Familiar ground

An outing this afternoon with my guru, reader Ray, who has recently moved to the area from the wastelands of Hua Hin and is looking for photo opportunities. With the mass migration back to Bangkok in full swing, it’s down the back roads to my favourite shooting area; with a visit to Viharn Sien followed by a quick trip around the Thai temple complex. Ray had his Leica M240, I had my Leica 0 film camera; and I also brought along my six year old GF1 just for fun. Set it to shoot “Dynamic Black & White” and just snapped away in between “magnificently considered and bound to be masterpieces” produced with the film camera.

As the Viharn Sien visitors faded away, we behaved with no respect to capture a couple of shots of the Leica’s.

It was good to bounce around in the company of another photographer for a couple of hours; even if Ray did keep reminding me that I once proclaimed that Leica made shit cameras that needed constant maintenance and things kept falling off, and now have three of them. I was of course referring to their digital cameras, Leica film cameras are magnificent (I suspect that I may need to retract that at some point in the future).

It was also good to shoot with the GF1 again, with the 20mm F1.7 lens attached. Very similar in size to my Leica, and still very competent in spite of its age.

Comments 🔗

2015-05-05 | Ray says

I’d forgotten just how good the GF-1 was with OOC jpegs.

Wanna buy an M240? Still sorting the bloody colours!

2015-05-05 | subroto mukerji says

I feel the GF1 easily outshot the Leicas…in your hands, it’s a mean machine. I’ve just started getting the hang of my GX1 and I’m frequently astonished by what it’s capable of with either the 45mm or the 20mm mounted on it. It’s the equal of the E-PL5 in many respects.Very glad I jettisoned my crappy Nikons with their front- back-focus issues and moved to M43.

2015-05-05 | Ray says

Oh, I forgot to enquire if you managed to repair the “thingy” that fell off your Leica film camera?

Happy to report the digital version stayed intact!

2015-05-05 | Spike says

Yes.

2015-05-05 | Spike says

I wish it were true, but there is something special about a Leica; not only in the images but also in the handling. Just a shame that it comes at such a price.

2015-05-05 | Spike says

Fuck off, you were not meant to remember that!

2015-05-05 | Ray says

Seriously, as we discussed, why the hell didn’t Panasonic keep going? The GF-1 was a ground breaker, the GX-1 moved on and upwards.

And that’s it!

Sad really.

2015-05-07 | ChristianPFC says

typo: Leica’s -> Leicas

2015-05-08 | Spike says

Not a typo, “Leica” is an abbreviation and it is acceptable to use an apostrophe for the plural. A better alternative would be “Leica cameras”, but I couldn’t make that fit in the sentence. “Leicas” just doesn’t feel right to me.

2015-05-10 | genuinej says

I think you’ll find that it is only acceptable for market stallholders and greengrocers to use apostrophes for plurals. It is in the U.K.!

2015-05-11 | Spike says

You’ve certainly dotted the is and crossed the ts on this one. I award you two Phds.