It's been a long time coming for this little write speed report and I must say it has been well documented by many others. But since so many people are picking up used M9's I felt it needed to be written about again since most of this information is really old. After having some problems with my M9 locking up and losing some images with my 16gig Sandisk Ultra Class 10 30mb/s card I thought I needed to write about it. I was on assignment to shoot an older gentleman (96 years old) who had done some blue water sailing back many years ago and was recounting some old tales of his experiences with a reporter. So here I was sitting on the floor banging away with the M9 and a 50 and a Sony Nex-7 and the 90 and the 50. He had a great face and I really wanted to capture him for our readers. The best shot came out of the Sony with the Leica 50 Summilux ASPH at 1.4. The image is pictured below. The card on my M9 was not clean (it had images on it) and I was shooting pretty quick with the camera in DNG+JPG (b&w). So you can image how slow the camera was writing to the card. So I would get the usual bars showing up in the display telling me to wait. Ok I can deal with that - slow down and think more. The problem came when I decided I needed to look at the images for sharpness while the red light was blinking. Well that is a no,no according to Leica. Eventually the camera locked up on me - three times. I lost one or two images but everything went back to normal after taking the battery out and replacing it. So after this experience I decided I needed to do my due diligence and test the camera out in the various settings. So here are my results using the Sandisk 16 Gig Ultra 30mb/s class 10 card. These tests were done with a clean formatted card. I'm sure results will vary. Firmware is 1.196. Ya, I know Leica does not like Sandisk but for the most part I have been problem free for months with this card until I over did it.

DNG

DNG Uncompressed - 6 sec.

DNG Compressed - 3.5 sec.

DNG+JPG fine (color) 

DNG Uncompressed - 8 sec.

DNG Compressed - 6 sec.

DNG+JPG fine (B&W)

DNG Uncompressed - 7.5 sec.

DNG Compressed - 5.5 sec.

JPG Fine

B&W - 2.5 sec.

Color - 3 sec.

My conclusion here is that unless I really need it I will be shooting in DNG compressed since it's the fastest and if I need the B&W jpg I will also use the DNG compressed version with the jpg. I'm glad I did this as I was normally shooting in uncompressed mode but really, does it matter - I doubt it. By the way these results are really not the same as tests other folks have done mine are slower. I have no idea why but the camera will be going back to Leica for a CLA in the winter so maybe it will come back better.

Sony Nex-7 w/Leica 50mm Summilux ASPHJake Burridge chuckles while recounting tales of his around the world trip aboard his sloop "Trepidation" many years ago while at his home in Ipswich Monday, Aug. 25, 2014.

Leica M9 w/Leica 50mm Summilux ASPHJake Burridge recounts tales of his around the world trip aboard his sloop "Trepidation" many years ago while at his home in Ipswich Monday, Aug. 25, 2014.

The other day I decided that I needed to get used to shooting with my 50mm Summilux ASPH. You see I'm really not a 50mm guy I have always drifted towards the wide side and the tight (long) side. When I was a full-time news shooter back in the 80's and 90's I shot with a 24mm on one camera and a 70-200 on the other. This covered everything. If the 24mm was to wide than I just cropped it a bit in the enlarger and I was all set. When I am out shooting editorial work now I shoot with two zooms the 24-70 on the Canon 5D Mk3 and the 70-200 on a Canon 7D as I like the cropped sensor to give me more reach. This really covers everything. I have to tell you that even with the 24-70 I'm either at 24mm or 70mm never at 50. So I decided I needed to train myself (again) to see in another way. At the beginning of my career I used the Leica 50mm Summilux and the 35 Summicron on a daily basis and I was used to it. I have found that I am tending to shoot a little loose so if you are coming back to the 50mm keep this in mind - and move in. Yesterday I was having dinner with my wife and some friends on the porch at the Sandy Bay Yacht Club. The light is just beautiful as it goes down on Cape Ann and yesterday there was no wind so it was absolutely gorgeous. I ventured around taking shots here and there looking for some interesting situations off and on. 

Leica M9 w/50mm Summilux ASPH

This image of my friend Brian making a point is stunning. You can count the individual hairs on his beard stubble. The Cape Ann light was just beautiful. You can see the reflection of the masts of the sailboats in the background.

Leica M9 w/50mm Summilux ASPH

John and Shirley were enjoying the front porch and the beautiful light as the sun receded behind the Rockport skyline. I closed down the exposure a bit to f2 to get John more in focus than 1.4 would have given me. The exposure was perfect, the M9's center weighted meter hit the exposure right on the button. 

Our launch operator Emma makes a great subject as she waits for folks to come in off the water. The aperture of 1.4 isolates her perfectly. The 50 1.4 is a great lens for people as you can still be farther away and not be right on top of them.

I could not resist shooting a B&W or two. So under the club I went to shoot the pilings that hold the building up. At the 1.4 aperture very little is in focus and that was what I was looking for with the out of focus pilings receding into the distance.

What a great morning I had yesterday! Up at the crack of dawn and out with some local lobstermen for a story on how the family business is doing with the loss of one of the brothers and father of three boys. The interesting thing was that the young man driving the boat and hauling the pots was only fourteen and his dad was the one that passed away. I had an immediate connection with him as his dad died at age 45 the same as my father. The grandfather went along as he usually does to help the boys learn where the strings of pots are and the best lobstering areas. The interaction between the two was priceless as the grandfather is hard of hearing and speaks kind of mumbly and in a lower tone of voice. The grandson was always trying to understand what he was saying as the diesel engine and winch were very loud. The grandson told me that most of what his grandfather is saying he understands as it's usually the same thing. 

I brought along my Canon 1D Mk ll as it is mostly weather proof and my other cameras are less so. I used the Canon 16-35 L on it which makes it approximately a 21-45 which was perfect for the compact space inside the cabin of the lobster boat. I think I got some really nice shots of these folks in action and I am posting a few here.

Arrrrrrgh Ye Maties

The other day I was at the Cape Ann Museum making some photographs for the paper of areas of the museum that have been refurbished. The fresnel lens from Thacher's island has found a new home and the space they built for it is unsurpassed. It looks great! The camera I was toting was the Canon 5D Mk3 and the 24-70 F2.8 L which is perfect for shooting just about anything you want in the museum. I had shot the fresnel lens before but it was stuck in a storage room so the light was terrible. In it's new spot it takes on a majestic quality as the lighting is really nice. Since I loved what they did with the presentation of the lens I made a shot of it as a whole then I started shooting the lens in smaller sections as I think that's when the lens takes on a different quality. Here are some shots as I went from wide angle to medium telephoto.

Exposure ISO 400 1/100 @ f7.1

Exposure ISO 400 1/100 @ f7.1

Exposure ISO 400 1/100 @ f7.1

Due to human error - mine, you had to register with this site if you wanted to leave a comment. That has now been fixed for many of the blog posts.  I still have to go through them one at a time to correct this issue. So feel free to leave any comments you may have about my blog posts. Enjoy.

Wicked Local Photo by Kirk R. Williamson / 090810 / The 935 ft. Eurodam sits at the head of Gloucester harbor as some of the 2100 passengers walk around Gloucester, Rockport and other North Shore communities.

I made this photo to show the enormity of this cruise ship inside Gloucester Harbor. By luck a small fishing boat happened by which gave it the needed scale. The Euro Dam visits Gloucester Harbor.

Several years ago a good friend of mine who is a very good photographer offered to give me a refresher course in "seeing" not just making a photograph. Well I was kind of taken aback as I at that point had been a professional photojournalist for over twenty years. I started to think about it and said sure why not learn how someone else does it. He is a fine art landscape and nature photographer of some note. His images are in the collections of several museums and private collections and I value his opinion on many things photographic. 

He took me out into the woods without any photo gear and handed me a plastic slide mount and said here ya go. I looked at him like he had three heads and said "what the hell is this for". He then said "use this 35mm slide mount as a guide as you look around for possible subjects". I still had my doubts but gave it a whirl anyway. As I moved around looking through my "slide mount" I began to discover that it was indeed a really cool method of looking at the world through a 35mm frame.

I have since adapted this way of "seeing" to my M9. Since the M9 gives you the opportunity to see several frame lines with the use of the frame line lever under the rangefinder window one has the ability to visualize how things would look with different lenses. I feel this is unique but has been around for many years. Yes, you can do this with your big dslr and a zoom lens but is much simpler with the rangefinder. I have found that I feel free with my lightweight M9 looking around for interesting subjects.

Here is a lesson in seeing that I challenge you to do. It can be done anywhere at anytime. I find it works best when you are alone in an interesting place not doing anything. Relax and start to look around concentrating on elements around you. If you concentrate hard enough you can "see" as a lens on your camera. Look for different areas that can be focused in on from one location not moving around and try to visualize the lens you would use. The key to this exercise is to do it from one location and see how many interesting images you might be able to come up with. I did this recently at a funeral of all places. Not really the best place since it was packed with people. It was in a Greek Orthodox church which was very ornate. I had no idea what the priest was talking about so I started to look around imagining images and what lens I would use. If that was not enough to keep my mind busy I started thinking about exposure and what f-stop would be appropriate for certain images. 

The Leica M9 or any rangefinder for that matter is the perfect tool for "seeing". It enables you to be unencumbered by the beast DSLR and jumbo pro lens. If you get a chance, try using your rangefinder in this way or do it "old school" as my friend does with the 35mm plastic slide mount. I think you will be amazed at what you see.

I came upon this image on Bearskin Neck in Rockport many years ago but it is still one of my favorites. The use of the wide angle lens makes the globe seem larger than it is and the many reflections (four I believe) really hold my interest. It's been photographed by many people over the years but I still feel mine is unusual.

When I was 17 years old I was shooting with an Leica M3 and a Leica 50mm f2 and thought that a 35mm wide angle was the holy grail of photography. My dad took pity on me and I received a very old 35mm screw mount Leica Summaron for my birthday that required a view finder for the top of the camera since the M3 frame lines only went to 50mm. I thought I was in heaven as it opened a whole new world of photography for me. I had photographed everything in sight with the 50 and was now ready for a whole new way of seeing. As my photography career unfolded the tiny Summaron was put back in it's leather case and was only taken out to admire like a piece of jewelry. To this day I love how it looks on the camera. It can only look better on my M3 as I remember it. A few months ago I decided to take it out and try it on the M9 only to find out it was now a bit foggy with mildew. A friend mentioned Sherry Krauter in upstate New York as someone who could make it like new again. So off it went to Sherry and what I got back was like a brand new lens from 1954. All I can say is wow! So from time to time I like to take it out for a spin and love what I get every time. This morning it was very still out. Not a breath of air stirring so I headed down to Rockport harbor to see if there was anything interesting. What I found was plenty of reflections with the still water. 

The lens has an infinity locking focus lever which I find very useful when shooting landscapes and for storing the lens. This lens is a screw mount version and requires a bayonet mount adapter which screws onto the lens. I have never taken it off. I also have a wonderful little Leica lens shade that uses a set screw to attach it to the lens. The lens feels just like it was new. The focusing is smooth and the f-stops click into place easily. The results from this little lens are remarkable. I find that it gives me more of a film look but with plenty of contrast and the colors are just slightly cool. I have compared this lens to my 35mm Summicron in another post on this blog and was pleasantly surprised at how similar they are. 

Leica M9 w/35mm Summaron

Here are some shots from this mornings shoot with the setup seen above.

Wonderful reflections in Rockport harbor.

And in Black and White, flipped! This is the B&W jpg out of the camera and adjusted in Photoshop. It's a really high quality jpg and needs only adjustment to taste. Only problem with this image is the junk in the water looks like dust on the sensor! 

Rockport Harbor

Rockport Harbor

Ah, Motif #1 again

A beautiful pair of Icelandic Sheep dogs

My friend Skip shooting some images with his iPhone.

The other day I had the opportunity to shoot some bicycle racing with my Sony Nex-7 and my Leica M9. I was not on assignment or I would have been using my beast cameras of choice the Canon 7D and 5D Mk3. These cameras require almost no effort to shoot sports as they are auto focus, auto exposure etc. etc. Love em' do death but I wanted light not big. So I put the Leica 90mm Tele-Elmarit on the Sony Nex-7 and the Leica 35 Cron on the M9 and off I went. Here I was in a very familiar location having shot this event many times before but not with two manual cameras so light I had to look every once in a while to see they were still on my shoulder. I had a great experience using both cameras! Of course I was not under the gun to make pictures for publication or I would have shot tons more images. Here are a just a few. What I decided to do and most of you know this was to prefocus on an area and let the cyclists ride into the area that I focused on. The red fringing in the Nex-7 was turned up all the way so I could see small areas of the pavement show up in red. This worked great. The Leica 90 mm Tele-elmarit which was a 135mm on the Sony worked really well for what I was doing. I even used it on the M9 and got some good pan shots. I used the Leica 35 Cron for some people shots and I include my cousins kid here getting patched up by the medics after a fall on the fourth to last lap.

Sony Nex-7 w Leica 90mm Tele-Elmarit Vers1

This image was shot directly into the sun and survived! This lens was built in 1964.

Leica M9 w/Leica 90 mm Tele-Elmarit Vers1

If not for the spectator this would be a keeper!

Leica M9 w/ Leica 35mm Summicron

A heavy crop on this frame but still nice.

Leica M9 w/ Leica 35 mm Summicron

End of a rough day on the road ... road rash!