Related Articles

35 Comments

  2. I voted for the crazy’s. Why? They usually show that “this” camera is better than “that” camera to be bunkum and a load of phoney elitism (all as bad as the others, OK Leica lenses excepted, but us mere mortals need a car and house before a lens) and has little to do with taking photos which is an individual thing and we all know that its the operator that is assisted by the camera of choice not the other way round that makes good shots. Don’t We?
    Steve keep up the good work and OOC is the way.

  3. Hey Steve,

    For me, it’s about your everyday man’s take on gear. I’ve been through my share of gear (Pentax K100/M42 lenses, Nikon D200/D5000/Ais lenses, EP1/various lenses and finally found my soulmate of camera gear – M8/leica lenses). I wouldn’t say that gear is essential for making great photos but they’re a lot of fun. I do feel like it has been a journey for me trying out new gear and rediscovering old classics and seeing what sticks. Which is why I enjoy seeing what sticks with you and why.

    The guest articles/daily inspirations/image gallery are icing on the cake for me.

    More PP lessons would be my vote. As my workflow evolves, your PP tips and tricks have been awesome.

    As always, keep up the great work!

  4. Nick, As for testing these old lenses, I would have to have the funds to buy them all first 🙂 I test what gets sent to me to test. I do not own all of the items I write about, I just get to use them for a while. I would love to get a hold of some classic Leica glass and eventually I will. I almost bought an old Summaron last week actually but it was sold before I was able to get a crack at it.

    John, thanks for the nice comments. As for listings of repair guys, there really is only one I would go to for Leica out of warranty repairs and that is D.A.G. camera repair. He is the best IMO!

  5. Steve, your site is great, I actually look forward to checking it.

    The thing I most appreciate is the, “common man” angle. I mean cost/value/etc. is discussed in depth in your reviews. Along those lines, perhaps some reviews of older M Mount Lenses (with links to vendors of course).

    Well, that’s about all I can think of. Again, Great Job and Thanks!

    PS. See where a fellow poster suggested a listing of repair/service providers, I think this is a great idea…also, perhaps a listing of reasonable costs of repair/servicing/etc…again, thanks very much!

  6. I got an idea that has maybe already been mentioned.

    Since you are making your test real world comparisons, how about testing some real world affordable “old” Leica glass on that new M9 like some LTM mounts and older M-mounts that we might buy off the used market. Like some older summarit 35 mm, or summaron, or some crazy Jupiter lens. The M9 seems like a great camera for these test with no development variables. Just my two cents, no one might actually be interested in that….

  7. Hi again – photo site descriptions from around the world.

    There are so many beautiful places and so many local shooters who know about them. Invite contributions from different people showcasing their city. Such descriptions could include:
    1) obvious sights and things to shoot
    2) the less obvious
    3) dangers and annoyances (if any)
    4) cultural issues to be aware of
    5) QUITE important: where can you get help and service if need be – i.e. phones and addresses for reputable dealers

  9. Hey Steve, I believe you are doing already a great job and I like your site the way it is. As you, I’m also a big Leica fan. What I really enjoy about your site is it’s variety and openness to look at other things as well.
    Too many Leica fans like to make things exclusive with their desire and almost obsessive love to all things Leica.
    Frankly, there are forums that do that already to a point of turning into a congregation of the Church of Leica. Something I personally find rather annoying and so narrow minded that it borders on being fanatic.

    What I like most about your site is the fact that it is about Photography (!!!) than just another Leica shrine. Yes, you are heavy on the Leica side (nothing wrong with showing one’s love – many including myself share this with you) but you keep an open mind to all things photography related.
    I applaud you for this! Keep on rockin’ !!!!!!

  10. Thanks for all of the comments and suggestions guys! I will be reading over them again. As for the poll, looks like many of you like the comparisons, the guest articles and interviews!

    As for reviews, my thought was to keep them limited to Leica and cameras that have the same kind of qualities. For example, the m4/3 cameras, the new mirror-less cams like the Samsung NX10, and other cameras that share the same concept as a Leica. Basically, cameras that are small, great quality and easy to use. Oh, and also the lenses for these systems.

    A forum…I can add one easily but only if the demand is there and only if it stays civilized. Tough to do with a forum 🙂

    Guest writers…this is something I plan on expanding in the coming months as it is not easy coming up with fresh content every day on my own!

    Videos..I plan on making the videos better and better. I have some ideas 🙂

    Lessons. These will also be expanded and improved.

    Interviews. This is something I will be keeping, 100%.

    Ads..well, this is something that I HAVE to do or else the site would not be able to be up. I do not sell items or take donations so I have to have a way to pay for all of this. The ads and sponsors like B&H Photo help me with this, as do you guys when you use the links. For those that have helped, THANK YOU!

    Image database. Not sure on this one but if i do keep it I will add pages for other Leica cams and possibly a few for lenses. Still not sure on this one as I have had a couple of bugs already.

    Accessories. I plan on doing more of these as well. Right now I am evaluating some pretty cool image editing software (mac only) and it is pretty sweet. Does RAW conversions of M9 files beautifully, runs smooth, includes many of the features found in photoshop and costs $59. I will be doing a video review of this once I really learn it.

    Also, I have some other plans and ideas for the site so stick around, and thanks for all of the encouragement!

  11. Steve, great site.

    My suggestions are as follows:

    1) Keep it Leica focused
    2) Keep the Daily Image Submissions Leica specific; there are may other sites (ie Flickriver) that do an excellent job spotlighting great images made with other cameras. There are a lot of very talented photographers out there but I think many people are drawn to your site because of its Leica focus.
    3) Maintain course on Leica equipment and accessory reviews. They are great. The Zeiss and Voigtlander reviews are also helpful for those seeking Leica alternatives that may be less expensive (I’m looking forward to the Zeiss 85mm ZM F2 review soon!)
    4) Continue with Reader Interviews and Equipment Reviews. These alternate perspectives are beneficial to all
    5) Lessons and “How To’s” continue to be helpful for those who are learning, new to digital, or new to Leica/Rangefinders. I you expand into Digital Printing (beware……) you’ll have a new line of content to develop and present.
    6) The YouTube videos are also a nice change of pace and probably easier for you to demonstrate/explain a large amount of material (vs writing it up). You might want to have someone video you while you are shooting so you can describe your thought process and shooting decisions as they present themselves. That’s the best “How To” one could ask for.

    All in all, great work. Your enthusiasm is commendable and contagious. I realize the amount of effort and thought required to maintain your daily production, especially since you are funding the effort. The Leica community really benefits from your site so THANK YOU STEVE!!

  12. I’d like to see more m43 and similar EVIL camera information, including crazy comparisons.

    Also some in-depth articles on composition techniques would be appreciated, maybe showing the different options to shoot a scene and which work best and why.

  15. Hi Steve, this site is a constant resource of good information and i have great fun reading it. Ive seen some comments on the idea of heaving a forum and more interviews. I think this is a grat idea. There is a lot of talented people reading this site on a daily basis. We could all benefit fom their knowlege.
    Keep up the good work and keep making crauy comparisons, i love them :-).

    All the best from munich, germany,
    Daniel

  16. Love the site. There are so many sites dedicated to pixel peeping and gearheads that are too anally retentive – somehow this site manages to maintain the sheer excitement and joy of picture taking in a way many other sites do not.

    I’d like to see more examples of how both Steve and other guest photographers feel about taking pictures and how they feel about the gear they use, full of examples of great photos and a good understanding of how they took them.

    Tutorials and reviews on PP software would be great too – this is an overlooked area..

    And keep the Leica theme going. I love it. I find it inspirational and aspirational! I WILL get an M9 one day …..!

  17. I doubt this is possible but I would love it if you could shoot with two cameras – the M9 and M8. It would interest a lot of people to see comparisons betwen these two cameras. But for the rest I would agree with Yanidel. BTW I think this site will become a big success (in many ways it is already).

  18. Do something interesting with your cameras. Go out and shoot and tell us some tricks, cool locations. Maybe shoot a wedding, a portraiture session, something commercial photographers do and tell us how it goes. Probably you need an assistant once in a while documenting you taking pictures. Then you tell us the story, maybe give a tutorial, maybe review some pictures.

    Personally, I think you took the reviews (and product hyping) to the max. It’s clear you needed those clicks to amazon and b&h but be careful not to overhype. Next, do something which make readers better photographers.

  19. Hi Steve!
    I would love to see more Leica M related articles. Thank you very much for your site: I appreciate it a lot!

  20. I think you should specialize on rangefinders and smaller cameras such as E-P2, GF1, … I think there already a lot of websites reviewing big DSLR like the 7D, D3 and so on. I think it is better to a subject expert than cover everything lightly. So to me, more Leica and leave the rest to others 😉
    Overall, I think the current format is already great, good mix of everything. Would love to see an update of your Leica/CV/Zeiss lenses reviews with results on the M9. The pictures of the day, guest articles and interviews are also things I enjoy a lot! Cheers, Yanick

  21. I would have chosen “More lens reviews for other systems” if you made it an option. 😉

    DSLR reviews are quite common already but your brand of lens reviews which include a lot of real world pictures are really much more unique and useful than the sharpness and distortion charts that other websites pass of as documented reviews.

    Keep up the great site!

  22. Things are pretty good right now I’d say with active content being updated each day and such a variety of it too, I bet anything that a certain Mr Rockwell (who is not quite as active on his site as he once was) has lost a number of regular readers to this site for various reasons.

    Two things I’d like to see Steve would be ditto on the forum, a great idea. And more Leica “related” stuff like a few more Voigtlander lens reviews for instance, older Leica camera reviews, CV Bessa, Zeiss Ikon. Building up essentially a database of reviews of almost every Leica based RF camera & lens. It would be a starting point for anybody wanting to purchase any of those items. JM2C. 🙂

  23. Hey Tamalematt, this site started almost one year ago with all Leica reviews. I write about other cameras as I get to use them, but my main camera is my Leica M9 and my goal is to review every lens made for the M system. Along the way I will also write about other cameras as I have been (samsung NX10, EPL1, etc will be here soon) all along.

    The M9 Image Database thing is sort of a test to A: Make sure the image submission works, and B: To see if it bogs down my server. If all goes well this will be added to all camera reviews in the future, not just Leica.

    But just wanted to point out that my site has always been heavy on Leica 🙂

    Fact: I have reviewed 6 non Leica items/cameras in the past three months.

    Thanks for reading though, and thanks for the comment!

  24. Less Leica! Your site has turned into a Leica shrine. Not that there is anything wrong with Leica’s, but a little diversity would be nice.
    Plus, I second what people above have recommended.

  27. I love the interviews and guest articles. It provides a different perspective and even more examples of gear being used in ways that would be hard for any one man to replicate. I love your reviews, so those are plenty welcome as well!

  28. A forum would be great, i voted for slr reviews but that just as much applies to slr lenses. I realize your a leica guy but i must assume that a large portion of your reader base do slr photography and would appreciate it. Also when you review a nice top of the line nikon slr have the company sending it to you send a top lense for the review, as most photographers have said, its the lense more then the camera. Basically the 50 1.8 should not be mounted on a d3s in my opinion, nice lense for the price but compared to a 1.4 or must i say zeiss or sigma 50 the 1.8 is soft in all regards.

  29. I cheated and voted twice. You should have this as a poll by numbers. We should be able to number them in order of importance to us.

    I love the stories, and reviews. Lots of variety in here. I get bored with blogs easily, and this site is varied enough to keep me interested.

  30. I not only enjoy this site for the non-technical and very relaxed style, but I also enjoy your specific style of photography. I voted for more guest articles/reviews in hopes that you could off-load some of this work to others (keeping them in the same non-technical, real-world style as your own – this is nice). Maybe this way you might give more pointers of the type that you have in your post-processing lessons, but for all aspects of photography.

    While comparisons and reviews of other camera systems (non dslr) are interesting and indeed appreciated, I would like to see this site stay Leica focused. There are tons of other dslr sites.

    You have mentioned the possibility of a forum a couple of times. The reason I like hanging around this site more than most of the forums out there is that it seems like people are much less uptight and are more relaxed around this site. I hope that spirit can continue if you set up more user interaction on the site in the future.

    Lastly, for all of these points, just keep it laid back like you have so far – it is nice to see talented photographers (even having been pro) not take themselves so seriously all the time :). It really seems like you are having fun and this is part of what keeps me coming back.

  31. Thanks guys for the comments and suggestions. James, you are right! There are quite a few very talented individuals who frequent the site. Maybe a forum down the road would be nice with sections not only for cameras, but for processing tips, critiques, etc. Something to look into.

    Thanks

  32. I second Juan Carlos’ comment. I’d like to see more discussion about the creative aspects, because Steve’s images are great, as are all the other artists who hang out here.

    There are plenty of places for techno-mumbo-jumbo. What keeps me coming back here are the great images, the personalities, and the distinctly non-technical talk.

  33. The site is great, I don’t know how you find the time to do the posting and your photography. I would like to see more lessons on how you are doing post production. The few that you have posted are excellent.

  34. i would like to see more articles of colour in photography, composition, how to see your subject and make it the only thing in your picture
    im not sure if im clear my english sucks :P!

    im talking about of articles like the ones on Ken Rockwell’s web site, dont get me wrong i know every person thinks diferent but i will like to see what you think and what you feel about this topics
    .colour
    .composition
    .how to make great pictures
    .a bit of great photographers

    and all that kinda stuff 😀

    by the way thanks for doing such a great work on your we site
    cheers from Mexico (Tijuana)

  35. If I may add, I’d love to see more of your reviews with OOC images rather than photoshopped. It’s okay seeing your photoshopped images on the blog or walks or filmstrips, but it’s hard to make a comparison or make a purchase decision with photoshopped images from your “official/unoffical” reviews. I also realize that not all of your images for reviews are PS, but I find I have to keep scrolling back and forward looking for the image OOC versus PS.

    Keep doing great things! JazzyMac.

Comments are closed.