Leica M

The Leica rumour mill is running at full speed with the imminent launch of the M9 full-frame rangefinder camera.

This has led to some of my work colleagues discussing the joy of holding such a beautiful optical instrument as the Leica camera in all its forms. For many photographers it is a dream to own a Leica, however, during four years with an M5 alongside my Nikon F100, I rarely picked up the German gem preferring the rugged reliability and ease of use of the Nikon SLR.

Loading a film in the Leica is a pain, while it may have been a good system at the camera's birth, 50 years later it was anything but simple compared to dropping a roll in the Nikon and pressing the button for autowind.

Yes the rangefinder focusing system is dead accurate but so is an SLR combined with its own electronic rangefinder for manual focus. The lenses are wonderful but so are most Japanese optics whose build is based on German optical secrets exchanged during the Second World War.

Kodachrome

Recently I discovered colour transparencies of my mum and dad's wedding, in North Wales, shot in February 1962 on Kodachrome. This led to some detective work to discover the picture's origin.

Most amazingly during my parent's lifetime we were never shown these pictures, there are only about 20 in a slide tray. Immediately I discovered them questions popped up in my mind as to who had taken the pictures. They did not appear to be the work of the wedding photographer as his were all in black and white, which is typical for the period.

A chance conversation with an aunt revealed that she had owned a Leica, bought on my father's recommendation, he had a Semi-Prince, which I think took 645 images on 120 film. During his wartime service in the far east in the RAF he always hankered after a Rolleiflex but probably the camera was too expensive for a sergeant.

Another conversation with my father's cousin, John, disclosed that he also owned a pre-war Leica IIIB and Zeiss Ikonta, he shot b/w on the Zeiss and slides on the Leica, but was not at the wedding, he thought an uncle might have taken the shots.

I became interested in photography at the age of 9, after being introduced to darkroom craft by a teacher at school.

Strangely my father never told me of his own fascination with photography from wartime until the late 1950s. An album has also turned up of trips that he made to Europe and northern Scotland. The pictures are perfectly presented in photo corners and have captions on the back, the album must have taken some time to complete.

The slides were perfectly exposed and the colours are still as good today as on the day they were shot. This is a strong argument for using this now discontinued material for colour work.

I plan to have the pictures scanned and will upload one in the future...........

A Rare Photo of the 1940 Tour De France

Beltane 2009

The Peebles Cornet braves the usual rain during the Beltane Rideout 2009.

The rideout marks the bounds of the parish and is always on the Wednesday evening during Beltane Week in June.

Nikon D5000 180mm/2.8 at 1/1000th f2.8

Nikon issues D5000 service advisory

Nikon issues D5000 service advisory

Fujicolor Pro 800Z - Discontinued

Fujifilm Professional is to discontinue one of its slower moving lines of film, from September 2009 production of Fujicolor Pro 800Z will cease. The company has a limited supply of the film in stock, enough to satisfy demand until approximatively November 2009.Fujifilm's Product Manager for Professional Film, Russ Gunn, explained the decision, "We have decided to remove all formats of Pro 800Z from our range due to low sales volume. Fujifilm Professional website.
Related News

Peebles Cycling Club

Scottish Borders Cycling star Gary Robson, who seems to be effortlessly climbing the Dreva hill road on Wednesday, offers advice to one of the youngsters competing in Peebles Cycling Club's time trial.

To se all the photos go to:

peeblescc.blogspot.com

Jessops

Workers face the axe tomorrow (July 3rd) as loss making camera retailer Jessops closes the shutters on some of its most experienced workers.
In one branch three workers with more than 43 years experience in the photo-trade between them will be made redundant with most other staff put on short-time.
Other staff face having their hours cut from 36 to 24 or even 12 and say they will have to look for alternative work.
Perhaps soon more Jessops stores will look like this one (right).

Bumblebee

Kew rock garden

www.photobymarkdavey.com