Thursday August 8, 2013

NEW YORK NEW YORK – It’s time for a picture of cameras. I obviously can’t put all of them in the picture because then I wouldn’t have a camera to take the picture. Actually I took this with my iPhone, which I use quite regularly. So here are four the the six cameras that I’m currently using. The biggest is a Leica S2, a Leica medium format camera. Wonderfully suited for landscape and any thing else you want to render with perfect lenses and a lot of resolution. Sensational huge viewfinder. Downsides: heavy and poor high ISO, s problem endemic to the CCD sensors that all medium format cameras use. Next in size is my Leica Monochrom. A unique camera that shoots digital but only in Black and white. It produces remarkably detailed files and highly nuanced gray scale images. But it’s essentially a 1954 design (albeit a famous one) – it’s like driving a 1954 Porsche. Completely manual. People love it or hate it – I’m in the former category. Next is the highly-praised Fuji X100s – probably the best non-zoom (it has a fixed focal length 35mm equivalent lens) in its price and size category. The Fuji lens is outstanding and the level of intelligence built into the camera is comparable to a much larger SLR. Amazing performance in near darkness. Great for snapshots in situations where you can’t miss. Images are very good but lack the mojo that Leica delivers for much more money. Finally the little Sony RX100 II which some have called the best pocketable point and shoot ever. Images quality is comparable to the Fuji but it’s not quite as reliable in terms of focus and exposure. Not included in the picture is my Leica M which looks like the Monochrom but takes pictures in living color.

I’m a nut on image quality – each of these cameras delivers in its own way.

On this day last year: Dull image in the “take at least some kind of damn immage every day” camp.