Leica Just fooling around (X Vario)

Admittedly, I just applied Silver Efex presets to the DNGs going for a gritty, high-contrast look and could probably do better with time. As they are, processing introduced some banding in the skies that is also visible in the color DNG (slightly pulled blacks and pushed clarity). In most of these, however, the OOC JPEGs show great tonality, decent contrast and look quite clean.

Two lessons. First, I can't pull black point and get away with it like I can on the M Monochrom. Second, the camera's JPEG engine is much better than I thought it would be.
 
Dale,

How are you liking the T? I thought seriously about when I bought my X Vario. Didn't think I'd get along well with the touchscreen UI, but being able to mount M lenses would be nice. Have you used M lenses on yours yet?
 
asiafish said:
Dale, How are you liking the T? I thought seriously about when I bought my X Vario. Didn't think I'd get along well with the touchscreen UI, but being able to mount M lenses would be nice. Have you used M lenses on yours yet?
Click to expand...

Actually I haven't done much with the 'T' since I don't have an effective case for it. Since I carry a shoulder bag with iPad and accessories in it for mostly street photography, the camera has to be in a compact case that doesn't add much more weight. I'm using the D-Lux typ 109 now, waiting for the 18821 case to replace the terrible Panasonic case I have now. I really liked the Monochrom and Noctilux lens I had until recently, but gave it up because I can't have a strap around my neck, and hand-holding that 3-pounder was an ordeal. A better case for the MM and Nocti might have saved it for me, and I really wish the camera makers and accessory makers would make cases for users like me. The 18709 for the X1, the 18727 for the D-Lux6/LX7, and 18821 for the D-Lux are my kind of design, but the camera world basically ignores those. I never got into carrying several primes for different focal lengths since I fumble things a lot, and zoom lenses are an afterthought with adapters on 'M' cameras, so for me the 'T' was an opportunity to have the great flexibility of the X Vario with the possibility of changing lenses when that made sense to do so. To tell the truth, I wish I had done a better search for cases for the X Vario and just kept that camera instead of buying the 'T'. Oh, so many decisions, and it's easy enough to just get rid of one thing and buy another, when I'm not doing any pro work like I did with the M6 and lenses I had a few years ago.
 
The M Monochrom is singularly amazing. If you liked it with the Noctilux except for the weight, why not try a lighter lens? The 50 Summilux is less than half the weight of the Noctilux, and the Summicron and Summarit far less still, while still giving that wonderful Leica look. The Sonnars are amazing as well, full of character and extremely small and light (and fast).

The X Vario is definitely a keeper. I use Leica's protector half case and find it a very convenient all-in-one solution, no camera bag required.
 
I do love the lenses, like the 35, 50, and 90 I had with the M6. I had color prints done by my photo dealer, and they had the look.... If I weren't made so lazy with digital, I'd get the trays and a genuine enlarger and do my own B&W's at home. Nearly everyone shooting film today prints digitally - I think using an enlarger is the ultimate. In the meantime I try different things, but I do realize some of my very best photos were with the X Vario, like these:

Bw_Charleston_Downtown01.jpg

Bw_Charleston_Harbor03.jpg

Reinert_Shop02.jpg

Charleston_Harbor03.jpg
 
I leave next week for a family vacation in Hawaii and plan on bringing the X Vario and my Nikon Df with 58/1.4g. No other bodies or lenses, and even the Df will only come out for the fire dancers and New Years Eve.
 
Packing my bags for Hawaii, we leave early Friday morning. Now even seriously considering leaving the Df behind. I can see the X Vario being a bit weak indoors or at night, but it did just fine in the available darkness of pre-dawn San Francisco a few weeks ago, so why not again in Hawaii?
 
I'd take something small with a f1.4 lens like the D-Lux6, for casual indoor shots where you don't have good lighting. Here's an example I have from a bar, and even though it looks like there's a light on the piano player, it looked dark to the eye. Apologies for poor quality - the shutter speed was 1/10 sec. and handheld, but braced against the table somewhat.

Charleston_Place01.jpg
 
I don't have anything smaller than the X Vario and my M Monochrom is off at Leica NJ, leaving only film bodies (Leica M5 and Nikkormat FT3) and my Nikon Df. So if I bring a backup, it would be the Df with 58/1.4G and then of course I'd start weighing my bag down with other glass (105/2.5 Sonnar, 35/2, 24/2.8?). X Vario by itself, however, is small and light enough, no bag required, and really only is sub-optimum in low light with moving subjects.
 
I have an old Polaroid that is made of metal and has a mini bullhead and folding mechanism. It is an obvious copy of the Leitz mini tripod and actually was made in Germany. Its already packed, as is my larger Benro that I'll use for formal family portraits.

Normally I go for shallow depth of field with portraits, but it is Hawaii, so I plan on using the X Vario at around f/8, with a touch of fill-flash. Love the leaf shutter in this situation.
 
certainly a lovely 'portrait', and the camera certainly is capable of lovely output. but if i may, respectfully, point out that the lack of background helps the 'portrait' to pop. if you look closely at the low hedges and even the sea, you can see that the clarity from the natural DOF of the slow lens would detract from the 'pop' if the busy background were head high. the pop results from the background being open air. do you not agree?
 
Sometimes yes, sometimes no. There are no hard and fast rules. I also had my Df with me wit the 58mm f/1.4G and have plenty of shots with blurred backgrounds, but just as many keepers came from the X Vario as the Df.
 
again, not to be argumentative, but it seems to me less a matter of 'sometimes yes sometimes no' and much more a matter of the physics of DOF. shooting the vario wide open at 5.6 at portrait legnth as an apsc would be like shooting a 75mm lens at about f8 on FF for DOF purposes. in my own shooting i am not a fast lens wide open guy, but f8 at 75mm is just not where 90% of photographers want to be in portraiture because theres just too large an 'in focus' plane and too much distraction behind the subject. i think theres room for debate amongst those who must shoot at f2 at any focal legnth and folks like me who are happy at f4 or so at portrait fl's, but i really do think f8 doesnt do it at 75mm. 'keepers' mean different things to different people. i keep lots of shots that i like, but i know that if put up for critique they would be shot to hell. so i dont think its a matter of keepers, its a matter of what photographers are trained to think is proper portraiture technique and this cameras inability to physically produce that result in many situations.
 
Would that assessment change if the image were less 'portrait' and more 'group photo'?
 
I don't disagree about the depth of field of the XV, just with the thought that the background should always be out-of-focus, even slightly. If the background is not distracting, is beautiful in its own right, and is an compositional element of the image then a small aperture is often called for in portraiture.

In the image above I didn't even shoot at the long end (the opposite actually, 18mm), and stopped down to f/8 precisely because I wanted the ocean to be in sharp focus.
 

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