Canon EOS-M

EOS M w/ 22mm pancake lens

A T4i enclosed in a quite small form factor with 35mm (effective) fast lens.

Wow. I like it.

It's got a very cool touch screen. All camera controls can be accessed on the screen and can be changed with a touch, or not, or combination dial & touch, your choice. The screen is quite bright and responsive. If you're familiar with Canon's menu/ quick menu, etc. controls and I think they are very good controls, you're familiar with this camera. Pretty much same as T4i. It's got an iphone touch screen feel with the same type of finger motion controls, pinch, expand, etc. Very cool. And it feels even more so with the small, handheld form factor.

The camera is solid. Metal. The lens is well built. It has a quality look and feel. Has decent heft.

Some reviewers are put off by the point and shoot look. Now, I like retro-cameras. I like the new Fujis, like the X100, X10, X-Pro, etc. I like the M8, M9, M, etc. I think they're wonderful. It gives you the look and feel of a real camera with dials and aperture values on the lens, etc. Here's the thing though. From an engineering standpoint, you simplify whenever and wherever you can. Less is more. In that reductive analysis, Canon has succeed. They've pretty much removed what you don't need in 2013 to take a good picture with full control, or not, your choice. On the other hand, they include an APC sensor in that really small form factor. It's capable, small, smooth, flat-stone-shaped and well it's not crippled up like a point and shoot. It has big boy picture taking ability. It's got just enough of a handgrip on the front and a place for the thumb on the back. Not too much, just enough. The top dial and button is in a recessed area. They've even improved the strap lugs. These work better. It has all the features of a Canon SLR. It's got the sensor from the 7D, a very good camera. It's got all the features of the T4i and if somebody hacks the firmware (CHDK?) it can have all the features of the 7D but it's feature-full enough, as is. It's a real camera. It's a also a very zen camera. I think Jobs would like it. They didn't go in with preconceived notions they broke some molds. The strap is a good example. It's just better. You can't use your old straps but Jobs would shrug and say, hey, it's just better, let's do it.

Reviewer "Focusing issues"…

I watched Kai run down the street on DivitalRev:

http://www.digitalrev.com/article/canon-eos-m-hands-on/NDkzNzQzMDM_A

trying to take quick focus snaps on street scenes by pointing and shooting and not acquiring focus in a nano second. So we have a fail, right? The camera is not a DSLR. I know some other mirrorless cameras can focus faster. I have the Nikon V1 and it focuses faster. But I also have an M8 and I have to manually focus it or zone focus, which the EOS-M can do but it can also auto focus but not as fast a an slr. Kai works with an M9 and he loves it but he doesn't run down the street pointing and shooting it like a gun.  I know he was joking around only having the camera for an hour to evaluate, so he was having some fun. It's why I like his reviews. In any case, the camera focuses well enough for my purposes and no I'm not on the sidelines of an NFL football game (or at a high school sports event) shooting. Considering the form factor, the f2.0 pancake lens, the larger sensor than 4/3s or Nikon 1, The narrow depth of field. Check the background in the hall behind this guy, who just took my job (it's okay I retired). I'm okay with it. In fact I'm very pleased with it. But it's a subjective thing.

Bokeh? Yeah. Nice. The 22mm M lens delivers the goods. So you get a fast lens with great bokeh. In the kit. How unusual is that? It isolates the subject quite well. Try to do that with smaller sensors. It's going to be a challenge. Not so for this camera and lens. For me, that's a big box to check off. It shoots wide open really well. Would I like F.95 or 1.4? Sure. Is that reasonable? Probably not. I don't often think F2.8 is good enough. I can live with F2.0 though. And it shoots high ISO well enough I can just let it decide ISO in automatic mode and not compromise the picture. Try that with a point and shoot. This camera is very, very capable with a really fast lens and high ISO performance. For the price, getting the nice fast lens and capable ISO is good value.

I had the G1X for a few weeks. I always like the Canon G series. I've had several. I never did warm up to it and re-sold it. It's strictly subjective. This (EOS-M) is smaller. Bigger sensor (not a huge difference). Lacks the built in zoom but you can fit it with a zoom. In fact you can fit it a lot of different ways but I like the fast prime. I got each of them used for about the same amount of cash. I'm keeping the M and sold the 1X. What can I say.

I like the EOS-M with fast prime very much. It is a very capable, well designed, well engineered, zen like camera.

The Most Dangerous Game

Street photographers get dirty looks now and again

This was taken with a Ricoh GX100 at full telephoto and cropped, so it's pretty grainy. Its a small sensor camera that takes really sharp photos but you can't do much with with upsizing as there's not enough bandwidth to play with. The transit terminal at the University of Arkansas gets both students and just plain folks passing through. Some are plainer than others. Some are made to look rough by comparison next to the bright, shiny new penny college students. The bus system is free to ride for all. It's subsidize by a student fee and federal money and that's why the public is welcomed. This isn't a great photo but I still like it.

 If you snap public environments and save images of "just folks" you get to freeze their dynamic situation, in situ, for posterity (sorta). I have some favorites of these captures and over the next few weeks I'll post a few, because I can.

I also have favorites of others I'll add for reference. In this case the following photo makes mine look shabby by comparison but it gives me something to strive for:

 http://erickimphotography.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/street-reverb.png

Here's another of mine, not to show competence of framing but to demonstrate one of the reasons why mine's lacking:

Robert Capa once said, "If your pictures aren't good enough, you're not close enough.”
 

 And so it is.

Reenactors

Sony A850

Yesterday I posted an ode to the M8 because it's a camera that deserves positive recognition. I didn't talk about it's faults or short comings because like any relationship you must overlook some things if you're going to stay together. Today I want to spot some shots I took with a Sony camera (a850). All my cameras and lenses are/were obtained used. Not exactly the opposite of the M8 but it's a tool that allows for good shots that an M8 will struggle (or indeed are impossible) to make. Most of these were taken from long range (up to 300mm) and some quite quickly (of necessity) using auto focus. The Sony has built in image stabilization. Not the M8's forte (putting it mildly). These were taken at the sesquicentinneal reenactment of the Battle of Prairie Grove, near Fayetteville, Arkansas in December, 2012. I used an old and quite inexpensive Sigma 28-300mm designed for the Minolta AF film camera(s). Downside of the cheap lens: if the barrel isn't locked it will gravity extend. Using this lens for this shoot is the Sony's strength. Built in stabilizaton means you can use older, cheaper lenses even for long distance shots and get decent results. None of these photographs were post processed. I did not use raw in this situation. While the boken isn't wonderful, it isn't glaringly bad (imo).

Most took it seriously. Some not so much.

All the photos I took that day are here:

https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos/109188283905572340434/albums/5817527278300968321?hl=en
  My one comment would be that these guys and gals (there were some gals and young people interspersed with the traditional guys) seemed to be having a lot of fun which is incongruous with the horror of the actual battle. Such is equivocation, which is often represented this way:

 Peace

Leica M8

Leica M8 

The M8 came out in 2006. It was actually the second digital rangefinder. The first was the Epson R-d1 which was based on the Voigtlander (made by Cosina) Bessa. The M8 was in the line of & followed film Leica M(s). The first M(s) began in the 1950s with the M3. Of course the 8 wasn't a film camera but a digital camera. The cost was around $6,000. I got mine in 2011 and paid around 2K. I trolled Ebay and Amazon for months waiting for a camera I could semi-justify to appear. When a buy-it-now popped up with what appeared to be the right camera, I sold off some other equipment to be able to afford it. To most people 2K for a camera is a travesty when a $100 point and shoot takes great pictures. There are reasonable people who bash the Leica for being a dilettante's camera. A poseur's camera. I have respect for those who have owned Leicas, used them and then rejected them for various reasons. Subjectivity about photography is to be expected. I'll admit a Leica isn't necessarily an objective purchase. For those people who haven't owned one and bash them, I wonder how they can be so sure but then again, they are welcomed to an opinion, albeit a non-informed one. Because until you've actually owned and shot with one, you can't know what it's like.

Cameras made in Solms (about 33 miles NNW of Frankfurt) are hand made using materials similar to their precursor cameras that have been made since the 1950s. They have top and bottom plates milled from solid brass. They are precision instruments that will last several decades and more. It's true that today most cameras are consumer items that are replaced like cell phones, i.e. every year or two. Leicas aren't consumer electronic devices. They are cameras, not computers that take pictures. They are hybrids of course because the camera does have electronics installed BUT they have lenses with manually selected apertures. You can watch the aperture blades move inside each other to open and close the opening in the lens even when it's not attached to the camera. You can see the shutter curtain inside the camera lens mount. You can select shutter speeds with a real dial. The camera uses Leica lenses from the 50s and before (and since of course). Leica thread mount with adapter and Leica M mount.

 The lens attached to the M8 illustrated just below was made by Leica in 1956. It is a f2.0 Summicron (f2 and "Summicron" are redundant as they describe the same thing as Leica names their lenses by speed). It had some whale oil residue causing some cloudiness when I purchased it. Youxin Ye, located in the Boston area cleaned it up quite well and it takes very good photos. It also operates
like the precision instrument it was in 1956 and still is in 2012. I'm of the personal opinion that an M8 takes great shots with many lenses, including some cheaper Russian lenses from the 60s and 70s as well as taking exceptional photographs with very, very expensive lenses, like the Leica Summilux or even Notilux, neither of which I will soon be able to obtain economically. I do use Voigtlander lenses with great success and would not be embarrassed to use the camera with the Consina made lenses. The Noktons are the best for low light and bokeh but the other cheaper Voigtlanders take very sharp photos indeed.
The Tao of Leica came through to me when I was learning to play the guitar, which I struggle with. I tried several guitars and progressed and decided to see if I could pick up an American made Martin to try. I obtained one to try and not looking at the fret board began to practice chords and leads and I felt something going on. My fingers fell on the strings and frets in a new way. The guitar had been made with such precision that it was a new feeling for me. The feeling of precision was rather unique to me. The Leica M is the same way. It is a precise instrument manufactured within narrow tolerances and it is unique. Cameras will come and go for me but I doubt I part with the M8 until perhaps the M9 street value falls to within my disposable income's rather narrow tolerances. Even then I hope to keep the 8 as it takes a bit of a sharper picture than the 9. To those who feel sorry for me in not recognizing how misguided I am for not using a faster or higher resolution camera, I understand. You're probably right. Using this camera transcends objective understanding. I sold the Martin and play a Seagull because I like the way it sounds better even though it doesn't feel as precise. But the relationship with the Leica is different. I keep the Leica not only because I like it subjectively but I like it's photos better than any other camera.  For me that's the Leica M8. A pleasure to own. A pleasure to shoot. It's photos are wonderful. Thank you Leica.