Thursday, 19th August, 2021
Coming up 2 weeks with this wiki, and I must say I quite enjoy it. I like the design, the administration aspect, and the (Basic) setup I have for it. I keep thinking about a blog but I’m still tempted just to keep this. I’m writing all this for myself, and sometimes imagine others reading it but don’t really care if they do or not. Whereas I find a blog seems to be more focused on having others read it. I’ll continue to ruminate about that. Would also be nice not to have to support so many domains…I actually like this one more than alexjj.com but I can’t give that up as so short, and my pictures one is short, and the other for my dad’s email…ugh guess not.
Got my latest films back from developing. First set with the Leica M2. They all look great - which is good as it means no issues with the camera. I also got two films back from my Minolta SRT100X SLR. They look great as well. The film look is really enjoyable, and even though I’m sure it can be replicated in Lightroom I much prefer the original. Plus I know what’s gone in to make them - manual everything and timing and no second chances etc. - so that makes it even more rewarding when I see them.
The problem is that do the photos from the M2 look 30x better than the Minolta ones? In fact more than that including lenses. The answer is of course ‘‘No’’. The SRT even has a built in light meter, which for the most part seems reasonable accurate. The only thing that M2 has over the SRT is the rangefinder style focusing. I think all but 1 was completely out of focus and maybe 2 weren’t quite spot on with the M2, whereas I’ve had 10+ on a roll come back out of focus on the SRT. I’m sure I’ve focused it though. Either the mirror is maybe out or something but then the next roll is 90% in focus. I have noticed that sometimes there seems to be a lot of play with the lens for focus and I can’t tell that it’s changing at all. Whereas the rangefinder, line up the patches and we’re good. Sometimes it’s tricky if there’s little contrast but I do like it. I guess I’ll only be able to tell if it improves with more shots/rolls and see how they come out overall. It is an expensive camera. However, there’s very few options for rangefinders with interchangeable lenses. I also like there are still professionals who will repair the Leica, so it should last forever. Even if I do decide to get rid of it, I’ll get my money back - maybe lose a bit on the lens as ended up buying that new as I wanted the mark 2 of the Voigtlander 35mm nokton. The real alternative would be a Canon P or 7. I did own a 7 for a while but sold that as “ahem” thought it was too expensive. I think it had some light leaks though too. Now I think I should’ve kept the lens as it was the 50mm f/1.4 and they seem to go for a lot and aren’t very common.
Counter to that, I think about the MP! I like the M2 but the lack of light meter is a little tricky at times. Getting my phone out all the time is annoying and maybe even a handheld might be just as bad. I could get a hot shoe mounted one like the keks or voigtlander ones, but then that adds bulk to the camera and makes it janky? In bright sun I can manage just fine with it on f/11 and 250 or whatever but otherwise I can’t really tell. Maybe I should try and find a second hand one, or just buy the keks for $120. To spend £3-4k on the MP to get a light meter built in is retarded. Could mean I could get a black version…again retarded. I’m nervous about the M2, how would I be with a MP! Best get some more lenses and then maybe think about the MP. There’s always the M6 or M7. Or just go digital with a M! That’s also retarded. I did wonder if I should’ve got a Leica CL //film// camera. In fact I was looking at getting one ages about but decided they were too expensive 😅. It would be a bit lighter and smaller than the M2, and I doubt I’d notice the differences. Has a light meter too, although prone to breaking and no-one will fix it. The no-one fixing it does put me off. It’s “cheap” at £200-350 (if you’re lucky and wait) but quite a lot for the potential failure. Might still get one to compare. Shame there’s no decent camera shop locally. There’s one but it’s 3 hours away, not practical to pop in to handle a camera.
I quickly got over the Leica CL that I was admiring the other day. The native lenses for it are all huge. The 18mm is small and the 23mm is okay but the 35mm and the 60mm are big. Makes it look weird. It would be nice to have but meh. I should get the 70-300mm and maybe the 56mm for my X-T2.
I should also get some film developing going - although need a scanner and can’t decide if I’m just going to stick to 35mm or whether I should prepare for 120 as well. I think just 35 mm as it’s going to be a while before I have time / hands for 120, and just send it away. A 35 mm scanner is a much more contained expense - maybe £160 for a used plustek - should’ve kept the one I had for scanning all those slides.
Made a little script to generate hledger web page with report in it. Can get it cron-jobbed to run each night for me. I might also get it pushed to my private TW. Although I suppose I should write it to google sheets for me so I can just look there. Hledger-ui is a nice way to interrogate it. Still want to do a monthly write up but not sure where to do that. Be nice if I could do it on here. Maybe I can write it without the specifics. Maybe I could also just have it pushed to a github private repo README…in fact the very repo I keep the data in is private, so I can just visit that to look at it anywhere.
Shouldn’t have bothered with micro.blog. I just don’t care about a social website thing. I can’t be bothered looking at other people’s posts and articles. Not because they’re boring but just as it’s just another time sink I don’t need. It’s better than twitter and facebook but it’s still the same thing.
Phew it’s been a lot of writing tonight. Time for some more Lost in Space!