Leica’s impressive pop-up store in the heart of Brick Lane got off to a roaring start yesterday. One after another interesting people walked in to chat about photography. Ivor Cooper, of London’s Red Dot Cameras was there and acting as greeter and host for visitors. He it was who supplied an impressive showcase of vintage Leicas to demonstrate the long history of the marque.
Within the space of a couple of hours I was chatting to Alfred Eisenstadt’s nephew and to a surprising number of Leicaphile Germans who just happened to be passing. Among them was Hans Jörg Ott who I know through Macfilos and an enthusiastic couple of photographers from Munich, Renate and Wolf Ehrenberg. To close the circle of coincidences, Wolf’s father worked at Wetzlar and he was brought up surrounded by Leica cameras.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/trevek
Nice to meet you yesterday Mike. Thoroughly enjoyed the day – my first outing with the "new" M8. I’ve uploading my efforts to Flickr if you’re bored!
Great to meet you and put a face to the name. I will check the Flickr file later but from what I saw yesterday you got some good shots with the M8–certainly better than I did, for starters. I was largely concentrated on getting the atmosphere shots for the course (which will appear tomorrow morning) and somehow had no enthusiasm when walking the streets. Go out another day and its another story, back comes the inspiration.
I hope you continue to enjoy the camera and I don’t think there is anything wrong with that Summicron. If you are not happy go back to see Len Lyons.
Thanks Mike – think I’ll just ignore it and get on with enjoying the camera! A close look at my pics on the big screen tells me that I can’t hold my camera as steadily at low speeds as I need to!
I think Leo and Robin’s assertion of being able to use 1/25s and 1/40s on the street could be a bit misleading. I prefer a much faster speed if I can get away with it in given lighting conditions. Generally I have my auto ISO set to 1/125s or and a top of 800 and then dial in f/5.6 to f/8 depending on the light. Unfortunately I don’t think you can set parameters like that on the M8. I think for street photography even 1/40s is too slow. Also, for street photography you have the right lens (although I quite like a 50mm these days). You don’t often need even f/2 on the street unless you are doing a static portrait of a compliant passer by.