I started out taking pictures with autofocus and I see that as a sort of training wheels for photography. When I’m taking pictures I don’t want to focus on whatever is directly infront of the AF sensor, and manually selecting the item to be in focus is no faster or easier than manual focus and no more precise. Using the AF lock button has the same downsides, for these reasons I prefer manual focus.

While I could use a larger SLR and manual focus lenses I prefer the quality of the Leica lenses, which can’t be mounted on larger SLR type cameras due to the mirror in those cameras.

The mirrors also mean that the wide angle lenses aren’t properly designed. This is a major problem in the digital era as wide angle lenses are very important due to focal length magnifiers.

A big selling feature for this camera for me was the small size. I do a series of night shots each winter and whatever I take into the field has to fit under my jacket with lens and tripod quick release attached.

Finding this system has taken some time and some trial and error.

Good luck in  your endevours

John

I really kick my self for not remembering this but someone said that if you want to really do something well be it black and white photography or landscapes or any art, you have to look at everything they’ve done, study it memorize it and duplicate it. Then, when you’ve mastered it, take it one step further. Most people would choose a famous photographer that’s a house hold name to master but I went with John Sexton and the Black and white landscape (well know in his own right), I really like how it’s turned out.

My grandfather as always took pictures and I really got a chance to see the architecture and world of Greece through his eyes, this was one of the things that fascinated me as a young photographer. -He also did trick photography. One specific  shot he took involved him crawling along a rocks on the ground but the camera positioned so that it looked like he was climbing a sheer cliff. These tricks that a photographer has  in their toolkit, to chose when where and how to take a picture can really portray a place as something entirely dependent on how they see it. I remember Greece fondly.

My grandfather was also a camera collector, he had multiple working copies of the best camera’s from  years past. It wasn’t too much of a hardship on him to give his grandson a Polaroid when I turned seven,  when I turned thirteen he guided my hand in choosing an autofocus SLR. That camera got me a job working for a paper and made me who  am today.

It’s fall and though we have had by my count only one hard frost, I see winter coming nearer and nearer. With winter comes (in my mind) the best season for nature photography. I’m one of those scatterbrained photographers that thinks everything looks better in black and white and while fall offers nice colours, fall pictures can’t make up ones entire portfolio. In the winter however comes the glory of black and white photography, the absolute contrast that only monochrome can capture. The dark’s of branches and ephemera against the pure white of snow and gray of a blue sky.

With winter come challenges as well. Beside the cold, there’s technical feats that need to be accomplished. Equipment has to work and in cold or wet or bright or dark environments it can be a challenge, people have to work to and these things complicate matters. But here’s to fall and 2011 with the best yet to come.

The wait is ending…

http://www.dpreview.com/news/1108/11082419sonynex7overview.asp

Photozone has this to say about why rangefinders are a good thing. This applies to Mirrorless camera’s, however the advantages that come with a DSLR stay too.

So… Why Rangefinder?

The answer is simple – absence of moving mirror gives RF camera substantial advantages over SLR. Take a look at the operational sequence in RF camera after the shutter release button has been depressed:

1. The shutter is released and film frame is exposed to the light coming through lens.
2. and… That’s all.

Additional steps may include automatic aperture operation and film advance by motor drive. Compare this to analogous sequence in SLR cameras you may imagine why RF and SLR are such different animals. Here is more; “look ma – no mirror” approach leads to the whole spectra of unique abilities characteristic to the RF system only. Generally, RF cameras produce vibrations magnitudes smaller compared to those of SLR’s, as there is no mass transfer related to the mirror movement. In practice it translates into exceptional ability to shoot at shutter speeds 2-3 f/stops below limits set by the rule of focal length reciprocity commonly used with SLR cameras without fear to get blurry images. For example, shutter speeds ranged between 1/8-1/15 for 50 mm lens are not unusual. Another hallmark of RF system is its optical performance. Since there is no minimal distance between rear lens element and shutter, the RF lenses are constructed without bulky retrofocus design, resulting is significant advantages in optical quality of wide angle – normal lenses at full-medium apertures. Meaning of this? You can shoot with f/2.0 and results will be barely distinctguishable from those taken at f/5.6 – a dream for street and available light photographer. For comparison, almost any SLR lens in 28-80 mm range must be stopped down to f/8.0-11.00 to obtain maximum optical quality

Summarizing, RF design offers several advantages

• Compactness. The entire system can fit into a small waist bag
• Quietness
• Superb for available light shooting
• Superb optics

I honestly have no idea, but it looks nice.