Abstract with Sony Nex-7 w/ Leica 50 mm f1.4

Exposure ISO 1600 1/250 @ 1.4

This past weekend I went over to the Essex Shipbuilding Museum and made some more shots of volunteers working on the Lewis Story with the Sony Nex-7 and the Leica 35 and 50. This time I looked around for some interesting images around the shop, here is one of them that just jumped out at me. The screen is tack sharp and at ISO 1600 gives a great look in B&W. I also brought the Canon 5D Mk3 with the Canon 16-35 2.8L with me for this shoot. I am missing any type of wide angle shots with my Nex-7 rig and I really needed the super wide for close quarters shooting. I got some cool stuff. See the images below.

Canon 5D Mk3 with Canon 16-35 2.8L

Exposure ISO 2000 1/200 @ f8

Canon 5D Mk3 w/ 16-35 2.8L

Exposure ISO 100 1/250 @ 5.0

Canon 5D Mk3 w/ Canon 16-35 2.8L

Exposure ISO 2000 1/100 @ f4

I am thrilled with the B&W conversions of the three wide angle images. I used Nik Silver Efex Pro for the conversions. I still have some work to do on the vertical image, the guys face is a little light for me. This really gave me the wide angle images I needed. Using my Canon 5D Mk3 was so easy because I use this camera every day for my job. It is starting to turn into a mindless exercise as the camera does a superior job of exposure and focus so all I have to do is frame the shot and rip off a few frames. I love it. But it is one heavy beast with the 16-35 and battery grip on it. Shooting with the Nex-7 has been more of a challenge and frankly takes more work using my Leica lenses. If I were using Sony lenses it would be just as easy as the Canon. Now for the big surprise. My new (to me) Leica M9 will show up on Tuesday and I will be back with my wide angle lenses again. I can't wait to use my Leica 21 mm Super Angulon 3.4. It will be perfect for this project!

Sony Nex-7 w/Leica 35mm Summicron f2Play rehearsal, low contrasty light test.

I am always looking for ways to challenge myself and the equipment I am using so when the opportunity arose to shoot some test shots with the Sony/Leica combo I gave it a whirl. I also shot this rehearsal with my Canon 5d Mk3 and the 24-70 but at a much higher ISO. The Sony/Leica combo surprised me a bit in two ways. First I was literally shooting in the dark with the shot above. The only light in the place was directed on the scene. The Sony made it pretty easy focusing as I used the focus assist to zoom in on the kid in the middle, awesome. If I'm not mistaken, since the camera only records the ISO, which was 1600, this was shot at 1/60 at f4. Everything worked really well and the exposure for the faces was good. I also used the spot meter to get the exposure right. Secondly, the image is not really great when blown up to 100%. You can see some fringing and halo things going on in the highlights around the girls faces. The image you see here is srgb, in the Adobe rgb version you can see more shadow detail in the shirt of the woman playing the piano. I opened this up a bit in Photoshop with the shadow adjustment tool but this is really close to what I experienced. All in all for such a tough situation the camera and lens combo worked out pretty good. 

I made this photo on Saturday while at the Essex Shipbuilding Museum. Dave was happily making shots with his digital camera of his friends at the meeting. So I thought it would be fun to make some shots of him. By the way this image is razor sharp. The Leica Summicron 35 f2 Vers.1  was perfect. I decided to make some changes to the setup of the Nex-7 so I could more easily check focus and exposure. 

Here's what I did - I changed the focus assist to the soft button located with the AF/MF-AEL switch. It's in a great location for your thumb to activate it. Since I bought the camera used I'm not sure the previous location (the soft button below the wheel) was the default. When I used it in that location  the focus assist stayed on until you pushed the shutter button. With the location at the AF/MF switch you have to keep your thumb on the button for it to stay on. I still have some experimentation to do so it may just be a menu adjustment. 

The other thing I did was to move the selection of light meter setup (center, spot, multi) to the right side of the wheel. It's a great location when you need it quickly. You just push on the right side of the wheel with your thumb and turn the wheel to select. It works great for those times when you want to get an accurate meter reading on one area instead of using the exp. compensation dial.

chebacco-2736 Fritz uses a heat gun to soften up the paint before removing it with a putty knife.

chebacco-2732 More heat gun work to remove the paint.

chebacco-2668 Volunteer Len Burgess looks over the hull of the Lewis Story where the paint has been removed.

I had a great morning hanging with the gang at the Essex Shipbuilding Museum. After a meeting of volunteers some of the crew went over to the shed to help do maintenance work on the Louis Story a working schooner built by Harold Burnham. These are just a few shots made with the Sony Nex-7 and two different Leica lenses. The 35mm Summicron f2. and the Leica 50mm Summilux f1.4. Both lenses worked really great. I am still learning the ins and outs of focusing with these lenses as the fringing gets tricky at times. You can see all the images from this shoot here. Or Click the slideshow below.

Sony Nex-7 w/Leica 35mm Summicron f2. Color version

Black and White conversion

This image was made wide open at f2 with the Leica 35mm Summicron version 1 and it is so sharp! This lens was made around 1959 by Leitz Canada and is very rare. The color here does not do this image justice as it was shot in the Adobe rgb color space and converted to srgb. I tried to bring it back as best I could.

This image was pure luck. I just happened to hit the shutter button as the woman on the right walked into the frame. I kind of like it.

Well the experiment is going really well. I have discovered my photographic identity again and get excited to go out and use this new new/old tool. Yesterday's political assignment was fun just wandering around looking for interesting situations that might bring a great moment. I did use two of the images in the previous post to go online and in the paper. Most of the job was done with my high end Canon gear. Which at this point just seems like it does not take much skill beyond pointing the camera in the right direction and pushing the button. Yes, you need to be aware of the ISO and shutter speed. Which for this shoot was ISO 4000 with the Canon's. The images were shot at 1/160 and 1/100 at 2.8 or 3.2. The images like the one done with the Sony above were done at ISO 1600 at between 1/100 and 1/125 at f2.

With my big cameras the lady above would have noticed my taking here photo not because of the cameras motor drive noise (the Canon 5d M3 in single silent is incredible) it was pretty noisy in the hall, but because of the huge camera. The Sony is so small and silent that it makes for a great street camera. If I had used my Leica 90mm it would have been even better because I could have picked out people in the crowd as the Sony 1.5 crop makes it a 135. I just did not have time to use two lenses.

I will be creating a gallery of all these images under the Projects tab above. I will be doing an ongoing project on Politics for the near future. I am also looking forward to shooting another personal project on volunteer shipwrights working on restoring a small schooner over at the Essex Ship Building Museum. Please keep checking back.

Supporters wait for their candidate to show up - everyone is doing something different. Notice the two guys at the right looking at a cell phone, the two women having a great conversation in the middle, this guy in the foreground giving his opinion and the lady to the left having a quite time amongst all the noise.

Serious conversations were going on everywhere. Wow this image is tack sharp at f2.0.

The candidate shows up and makes his speech. There is a little bit of a crop here and a little straightening but not much else.

The candidate meets with his supporters. I just love this image the light is awesome. Notice one of my pj friends shooting with the Canon box right behind the ladies head, he was photographing the candidate.

How dare you interrupt my time with the candidate! I just love the look on this ladies face - "hey I was talking with him!"

The Press finally get their time with the candidate. The lighting here is very cool.

This assignment was a lot of fun using the Sony Nex-7 and Leica 35mm Summicron f2.0. Of course I shot most of the event with my Canon 5D Mk3 and Canon 7D with the 24-70 and the 70-200 for the paper. These photos with the Sony were a real bonus. Plus they were fun to make. The camera is so quite people have no idea what you are up to. Great for street shooting or crowd shooting either way I had a blast.

I never really used a 50mm lens much. I always thought it was kind of boring. The Leica 35 on the Nex-7 makes it a 52.5mm. I found that I could have shot the whole event with just that camera if I had really worked at it. Back to the old days when I enjoyed what I do.

Sony Nex-7 w/ Leitz Summicron 35mm f2.0 My Golden Retriever, Kodak, surveys the back yard looking for squirrels in 6 degree weather. The exposure for this image was right on the button, the Nex-7 did a marvelous job of coming up with the exposure even with all the snow and shadows. It converted over to a wonderful B&W. The exposure was 1/250 at f5.6 at ISO 100. I was using my usual method of auto ISO and shutter priority while setting the f stop myself on the Leica 35.

Sony Nex-7 w/Leitz Summicron 35mm f2.0 This shot of Kodak relaxing with an eye out the window looking for birds shows the complete control you can get over depth of field using the lens wide open. This image was shot with the Leica Summicron 35mm at f2.0 Vers. 1 with a shutter speed of 1/250 sec and the ISO at 640. The sensor on the Nex-7 is top notch as it gave me tons of information in the shadow areas so I could pull up his left eye. Really amazing for such a small sensor. To check out all my Nex-7 images with Leica glass here.

Sony Nex-7 w/Leica 35mm f2 ISO 12800 at f2

Last night as I drove home in near blizzard conditions a hauled out the Nex-7 to see if I could get some cool shots. As you can see the shutter speed was pretty slow but it was pretty dark. For small images on a computer screen the resolution is not to bad. I was surprised by the results. The focus was set to infinity hoping to get as much in focus as possible. To bad the shutter speed was to slow.

Sony Nex-7 w/Leica 35 f2.0 at ISO 12,800

As I got closer to home there was more snow on the road and as I was going slow so I tried to focus on the car in back of me through my rear view mirror. I was very rushed as you can image and I was trying to do it with the camera in Live View. What a pain trying to see what was fringed and what was not in about 15 sec. Kind of interesting but does not quite hit the mark. In hindsight I probably would have been able to make a better shot with my Canon G15 as the ISO goes up to 12800. Then with the auto focus and easier control of the shutter speed it just would have been faster and more accurate. Fun but a little dangerous.