Having fun with Fireworks

Coinciding with +City Of Melbourne What's On 's announcement of the Docklands Fireworks Season,  +Ockert Le Roux wrote a blog article to advise on techniques.  I missed the fun of last year with our gang and it wasn't raining yesterday so Ockert,  +Luster Lai and +Sophie Argiriou waited by the Cow In The Tree whilst I got myself in a standstill traffic jam at the end of Bourke Street.

I confess, I seldom do well at fireworks - it's a mental thing - Most defeated photographs happen in your head before you even press the trigger.. This time, I had a more positive outlook.

I started at f/11 but I moved onto f/22, the smallest aperture I could go, and the lowest ISO my camera could do -ISO 200, I didn't like bleached out trails and overwritten trails so on Ockert's advice of using a black masking board, I brought my Olympus polyprop environmentally friendly bag, tied the strings around the tripod head and laughed as I played peek-a-boo blacking out the scene between bursts. 

Oh and turned on Olympus's unique Live Time  - the feature that +Trey Ratcliff was asking for on his NEX. 

We could have gotten nearer. I could have swapped my DSLR 7-14 (used at 14mm) on the Olympus E-PM2 for the Panasonic 20mm prrime, to get more magnification. Even this is cropped a bit. But, hey, that event only takes like a few minutes and then it's over so what-the-heck, leave it alone. Let's set this one up for lots of negative space, shall we?

Does Live Time really help? It sure does. You can "see" when you are getting too many bursts superimposed and when the white trails which are so much brighter, are bleaching the scene so that you can end that frame and start a new one. 

But you must set the refresh frequency right. For this series of cameras, you can only refresh the LCD 24 times. If you set it at 2 secs refresh and you use a black mask in front of the lens to keep the exposure running but not take in more light, you could have the shutter open for way longer than 48 secs. (there is finite limit to the number of refreshes). Something like 4 secs at this fireworks density is about right - if you have more fireworks bursting per sec, then you may not hold the shutter open for that long).

And so, Enjoy!

Walking with the Leica X Vario - Part 3 - Conclusion

The Questions to Ask

This is Part 3 of a 3 part series. Links to Previous Parts - Part 1 and Part 2
The Questions one poses are as important as the answers that one figures out. I'll start with the elephant in the room question and carry on from there.

Is the Leica X Vario worth all that money?

You don't gauge the worth of a Leica on some pragmatic assessment of features. Is the high ISO noise performance good enough for the price? Is the lens bright enough for the money? Questions like those aren't the issue. You buy a Leica, any Leica because it is a Leica. It may have a sharp lens, it may have German engineering encased in luxurious metal. But above all, it's a Leica. That's what you pay for. Money isn't an issue.

Can I use this camera to take satisfying photos?

Certainly. People in black and white.

And in colour

There are issues with the speed of the Auto Focus. You're not seeing some shots of kids on BMX bikes doing jumps on a bike challenges playground. Because they were pretty much blurred - not the artistic blurs, just the mundane blurs. With manual focus and the scale marked focus ring. preset at a target distance, some skill and experience, they would not be impossible.

How about touring and some street scenery?

Street Art

Street Photography

Indoors

Auto Focus speed and sureness indoors is unexceptional (the camera does have a red AF Assist light but it was not obviously making AF better).  Incidentally, the AF motor sometimes murmurs in a steampunk way.

The lens brightness is pedestrian (similar to those DSLR kit lenses) - f/2.8 at 28mm equivalent and f/6.3 at 70mm equivalent.

The APS-C sensor allows the camera to offer high limit of 12,500 but I didn't use that. The Auto ISO defaults seemed to suggest 1600 as the max and it didn't occur to me that there was anything higher than 3200. I should have tried an even higher ISO.

Window lit interiors appear subtly lit but photo results often show a severe dynamic range. When kept comfortably away from highlight burning, the camera's JPEG engine produced quite lovely tones. At the overexposure boundary, skin complexion turned yellowish and plastic.

An Olympus OM-D / EM-5 captured by the Leica X Vario

Summing Up

I liked the camera. It was my first time with a digital Leica and I enjoyed it. 

The shutter could be made absolutely silent. Within the dynamic range, the sensor and in-camera JPEG engine produced classic film like colours and monochrome tones. I appreciated the focus scale marked on the lens barrel. And the two physical dials on the top deck - one for f/no, one for shutter speed. I wish Leica had prioritised and/or dedicated the right hand top deck dial to EV adjustment, with scribed EV markings.

 That's not to say there are kinks and quirks to iron out.  My biggest irritation?

1. Press the button on the bottom left back of the camera to "Menu/Set" to display the Main Menu
2. Scroll with the up or down edge switches of the silver Control Disc.
3. Arrive at the value you want but you cannot Set by pressing the center of the Control Disc with the same hand.  You must use the other hand to press the "Menu/Set" button.

Walking with the Leica X Vario - (Part 2 - the Monochromes)

The monochrome set

If you want to catch up, see the Part 1 of my experience

Leica is rightly famous for their monochrome, black and white look. They have a rich and long history in film and that started with black and white. Monochrome is still vital and real today - it discovers shapes, patterns and tones without the distraction of colour. Getting the right look however, when sensors are colour, can be a feat, particularly without clever post processing - Leica by the way, does make the M Monochrom that has a monochrome sensor.

The Images that Got Away

I feel dissatisfied when a monochrome shot is not sharp in context, lacks texture, solidity, shape or finesse. Trust me, I shot quite a few like that on this encounter. Why they got away (or at least, my side of the story).

The Autofocus on the X Vario isn't bad but let's say, it's leisurely.

Street photos of people tend to be monochrome, but I had difficulty getting response from the camera in time for street shots. Many of the Japanese competitors have upped their AF performance but it hasn't trickled down to Leica. The lens also warbles in sound when it focusses - a very quiet warble but you can hear it - again, the Japanese competitors have all kinds of ultrasonic and super quiet motors (partly motivated by movie shooting) and this detracts from the luxuriousness of the camera build and finish.

The Focus Scale

I was happy to see a nice feature that modern digital cameras do not have - a distance focussing scale. The focus ring around the lens has an "A" position which enables autofocus. If you take it off the "A" click position, you enable manual focus. There is no Depth of Field Scale so you need experience or a DOF aid (smartphone app, paper chart) to figure out what happens if you set the lens to f/8 (and be there) and 2 metres. Don't forget to take the ISO off from Auto otherwise, the camera might drop ISO to 100 instead of something feasible like 800 to keep the shutter speed fast enough to freeze motion blur. Doh! I did that. Lots of that.

The trouble is, this is a zoom lens camera - it is way too tempting to zoom and then you have messed up the expected DOF. I did that. Lots of that.

And really, it is Autofocus capable - I was too tempted to flub the estimate of 2 metres on MF, switch to AF, flub that and then switch to MF.

 

So, on to the ones that didn't fail.

Normal Black and White or High Contrast Black and White?

I missed quite a few of some people with fascinating clothes. By the time this shot came, movement had slowed down. This is SOOC JPEG and comes with white sky, gratis. I like the timelessness that black and white brings to this.

Have you wondered why people prefer not to live in No. 3 but 2A? Is this some Chinese auspicious number allergy? This image has had histogram widening - the textures of the wall and on the numbers make it worthwhile.

Leafless trees hold endless fascination for photographers. It's worthwhile finding ones that offer a shape and clarity on negative space but sometimes a busy scene brings context

One of the metro train lnes connecting to the South Yarra Station

Remember, we have a colour capable camera? Sometimes what looks black and white doesn't have to be black and white filtered.

It's not to say that grab shots of unposed people are impossible. This couple had just exchanged a chat and were waiting for the lights.

As I said, we need tones to be obvious as in monochromes, we don't have colour to provide separation.

Part 3, a summing up, maybe, coming soon...