Leica and My Camera Gear

For film, 90% of the stuff I shoot is with my Leica MP and 35mm Summicron V4 (Pre-Ash). I also have a Zeiss 50mm 1.5 Sonnar ZM and a Voigtlander 21mm F/4 Color Skopar that I really want to use more, but there’s something about Leica Glass on a Leica body that is just pretty hard to beat. Also 35mm is hard to beat for shooting the kind of stuff I do, which is my kid, street and travel photography.

For film photography, I also have an Olympus OM4-Ti with 50mm Zuiko, Contax T3 and Nikon F3 with Nikkor 50mm 1.4 AIS but they don’t get used much and tend to sit in my camera cabinet envious of the Leica MP which gets to see the light of day. I forked out for a decent  slide projector, a Leica Pradovit P600, which is excellent and works perfectly. As I’ve mentioned before, seeing your slides projected is a special experience. I’m not one of those hipsters who listens to vinyl and is intent on proving technology is not necessary, I still like digital and have all the latest gadgets, but nothing can compare to seeing your images being projected on a screen. Perhaps I’m a bit nostalgic and it brings back memories from the “olden days”!

For landscapes, I prefer to shoot digital, you can’t get the colours, sharpness and contrast using film that I prefer to see on landscape shots. For this, my Fuji X-Pro 2 is a bit like a mistress. I take it out reluctantly and feel guilty I’m betraying my Leica MP. My` current setup is the Fujinon 16mm, the Fujinon 56mm 1.2 and the Fujinon 55-200mm. Because I shot mostly landscapes and portraits with the X-Pro 2, I don’t need anything else. I’ve had the 14mm, 23mm, 35mm, 18-55 and 18-135mm Fuji’s but those first three focal lengths are covered with my Summicron, Voigtlander and Zeiss so they rarely got used and hence had to trade them in. I’ve also got the Fujifilm M Mount adapter so I can stick the Summicron, Voigtlander and Zeiss on my X-Pro 2, if I really want to.

With this setup, I don’t feel any need to buy any other lens. Of course tomorrow I’ll probably discover something and decide I want that, but I think I’m going to have this setup for a while. I’ve never used zooms a lot, I loved the X-Pro 2 for it’s size and weight and it’s almost designed for primes, but whilst the 23mm, 35mm and 50mm are tiny and make for excellent travel lenses, I found that I lusted after a telephoto and the 55-200mm is not that big, not that much bigger than the 18-135mm, and I’ve been surprised at how much I actually use and like this lens. When I had the 18-55mm and 18-135mm, they never really struck a cord with me and I also had problems with the camera shutting off and doing all kinds of weird things when zooming. I don’t have any of those issues with the 55-200mm, probably because of firmware updates that Fuji is famous for. I’ve always tended to gravitate toward wider angles, particularly the 16mm (24 DX equivalent) and 35mm but I’ve found the 55-200mm is pretty useful when traveling despite it’s size.

They say film slows you down, and it does, if you stick with film, but as soon as I get the X-Pro 2 in front of my eye, it’s like I must take as many photos as possible because, well I can. I keep it off Burst Mode, but still, I can come back with 10-20 times more images than when shooting film and that’s just one reason why I much prefer to shoot film. Getting a good photo shooting film is somehow much more satisfying than getting one with digital.

I’ve got a Tripod, but I don’t use it much and prefer to leave it at home unless I know I’m going to do some long exposure stuff. Bought one of those Rollei Gorilla Pod type things and that thing is absolutely shite for even mirrorless cameras. Perhaps it’d be ok for my Contax T3.

Anyway, for the long exposure stuff that I use a Breakthrough 10 Stop ND Filter on the Fujinon 16mm, and I’ve got a 62-67mm step up ring so I can stick it on the 55-200mm. Check out Breakthrough Photography’s website here, compare the difference to other ND filters and you’ll see why I bought this brand.

Amongst it all I try and take video of all my trips, at least with my son, so he has something to look back at and for that, it’s been on a GoPro. A few weeks ago I sold that and bought a Sony FDR X300 Action Cam and after seeing the footage, I wish I’d done that years ago. The Optical Image Stabilistion is far (FAR) superior to the GoPro and it’s a much better “camera” in many ways.

I still have the original Fujifilm X100 but I gave that to Grobbler who takes excellent photos of blurry people, skies, feet and curtains. I’ve also had the Fujifilm XE2 and the X-T1, both good cameras. The Leica Type 113 didn’t last long, that was a bit stink and unless you earn way too much money and have nothing better to do with it, stay away from Leica digital.

I used a Leica M6 for a year and there was nothing wrong with that, if the Leica MP is too much money, the M6 is still a very, very good alternative and it’s not as if you’re going to notice a huge difference in the photos either of these cameras produce. I’m not big on mobile phone photography, I like the feel of a proper camera but yes there are times when all I have is my phone, and that for now is the Google Pixel, which has an awesome camera, until I dropped it cracked the back and lens and now it flares like a seventies disco.

If I could only have one camera and one lens, it’s an easy decision – the Leica MP with 35 Summicron V4. For shooting my son, travel photography and everyday photography, you can’t go wrong with that setup.

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