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M8 travel gallery Europe - two months outdoors


dent

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Hello all!

 

We just returned from our two month camping trip through Europe!

The M8 did well and was paced often through consant adverse conditions (humidity, high altidudes up to 4300m, harsh temperature changes, rain, dusty winds). As always my photo equipment was just stuffed in supermarket plastic bags in the top of my rucksack. No technical problems - just the odd shutter failure here and there. The D3 stayed at home. I did not regret that decision.

 

Photography had zero priority on this trip (during climbing and later during traveling with a baby). Shots where taken on the run. No time to wait for better light or for the picture elements to move to a more harmonic pattern. So what You see is more pictures taken with an M8 as a point and shoot camera. Unfortunately ISO was set to 640 during the climbing days in Wallis. Some shots are heaviliy cropped (often no time to change lenses) and some are photoshopped to death to deal with the extreme contrasts. So You´ll find the pictures quite noisy here and there. I think I´ll still have to adjust brightness and contrast later because my calibrated 26 inch monitor is sitting at home.

 

Shot mainly with 28/2 asph. Occasionally 35/1.4 asph, 50/1.4 asph, 90/2 APO, CV 15 M-mount, 21/2.8 asph. Strictly RAW processed with Lightroom.

 

Europa Tour 2009 selection - jochen elfgen - mindful photography- powered by SmugMug

 

Enjoy! Thanks for Your feedback.

 

Jochen

 

BTW! I´m really enjoying the recent posts of excellent galleries from other forum members. What a treat!

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Jochen,

 

I very much enjoyed your gallery - you should post it in the picture section you'll get more replies.

 

It's true what they say about glacier regression. Look at the shot I took when I climbed the Breithorn twenty-eight years ago. Compare the snow levels to yours. Taken in the height of summer. :eek:

 

Michael

 

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Michael!

 

Thanks for Your feedback.

Yes. I´m also roaming the world´s mountains since 23 years. The regression of glaciers is one obviously visible (and therefore more easily emotionally hurting) consequence of what we are doing with our planet.

It´s crazy to see the huts formerly directly accessed on a glacier now standing on high rock steps.

Thanks for the shot. It nicely illustrates the phenomenon.

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Dent, I had look at your site, very thought out shots "stunning" I lived in Alps for some time ago, and still have friends in the alps, I try to visit twice a year,

Beautiful photos!

 

warm regards david

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Brill64, thanks for the feedback! Yes, I find the M8 a nice travel camera. It´s compactness is very appealing. But (as we all know) it does not matter much what camera one uses. Most impact is by the composition and post processing. On the other hand I think that lenses (and their signatures) do matter indeed.

 

David! Excellent wedding shots. Heavy stuff!

 

Best regards

 

Jochen

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Hi Jochem,

 

Great pictures! I enjoyed them a lot.

 

Currently, I'm planning a snow hiking trip in Norway. At first, I was thinking about taking the M6, but now i'm in doubt since I saw your pictures in the snow with the M8. I was wondering how long the M8 batteries lasted during this trip. Did you store the camera under your jacket? Any other tips?

 

Cheers,

Marc

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Hi Jochem,

 

Great pictures! I enjoyed them a lot.

 

Currently, I'm planning a snow hiking trip in Norway. At first, I was thinking about taking the M6, but now i'm in doubt since I saw your pictures in the snow with the M8. I was wondering how long the M8 batteries lasted during this trip. Did you store the camera under your jacket? Any other tips?

 

Cheers,

Marc

 

DRM!

 

Thanks for Your feedback and the questions.

 

1. The snow pics look horrible from a technical point of view, don´t they?

I think we agree that photographing in snow in bright sunlight keeps to be a challenge with AgX and digital likewise. With a pro digital camera You have somewhat 8 stops to spend (in case of the M8). This range is easily blown in these high contrast situations. In my experience it is feasible to expose the RAWs like You would do slide film - on the highlights, allowing around 2.5 stops for full highlight texture and hope for the shadow detail being recoverable in post processing. You pay with shadow noise, most ugly in color shots and still pleasant in bw.

Here the M8 files bear astonishing potential for shadow recovery (other than the M8 highlights - they are flimsy in post and blow very easily).

 

If You want full texture in brightly lit snow do HDRs. In case of the M8 this will ad a tripod to Your luggage. With ultra fast cameras like D3 sometimes a handheld HDR is doable with some luck and a still hand.

 

But as mentioned photography had no priority on the trip (and consider the high ISO setting in the snow pics too) and I´m sure You´ll get better files with more careful exposure. In high contrast this is easier with a D3 or such if You want to use the build in meters - I find them deadly accurate in difficult situations with pro SLRs. With the M8 (center weight) You´ll want to use a hand held meter here and there.

 

2. I don´t much care about battery life since I´m used (from the film days) to shoot very selectively. The whole two month trip took me 3 half battery charges (for around 500 frames). I carry a spare though in case of unintended leaving the camera powered on - not to difficult with the M8. I had no problems in the not to cold temperatures. Shutter winding was slower. Ask the heavy shooters on this topic.

 

Storing the whole camera under a jacket is not advisable since You´ll find condensation on the glass surfaces when You take it out to the cold air. Of course this is more pronounced when You take a cold camera to a warm room but the air under a jacket has usually plenty of moisture. It turnes up in fastly cooling surfaces. BTW I won´t trust the M8 environal sealing much - at least I don´t and I carry a M7 as a paranoic back up. Leave the camera in ambient temp and store the batteries in Your jacket.

 

Hope this is of some help to You.

 

 

Best regards

 

Jochen

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