Sail Away

GXR A16, f5.4, 1/570, ISO 200, RAW, 75mm


After all the b&w pictures recently I wanted some colour and have made this picture a bit more vibrant than what i would usually do but it suits the subject I think.

In Thought

GXR A12-M, f4.0, 1/189, ISO 200, JPG b&w

After the rain stopped I went out for a walk in the park and to take some pictures. Even the sun came out and I could enjoy a pint in the sun by the river.

Playing in the Rain

GRD, f2.4, 1/50, ISO 400, JPG b&w

Back to London and back to the rain. After the last two days in Munich and Berlin where it was warm and sunny to come back to a grey and cold London is not great. Still, it's nice to be back home after all the travelling and good to see some friends for a barbecue in wet weather. The kids had great fun despite the weather or maybe because of the weather. 

The GRD I is the perfect camera for these candid shots at a party, it's small, unobtrusive and fast at capturing action.

Walking By in Munich

GRD, f5.6, 1/640, ISO 200, JPG b&w

Took this while waiting for a taxi to the airport, it was a short stay in Munich and will be an even shorter stay in Berlin before flying back in the evening.
No pictures worth posting from Berlin this time.

Lunch at Munich Hbf

GRD, f4.0, 1/250, ISO 200, JPG b&w

Another trip to Munich but this time round I did not have much time for photography although the weather was fantastic.

Jogging in the Rain

GRD, f9.0, 1/1000, ISO 400, JPG b&w

Dusk in the City

GXR A16, f7.1, 1/1230, ISO 200, RAW, 80mm

Merchandise

GRD, f2.4, 1/40, ISO 400, JPG b&w

The past weeks have been quite busy and although I did manage to take pictures and keep my blog more or less up to date, I did not get around to reply to the comments.
Thanks for all the comments, I will reply to all of them as soon as I can.

London Marathon 2012

As with every year some pictures from the London Marathon, not my best year in terms of quality and I also got out a bit later so missed the main action.
Took all with the GXR A12-M, Jupiter-8 and Leica Elmar 90mm lenses.

Spying

GXR A16, f6.3, 1/270, ISO 200, RAW, 80mm

Dark Clouds

GRD, f6.1, 1/1000, ISO 64, JPG

Look Right

GRD, f5.0, 1/320, ISO 400, JPG b&w

Lunchtime in Zurich

GRD III, f1.9, 1/30, ISO 88, RAW

Quick stopover in Zurich on my way back to London. I like stopping over in Zurich, the airport is great and it's quick to get into town and back.

Taking a Break

GRD III, f5.0, 1/500, ISO 64, RAW

Only time for photography was in the morning before my meetings but the weather was great and so people were out enjoying the sun.

Kissing

GRD III, f5.6, 1/640, ISO 64, RAW

Back in Berlin for work and with limited time, I decided to only take the GRD III with me. It was nice to use it again and it's size is a big bonus for these kind of trips, certainly better than having to use my phone to take pictures.

Dark Clouds Looming

GXR A12-M, f8.0, 1/930, ISO 200, RAW, 53mm (Voigtlander Nokton f1.2 35mm)

Arundel Cathedral

GXR A16, f7.5, 1/203, ISO 200, RAW, 35mm

Foggy

GXR A16, f7.1, 1/330, ISO 200, JPG, 85mm

Red Umbrella

GXR A16, f6.7, 1/540, ISO 200, RAW, 35mm

Pushing It

GXR A16, f6.8, 1/330, ISO 200, RAW, 50mm

Waiting for Another Train

iPhone 4, f2.8, 1/15, ISO 125, JPG, Hipstamatic App

It feels like in recent weeks all I have done is spend time at train stations or airports and in some ways this is not too far off.
This is the reason why I decided to actually post a photo from a train station.

Amsterdam Meet

(Taken with the NEX-5n and the Sony 50mm f1.8 lens) 


Yesterday, I met with Björn in Amsterdam for some drinks, photography and some gear talk.

We met at the Hortus in Amsterdam where we had a coffee to start off the meetup and give us time to play around with the cameras and enses we brought along. I had my GXR with A16 zoom and the A12 Mount with Voigtlander 12mm, Ricoh GR 28mm and the Jupiter 50mm lenses and Björn brought his Sony NEX-5n, NEX-7 and the Sony 50mm, Zeiss 24mm and the Zeiss Sonar 50mm M-lens.

It was a great and fun meetup as always and I enjoyed the conversation very much. We are quite similar in our view of cameras and photography and while we don't care too much about gear, we do like to discuss it.

We then set off to take some pictures around the botanical gardens and while Björn was using my GXR to get a feel for it, I was using the NEX-7 to see how it performs. I think we were both quite surprised as to how much we enjoyed the cameras and how easy it was to use them.

The NEX-7 with the Zeiss 24mm lens is a very nice and light combo and the AF is fast enough and does not really get in the way. The tri-navi system is very easy and fast to use and takes only a little getting used to but works as intuitive as the Ricoh interface with all the main controls easily reachable. I ended up accidentally changing settings at times but this should not be a problem in longer use.

What is a problem on the NEX-7 is the use of M lenses. While it performs well with the 50mm lenses, it does not really work with the 12mm and GR lenses and the corners and sides are very soft and lose details next to the purple colour shift.

I also found the Sony peaking not as easy to use or as accurate as Mode 2 on the GXR, at times it was not easy enough to see on the edges and other times it seemed to overwhelm the picture, this should however not be a problem with more practice and still remains one of the easiest ways to manually focus.

After my experience with the NEX-7, I would say that it is the best handling camera next to the GXR at the moment and it is quite impressive how much Sony has managed to get into such a small package, the LCD and EVF are fantastic and being able to flip the screen is great and something I want to see in more cameras, especially the GXR.
Unfortunately as nice as it is, the performance with M lenses is not very good so it will not work for me in it's current form. The Zeiss 24mm and Sony 50mm are both nice lenses but I would hesitate to buy into another electronic system after the m4/3 and don't really need interchangeable AF lenses, here the GXR A12 28mm or 50mm modules would do the job for when I am to lazy to manually focus.

So a thanks to Björn for showing me around and for the (as always) interesting conversation.

(Taken with the Sony NEX-7 and Zeiss 24mm lens)

(Taken with the Sony NEX-7 and Zeiss 50mm f1.5 M-lens)

(Taken with the NEX-7 and Voigtlander Heliar 12mm lens, the corner and edge smearing is quite obvious and makes this lens a no-go on the NEX-7)

(Another shot with the Heliar 12mm but here the corner smearing is not too distracting)

Morning in Amsterdam

This post will only cover the morning part of today. The afternoon part will be covered in a separate post.

Although the weather forecast was not great, the morning started off with great sunshine and mild temperatures. I took a walk around Amsterdam and used only the Voigtlander 12mm lens, the last picture is the only exception where I tried out the Zeiss f1.5 50mm lens wide open using the electronic shutter.

Back to Amsterdam

Arrived for two days in Amsterdam. I have been here a few times already but like the place and it's a nice change after the last 2 weeks in Germany.

Had my GXR with A12 Mount and the A16 zoom with me but only used the A12 with the Ricoh GR 28mm, Voigtlander Heliar 12mm and the Jupiter-8 50mm lenses.

Tree in the Front

GXR A16, f6.3, 1/233, ISO 200, JPG, 24mm

Checking the Timetable

GXR A16, f4.1, 1/125, ISO 766, JPG, 35mm

Escalator

GXR A16, f4.8, 1/125, ISO 320, JPG, 70mm

What's On?

GXR A16, f5.5, 1/97, ISO 3200, JPG, 70mm

Window View

GXR A16, f4.1, 1/125, ISO 16385, JPG, 35mm

Selling Crepes

GXR A12-M, f5.6, 1/125, ISO 218, JPG, 75mm (Jupiter-8 f2.0 50mm L)