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Michael Reichmann on G1, M8 and M lenses


nugat

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Having read the piece that the original post was about I have to say that whilst the writer is entitled to his opinion, that is all it is. And to be honest the camera and adapter in question holds no interest for me at all. My M8 performs better than it did when I bought it and still delivers superb image quality. I don't see why the constant urge to try something new and if someone has gone off RF cameras then fine, what's all the fuss about?

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I think many people might like that. To get that kind of quality, though, one not only needs great lenses but also a body with no AA filter.

 

Yes, quite agreed!

 

As for nostalgia, my daughter was born in 1995 so her taste isn't quite shaped by Dylan-era nostalgia. She developed it on her own. She's a writer so Dylan's lyrics interest her much more than his voice or melodies. I think she sees the latter as means to an end for him.

 

Good for her! Of course Dylan was very inspired by others such as Joan Baez. Sadly the youth of today seems to be very politically uninspired and rather apathetic and we could all benefit from another Dylan

 

My favorite music was often written and performed long before I was born. I'm not old enough to have nostalgic memories of Furtwangler conducting Beethoven's 9th or Billie Holiday performing "Strange Fruit" live in Harlem. It is interesting to imagine a youth-hood in Dresden (maybe not then, however) or NYC in the 20s/30s.

 

Yes, I often wish it were possible to go back in time and experience the Premiere of Beethoven's 9th or Wagner's Das Rheingold

 

Cheers,

 

Sean

 

Have a great week-end. Almost beer-time here!

 

Dubois

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Hi Scott,

 

Yes, he wrote that but I'm fairly sure that the M8 didn't become his primary camera after all. I'll ask him.

 

....

 

Is the M8 your primary camera?

 

Cheers,

 

Sean

 

I didn't see any sign of a big investment in the M8, as he was shifting to Phase One backs at that time. He even worked with a Linhof technical camera for a while (one field trip, I think).

 

I have an M8c, an M8u, and an M8.2 now, plus the M2 from long ago. And lots of lenses, old and new. I told myself I would sell the M8c when the two upgraded units were ready, but somehow it hasn't happened. I use an E-3 when I need a longer lens and find AF helpful (sports), but since the very nice ZD50/2.0 had an electronic failure (!!), I've found I can get what I need with a 50 on one of the M8's and a little more anticipation. An interesting exploration is comparing (MR's old) Xpan with the M8 for city landscapes on bright days. I haven't yet managed to do scans on borrowed equipment that are good enough to compare with the "Texas Leica."

 

cheers,

 

scott

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Originally Posted by sean_reid

I think many people might like that. To get that kind of quality, though, one not only needs great lenses but also a body with no AA filter.

------------------

Yes, quite agreed!

----------------------

As for nostalgia, my daughter was born in 1995 so her taste isn't quite shaped by Dylan-era nostalgia. She developed it on her own. She's a writer so Dylan's lyrics interest her much more than his voice or melodies. I think she sees the latter as means to an end for him.

-----------------------

Good for her! Of course Dylan was very inspired by others such as Joan Baez. Sadly the youth of today seems to be very politically uninspired and rather apathetic and we could all benefit from another Dylan

-----------------------

My favorite music was often written and performed long before I was born. I'm not old enough to have nostalgic memories of Furtwangler conducting Beethoven's 9th or Billie Holiday performing "Strange Fruit" live in Harlem. It is interesting to imagine a youth-hood in Dresden (maybe not then, however) or NYC in the 20s/30s.

---------------------------

Yes, I often wish it were possible to go back in time and experience the Premiere of Beethoven's 9th or Wagner's Das Rheingold

 

Have a great week-end. Almost beer-time here!

------------

 

Yes, that would have been something!

 

As for Cheyenne, she knows about the cross-influence between Baez (whom she also listens to) and Dylan. Her interest in them started when she saw Martin Scorsese's Dylan documentary. In fact, she has Woody Guthrie on her Ipod as well because she was interested in where Dylan started.

 

Nowhere near beer time here - deep in prepping the 24 Lux review.

 

Cheers,

 

Sean

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Betamax was concurrent to VHS. And after, there came DV....

 

Note to self: stop being subtle in forum posts. I know that Betamax and VHS were concurrent. I was suggesting that a dumb marketing move in a parallel dimension would be a company that invented Betamax after VHS had become the standard. I was trying to draw the analogy that inventing a new format to compete with established market leaders like Nikon and Canon at a period in time when the economic outlook is not favourable might be a tad unwise.

 

Maybe Panasonic should stick to making microwave cookers and TVs? If the G1 or its successors are a runaway success then I'll stop making posts about marketing strategy.

 

BTW, interesting that Sony invented both VHS and Betamax, then decided to make Betamax proprietary allowing JVC to dominate the market and later invent DV. Perhaps JVC should make cameras?

 

LouisB

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Having read the piece that the original post was about I have to say that whilst the writer is entitled to his opinion, that is all it is. And to be honest the camera and adapter in question holds no interest for me at all. My M8 performs better than it did when I bought it and still delivers superb image quality. I don't see why the constant urge to try something new and if someone has gone off RF cameras then fine, what's all the fuss about?

 

Michael writes about his own impressions and experiences and people can take from that what they will. The "fuss" (which is no fuss at all) is really that an article like that can end up being a springboard for discussion based on various people's experiences, etc. I think that's all we're really seeing here.

 

Cheers,

 

Sean

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Note to self: stop being subtle in forum posts. I know that Betamax and VHS were concurrent. I was suggesting that a dumb marketing move in a parallel dimension would be a company that invented Betamax after VHS had become the standard. I was trying to draw the analogy that inventing a new format to compete with established market leaders like Nikon and Canon at a period in time when the economic outlook is not favourable might be a tad unwise.

 

Maybe Panasonic should stick to making microwave cookers and TVs? If the G1 or its successors are a runaway success then I'll stop making posts about marketing strategy.

 

BTW, interesting that Sony invented both VHS and Betamax, then decided to make Betamax proprietary allowing JVC to dominate the market and later invent DV. Perhaps JVC should make cameras?

 

LouisB

 

No gurus,no methods...

You can only try to be the Warren Buffet and then fail like him recently.

M4/3 can fail for many reasons, same as betamax as a consumer format did.

Panasonic has been doing very well as an innovation company against Sony.

Their Ag-dvx100 camera was a breakthrough for independent filmmaking.

Their DVCProHD lines win over Sony in numerous professional applications , like the Olympics. Panasonic bet on the SD card as the future memory storage when IBM microdisk was the king (who remembers that?). We are lucky to have two competitive innnovation giants offering us great products. No, not Nikon or Canon. Make no mistake.

Sony and Panasonic will win the photography field within a decade. They have no legacy lenses to burden them, they will simply deliver what consumers want: small, affordable, good quality photovideo cameras for the masses and pros alike.

Guru of the Visual Method

Edited by nugat
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Originally Posted by sean_reid

 

 

Nowhere near beer time here - deep in prepping the 24 Lux review.

 

Cheers,

 

Sean

 

Great, I'll drink the beer (actually a very fine 10 year old Glenmorangie) and you slog on with the 24 Lux review. I desperately need to know why I should replace the quite excellent 25mm Biogon!

 

Dubois

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Great, I'll drink the beer (actually a very fine 10 year old Glenmorangie) and you slog on with the 24 Lux review. I desperately need to know why I should replace the quite excellent 25mm Biogon!

 

Dubois

 

 

Ah Glenmorangie...my favourite.Glenmorangie says "our Germans are better than your Germans", simply.

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Great, I'll drink the beer (actually a very fine 10 year old Glenmorangie) and you slog on with the 24 Lux review. I desperately need to know why I should replace the quite excellent 25mm Biogon!

 

Dubois

 

The only real reason to do will be if you need the extra lens speed.

 

Cheers,

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Ah Glenmorangie...my favourite.Glenmorangie says "our Germans are better than your Germans", simply.

 

I am quite fond of Bruichladdich at the moment. I just almost finished a "Peat", although I kept a little for comparisons later. This scotch is more peaty than Talisker (of which I recently almost finished an 18-year, although I kept a little for comparisons...):

 

The Laddie Shop Peat New 700ml 46% Alc.Vol.

 

I am now starting a 15-year. Very smooth, yet with lots of interesting notes:

 

BRUICHLADDICH 15 Year Old

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You might find this experiment result using a G1 with Canon FD 200mm macro lens interesting

 

P1000026.jpg

 

At maximum magnification approx 18mm length of ruler fills the frame at camera to subject distance of approx. 60cm and lens front to subject distance of 30cm. Set up was a bit rough and ready and wobbly and expect to obtain sharper results next time I try it with more stable focusing rail. The live view screen was an absolute boon to composition at such a relatively high magnification. The 200mm macro lens will focus to 1:1 on full frame thus equivalent to 2:1 on micro four thirds ... with greater depth of field on the smaller format.

 

 

Cheers

 

dunk

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The 200mm macro lens will focus to 1:1 on full frame thus equivalent to 2:1 on micro four thirds ... with greater depth of field on the smaller format.

 

Interesting test. Minor nit: if you stay at 2:1, you get the same DoF as the standard setup at 1:1, of course, since the optics and distance didn't change. If you use the extra enlargement to move back twice as far and get 1:1, you will get 4x the DoF.

 

This is all ignoring changing the CoC, of course, which really should be done, but which no one does ;)

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Tried the 200mm FD macro Lens again with more stable focusing rail plus a 25mm extension tube and obtained a better result ... this is approx 2.5 times life size.

 

P1000031.jpg

 

Have to say that still life macro work has never been so easy as with this camera and the large live view screen is absolutely superb as a focusing aid.

 

Cheers

 

dunk

Edited by dkpeterborough
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The only real reason to do will be if you need the extra lens speed.

 

Cheers,

 

Ah, I suspected as much. Still looking forward to reading your full report though. It seems yet again that you will have saved me a bundle of money. Thanks!

 

Interestingly I recently bought a Biogon 28mm on the recommendation of my camera supplier and somewhat contrary to slightly negative comments on this forum and have also found that relatively low cost lens to be very usable.

 

Now as to the 18mm. Will you be doing a test on the Super Elmar 18/3.8 anytime?

 

 

 

Dubois

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Dylan might have gone out with Baez but his influences were more like Woody Guthrie, Hank Williams Sr. Buddy Holly in other words his big influences were those he listened to as a kid. By the way did you ever hear Dave Van Ronk's line about Baez, Giving that woman a voice like that is like giving a Straverius to a cab driver.

David

Edited by dseelig
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Ah, I suspected as much. Still looking forward to reading your full report though. It seems yet again that you will have saved me a bundle of money. Thanks!

 

Interestingly I recently bought a Biogon 28mm on the recommendation of my camera supplier and somewhat contrary to slightly negative comments on this forum and have also found that relatively low cost lens to be very usable.

 

Now as to the 18mm. Will you be doing a test on the Super Elmar 18/3.8 anytime?

 

 

 

Dubois

 

You're welcome. The 24/1.4 is a great lens but not everyone will need that speed. Yes, Leica 18 vs. Zeiss 18 after I get caught up. Lots already in process.

 

Cheers,

 

Sean

Edited by sean_reid
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After reading all these posts on the G1, I have a question for those more experienced: Would it make sense to use a G1 for long(er) lenses only or would there be focus problems? What I am thinking of is a G1 with either my 75mm CV or my 90mm Elmar (macro). That would provide an effective 150mm or 180mm with not a lot of bulk. My M8 would contimnue to wear the wider lenses. The two together would be a travel kit of sorts. Any reactions?

 

Or is the G1 simply an intriguing concept that is too soft with wide lenses and too hard to focus for long lenses?

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I would guess a Canon 450D with one of Canon's long consumer zooms would weigh less, have equal or better image quality, be more ergonomic and be more versatile than a G1 with for instance a Tele-Elmar 135. And make a better travel kit together with an M8 and wideangly lenses.

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