of resolution improvement: 24 megs without a Bayer filter (up from 18 with the current Monochrom), which produces the equivalent of 48 meg resolution, solidly in medium format land. Based on initial impressions the files are even more flexible than the original Monochrom in terms of ability to bring out shadow detail.
I got the new camera because of some minor sensor issue with the old one and because although it looks exactly the same it just a better camera with improved weather sealing, quieter shutter, better rangefinder, more useful frame lines, faster start up and frame to frame speeds, better high ISO performance and better battery life.
From this point on assume that the images you see on this site are taken with the Leica Model 248 Monochrom. I spent the day shooting familiar scenes to begin to get a feel for the camera.
Day 2038 of one photograph every day for the rest of my life.
Third AvenueOttomelli
On this day two years ago (day 1308): Basil our Norwich Terrier, breaking my “no photographs of cute pets” rule.
BOSTON and SOMEWHERE IN CONNECTICUT – I spent the morning in Boston and took the train back to New York.
Day 2036 of one photograph every day for the rest of my life.
PortraitBeantown
On this day four years ago (day 575): Conservatory Gardens. I didn’t actually post this image on May 13, 20111 – on re-editing images for the day I decided that I like this a lot more than the image of construction at Mt. Siani that I actually used.
NEW YORK NEW YORK – May 12 is a seriously over-committed day for me: my schedule required me to attend all day meetings in both New York and Boston. This didn’t leave a lot of room for photography, so I resorted to my iPhone (always better than I expect), in this case shooting a crumpled sheet of paper from my schedule. The string is alive; long live the string. Consider today’s output as a foil to my productive yesterday.
Day 2035 of one photograph every day for the rest of my life.
NEW YORK NEW YORK – I shot between the Upper East Side and Midtown today in sometimes ok light. I got a few Springtime “look ups” and some interesting alleys. The first image is three frames stitched; my hand-held stitching technique is improving: the near-far juxtaposition is difficult without a pano rig on a tripod.
Day 2034 of one photograph every day for the rest of my life.
