Shooters.

I had a great time yesterday with the newest Nikon cameras at my local camera store! Nikon was there and showed the new Nikon D4 and D800 / D800E. We weren’t allowed to take pictures home, because the cameras were pre-production models. But I can already assure you, these two cameras are awesome in many ways (keeping image quality out of focus for now): The bodies are traditionally Nikon. They feel great in your hand.

The biggest surprise I guess was the light weight of the D800. Put some light lenses on it – like the also new Nikon AF-S 85/1.8G – and you’ll have much less weight hanging around your neck than with the D700 and the old 85/1.8. Believe me you literally can feel the 130g less of this combo.

The D4 of course is the workhorse you’re waiting for. We were allowed to shoot some sample images there and even in the preproduction model ISO 50.000 looks awesome. All the rest seems to be amazing as it already was with the D3s.

Fact is, I really want to have both: The D800 for landscape, some of the more detail challenging jobs and as a light alternative. The D4 for everything else. On the other hand, maybe I’ll just get myself a used D3s, since I don’t care for video.

I wish you all a wonderful New Year. I’d like to leave you with a sweep panorama out of the Sony Nex-3 of the last sunset 2010, just a couple of hours ago (click to enlarge). See you in 2011. Thanks for reading!

Wolfgang

Another year goes by. There was hardly a day, when I didn’t take at least one picture. Looking through all the images I realise, it’s been quite a European year. Didn’t cross an ocean in the last 365 days physically and didn’t miss it.
Looking through the images I also realise, how many cameras I’ve been using this year. Some were cool (actually most of them were), some I couldn’t really relate to or get warm with and with some I fell in love as far as love for cameras can go.

I haven’t been writing a lot recently as you know. The reason is, after all that testing and reviewing I needed to take care of my photography instead of cameras and lenses. I found myself doing test-images and forgetting about the primary goal of this blog: the everyday, reallife-use of photographic equipment. I’ve been actually testing quite a few cameras and lenses in the meantime, but with an emphasis rather on their fun-factor than on their high ISO-performance or technical image quality. I’ll give you my impressions of such things as the Canon EOS 60D or the Sony SLT A55 in the next days.

For now I’d like to give you a short summary of which cameras caught my heart or mind and which ones didn’t. (Read on after the break!) weiter lesen

Some things are still best be made with a DSLR. In order to add IQ to the great mirrorless cameras on the market all using APS-C sensors or smaller (except the M9, which isn’t affordable for me), I decided to go for the Canon 5D Mark II. And after a couple of meaningless pictures I’m already a lucky man. The amount of detail has almost got forgotten after using so many APS-C cameras lately. I figured, if I take the burden to carry a DSLR, which always is big compared to the mirrorless offerings, it’s best to go for the best affordable quality. I’ve used the D3s of a friend, had a D700 of my own for quite a while and they all are stunning cameras. But during my choice making I remembered the Detail of the 5DII during a backstage shooting for FireGirls ( www.clubfiregirls.com ) in Arizona last year and I went for that camera again. I think it will be a long-time companion now.

Don’t flame me for that, I couldn’t resist! Today I had a business meeting in Southern Austria and I was driving through the village of Frantschach. I remember crossing that village quite often, when my parents and I drove to Italy before the highway was built. Frantschach is famous for one thing only: its paper factory. I remember the uttermost stink of the smoke. You could already smell it miles away and even as a child I thought, how can we do such a crime to that beautiful landscape, not to speak of the whole planet. When I thought about Frantschach, I thought about smoke and vice versa. Today the smoke is still Frantschach’s number one landmark as you can see from the picture I shot out of my car today.

It doesn’t stink anymore and I guess with the rigid environment protection laws in Austria the smoke isn’t a lot more than just clean steam nowadays. But what has all this to do with Leica?

The paper factory was once owned by the family of Dr. Andreas Kaufmann, president of Leica. He bought Leica in 2004 and basically saved it from bankruptcy presumably with the money, his family had earned with the paper factory. Mr. Kaufmann himself – as reported in the media – has been a Waldorf teacher and a left-wing supporter before he bought the German camera manufacturer. I take a bow to the achievement of saving Leica and I love Leica cameras. But sometimes it’s good to be reminded where good things like a Leica M9 come from – in this case from producing a lot of smoke. In every bad thing lies something good. Maybe the people and former workers from Frantschach can now put their minds at ease: their bearing of stink and bad air has saved Leica and has produced utterly great cameras. Thank you people from Frantschach and thank you Mr. Kaufmann for saving Leica!

I’ve had my own Leica X1 for two weeks now and love it (except for the AF).

I’d like to share with you a couple of moments I had the chance to capture with it.
(Click images to enlarge.)

Thanks for looking!

Wolfgang

More after the break… weiter lesen

Life isn’t easy these days for enthusiastic photographers. Especially when you’re looking for the gear that perfectly fits you and your needs or wishes and try and keep the compromises as small as possible.
My name is Wolfgang Spekner and I’m a “the perfect gear addict”.

In analog times, the camera I did everything with and held dear for a decade (I still like it today), was the Nikon F90x (N90s). I started to do real photography, when I was 7, with an old Praktica and a 50mm f1.8 lens. Later, when AF-times dawned, I got myself a cheap Yashica AF200 with 35-70/3.5-4.5 and the 70-210/4.5 (I think). After using this camera for about ten years or so, the shutter broke and I bought my first Nikon, an F50. A couple of months later I upgraded to the older F-601 (N6006). Again a couple of months later I added a F90x. That was in 1996. I have used these two cameras until 2004 for almost everything I shot (I had also some compact cameras like the Yashica T5, Leica’s Minin III and two Olympus Mju coming and going.) My F-601 was gone in 2004, but I kept the F90x and still have it and maybe will never sell it, for it was my affordable dream camera at the time.

All that changed in 2004. (Read on after the break.) weiter lesen

When I first published my comparison of the Sony Nex-3, The Olympus E-PL1 and the Leica X1 I stated, that the Leica is my personal favorite (you can read the full comparison here). This verdict comes actually out of personal taste and not out of scientific findings. I just liked the handling of the camera.

Now, 2 months later, I got the chance to give the X1 another try. (Read on after the break.) weiter lesen

I really have to apologise for getting back to you this late, but I’ve been very busy lately. AND: I have lot’s of cool stuff in the pipeline for the blog.

I still owe you my real world review of the Leica Summarit-M 35/2.5 Asph. on the Sony Nex and the Panasonic GF1. It will be up in a couple of days. And there is even more about the Sony Nex, because I think I might have found the perfect lens-fit in the portrait and macro focal length – stay tuned.

For now I’m happy to provide you with my experience with two brand new Nikon DSLR lenses.

Thanks for reading to you all!

Wolfgang

Since I got my Sony Nex-3 a couple of weeks ago I have been eager to try lenses from other manufacturers on it. I really love using fast lenses and the original Sony E-mount lens selection didn’t serve me well in this respect.

A couple of days ago I eventually got two Kipon adapters: One to use Nikon AF-lenses on the Sony and the other to use Leica M-mount lenses on it.
After doing a couple of shots with my Nikon lenses (Nikon AF-D 35/2, AF-D 50/1.4 and AF 85/1.8), I was sort of disappointed, especially shooting wide open. So I decided to do some testing, not on test charts, but using a real world subject – the view from my living room.

Here are the results. I let you form your own opinion.
I will do some testing with “real good” Leica M-lenses in a couple of days and see if it gets better – I really hope so. So stay tuned and follow me on twitter to get informed as soon as the new test is online!

All pictures are from JPG:

First there’s a 35mm comparison between the Nikon AF-D 35/2 and the Sony 18-55/3.5-5.6 at 35mm setting.
Click here to download the 100% comparison at 35mm.

Then there’s a 50mm comparison of the Nikon AF-D 50/1.4 and the Sony Kit zoom at 55mm.
Click here to download the 100% comparison at 50/55mm.

Finally here’s a 85mm comparison of the Nikon AF 85/1.8 and the M-mount Konica Hexanon 90/2.8.
Click here to download the 100% comparison at 85/90mm.

I know neither the three Nikon lenses nor the Konica lens are the best lenses in the world. But the Nikons worked quite well on the Nikon APS-C and Nikon FX-cameras I’ve used. I never saw this sort of bad behavior wide open before. I guess it might be the Kipon adapter.