Have a hankering for a Lieca digital camera:which one though

Ferry Man · Post by **Ferry Man** » Fri Jun 10, 2011 7:21 pm

mycar wrote:is this Ferryman magic ?

Just a sticker/skin/protector over the back of the iPhone Mike.
A couple of quid and hey presto, you're Henri Cartier Bresson.

Ferry Man · Post by **Ferry Man** » Fri Jun 10, 2011 7:24 pm

911hillclimber wrote:Just read a review and it says the view finder on the two camera is flawed, small and low resolution.

I'd say it's perfectly good enough. Fine for composition. You can focus with it but frankly you'll autofocus anyway.

mycar · Post by **mycar** » Fri Jun 10, 2011 8:34 pm

Ferry Man wrote: Just a sticker/skin/protector over the back of the iPhone

Oooh and there was me thinking it was a Leica app... turn your iphone into a marvelous camera...

I was searching in the app store.

Mike.

rvzz · Post by **rvzz** » Fri Jun 10, 2011 9:06 pm

If you want the full 'retro' effect on the iPhone get ' Hipstamatic' . Brilliant app , I use it all the time .

bob tilton · Post by **bob tilton** » Fri Jun 10, 2011 9:16 pm

Let's see some real world M9 pics!

Bruce M · Post by **Bruce M** » Fri Jun 10, 2011 9:20 pm

There is a leica z2x on eBay for £38 currently only 90mins left.

The magic red dot has me hovering over the bid button!

tanick · Post by **tanick** » Fri Jun 10, 2011 10:50 pm

Mike is film really coming back? I went to Namibia for three weeks about 18 months ago, hired a land rover and did the whole camping 50 miles from anyone else thing. The day we left, got out my EOS 5D and turned it on - nothing. Nipped down to jessops to test it with their battery and the whole lot had packed up. Dug out my EOS1N that hadn't had a film through it in 3 years, bought a battery at the airport and took some out of date Tmax CN and some 100ASA portrait print film that I had knocking about. It seemed weird not having the instant gratification of the screen but it really made me think about what I was doing again.

When I finally got the pics back I was blown away. So much better than digital.

I sent the EOS5D back toCanon and they fixed it for £80 or so, but now it over-exposes buy about 2/3 of a stop. I still can't get on with it and am really tempted to try out some more film.

Oh, and I have a Contax TVSII that I'm about to ebay. It works fine but has a cracked exposure count LCD which is therefore hard to read. Fab Camera - offers?

911hillclimber · Post by **911hillclimber** » Sat Jun 11, 2011 8:10 pm

The Panasonic LC2 has me thinking...
Reads very well in the write-ups, no red dot, but maybe that is just 'male jewlery'?

Been years since I ran a 35mm film. Pleased to see Boots still have FP4 etc, so very tempting with one of my classics in mind.

Is the M8 really justifyable for a DIY snapper?

johndglynn · Post by **johndglynn** » Fri Jun 17, 2011 5:27 pm

I have a Leica D-Lux 4 and recently bought a Panasonic GF1 micro 4/3rds with a selection of lenses: 20mm, 14-45 and 45-200. The GF1 is amazing, better than the D-Lux which is still lovely to use but getting on a bit now.

My favourite combo is the GF1 and the f/1.7 20mm, lovely combination. If you have M9 money to spend then you won't go far wrong there either.

911hillclimber · Post by **911hillclimber** » Sun Jun 19, 2011 3:43 pm

Just found this free internet link in Italy.

I bought my old Pentax Spotmatic here for a holiday in the Lakes of Italy, a 200 asa Kodak film, and found the battery to be Dead, as is dead.

You try getting a kodak battery for a 1967 Pentax in rural italy...

Still, the little Nikon digital is working.

My max budget is about £600 for a second-hand something, but leaning to a Panasonic big-time. Was a beauty on ebay but I am over here when the bidding was to end, so left it. Reserve was £300.

Digital though.

does a red-dot make any real difference, other than to realise a school boy dream?

Mike · Post by **Mike** » Sun Jun 19, 2011 5:37 pm

tanick wrote:Mike is film really coming back?

Sorry Nick only just caught up with this! Well the people who are telling me are the young kids to whom film is something completely new!
If you think about it 18-20 year old art students have been brought up on nothing other than digital so to them this is a new 'discovery'.

mycar · Post by **mycar** » Sun Jun 19, 2011 7:13 pm

911hillclimber wrote: Pentax Spotmatic

Sigh, I remember them well, must have been the last of the screw in bodies... and the metering with the needle... Oh how times have changed.
I have mixed feelings of a new generation discovering ASA 64... digital is..... extraordinary and perfect and malipulationable.... and yet there is a worthy apprenticeship to be served to be served with Ilford stock.

Mike.

Mitch · Post by **Mitch** » Sun Jun 19, 2011 9:02 pm

Can't offer much technical help with this dilemma but a friend who earns a living selling his pics highly recommends the GF1 which he uses as a compact backup to the bigger kit.

I went through a similar process not long ago and bought a Canon G12 (not what you're looking for I know) but read a lot about this latest Fujiflim Finepix X100. It's had good reviews... a fixed lens but may be worth considering if you're after the Leica look and feel.

http://www.whatdigitalcamera.com/equipm ... eview.html

http://www.finepix-x100.com/

richkaz · Post by **richkaz** » Sun Jun 19, 2011 10:05 pm

Interesting discussion. I think a lot depends on the type of photography your into.
If it's cars, portraits and non fast moving objects you can now buy 6 -8 year old 'classic' digital camera's for reasonable money.
Don't worry to much about sensor sizes or pixel counts unless you regularly print exhibition or poster sized pictures.
If you liker the Leica why not splash out on an old Digilux 2 ?
It has 5 mega pixels, a superb wide angle to telephoto lens, fantastic image quality and yours for £ 300 - 500 ( £1200 new).
If you revert back to film cameras, the images that you take will often look better back lit on a computer screen rather than on photographic paper.
Last year I took an old 7 x5 " print of my old Urraco and scanned it using a very poor quality Lexmark printer scanner thingy and uploaded it to the computer. The image was taken in 1989 from memory on my old Contax ( sadly ceased to trade a few years ago ). I thought it wasn't bad.
It would be interesting to see the screen image difference between a digital camera's image and a picture taken at the same time with a film camera scanned to the screen.
If you double click the thumbnail and then double click the image you will see how the old 7 x 5 " print looks full screen.

911hillclimber · Post by **911hillclimber** » Mon Jun 20, 2011 4:05 pm

This is a good discussion gents.

As a 59 year old who had a darkroom in his bedroom when 11 years old i go back a bit. Even home processed Ektachrome slide films!

It is all a bit of nostalgia and some prepping for another hobby when i retire.

subject matter is anything, but I am sure 5 mega pix is more than enough.
The fuji looks great, my Finepix Fuji has been perfect for 10 years or so as my garage camera now.

£600 will open a lot of boxes secondhand, too many choices hence this thread to narrow things down which is working!

Need to find some pentax batteries!
Screw on lens and all that but v nice to drive but flippin heavey...

My Kodak Retina Reflex 4 is another generation ( and no batteries needed)