Obscura from Latin, the rudimentary definition being: Dark.
Exactly how new toys actually leave most people, even me… in the dark. But the newest addition to my family, the renowned Canadian produced Leica M4-P had a surprisingly easy learning curve, and complemented the shooting style that I was already acquainted with through my various Russian rangefinder cameras, my Fujifilm X100 and even the Ricoh GXR.
Having picked this up through an offer that I could not resist, I realized why Leicas are some of the best cameras made, precision engineered rangefinder with bright frame lines that have been standard up to the new digital M series as well as a weight that suggests ruggedness (something lacking in the Russian counterparts of which most of the internals are cheap metal or plastic which becomes rigid and brittle over age) I quickly ran through a roll of Kodak BW400CN to check that the shutter speeds and operation was functioning correctly. Indeed it was! I was most pleased by the smooth and relatively quiet shutter which allowed me to handhold at slower shutter speeds, especially without recoil from any mirror as with traditional SLR’s.
Below are photos from the first two days of ownership! Just a straight scan with minor curve correction and dust removal in PhotoShop.
As a small(ish) but definitely compact camera, I think this will be one that I will carry around with me on most days alongside the X100. Will be interesting as I’m starting a 365 project as of the New Year (TOMORROW!)
Here ends the last post for 2011! Thanks for reading and see you all tomorrow after the apocalypse!