It’s been about two months since I got the G3 and moved to it as my primary digital system. That basically means I sold my Canon 5D Mark II and started using the micro four thirds system for all my digital photography (I still keep a couple of L lenses just in case) . It’s been a pretty inspiring few weeks as the benefits of the system has suited my style and sensibilities perfectly this summer. I keep my film / medium format system for when I decide to do …

Voigtlander:

Leica:

Leica Lenses (English) from leica camera on Vimeo.

After trying a half dozen different sites for managing a portfolio, I finally settled on one, committed to it and my new site is now live.
In the end, I opted for Viewbooks. These guys seem to have the best balance between professional layout, tools, price and so on. Others I considered included zenfolio, pixelpost, 500px.com, custom wordpress themes, livebooks, smugmug and probably a couple more I can’t remember. I also made several starts to code one myself in silverlight, php and various other tools which I later abandoned due to …

I have a friend who has been asked me about my experience with the Nokton 25mm on the M43rds system and how it compares to the Switar 26mm f1.1. Or specifically, given the choice which of these two lenses would I recommend? I started to reply and decided it’d be just as easy to write the response up on here in case others were interested.
This won’t be a review – just a short intro / initial thoughts. For a quick conclusion – I believe this lens, coupled with the G3 …

I can’t believe i nearly sold this lens… it’s the Switar 26mm f1.1 that was designed for 16mm cinema film. I bought it about a year back to mount on an Olympus E-P1 (micro four thirds).
I just bought a Panasonic G3 and put this on it today. I have Akuri to thank for talking me out of selling it – so glad now as I forgot what a unique look it has. Looking at these test shots below (ISO 1600 under regular tungsten lighting), i’d never guess this is with …

(as you can tell, i’m starting to clean up this blog and am starting to post again).
I recently received this email and figured it would be more useful to answer it here;
“Lawrence,
I have a question about a lens that you reviewed. I noticed that you didn’t post any blog since July 2010. Hence, I am sending an email to you instead of posting on your blog.
My question is based on your lens review http://lawrenceripsher.com/blog/2009/12/switar-26mm-f1-1-f1-1-review.html
The review is detailed and excellent. In that review, you have some landscape photos, for …

I purchased an Olympus OM 21mm f/2.0 lens for my OM-4 a few months back and have loved it on the film camera. This lens is special (in my opinion) as its a) tiny b) great quality and c) the fastest super wide you can get this side of a $5k Leica.
Last night was the first time I mounted it on a Canon (5D Mark II) and thought I’d test a Zuiko lens characteristic of close focusing…
Attack of the sea monster.

I’ve been hearing increasingly loud and frequent rumours that fuji is changing their film line up. those rumours seem true now. this shows the changes:
http://fujifilm.jp/information/articlead_0029.html
I think the net is that Neopan 100 Acros in 120 will only be available in packs of 5 and Neopan 400 is effectively discontinued. can’t seem to get a straight answer on whether it’ll be continued in other countries somehow. anyway, unpleasant news as this is my favourite BW.
I posted this originally over in lost in focus, looking for suggestions as I was about to …

And now for something a little different. I tried some splash photography over the weekend to build up relevant samples for the Zeiss 100mm f2 Macro (for Canon mounts) I’m trying out. This type of work is not a forte for me but I knew enough to take a decent crack at it. This is all manual so it takes a lot of patience (and an appalling hit rate) to get right. If I recall, ISO was up in the ISO 2000ish range with shutter speeds at 1/1000 and f/10 …

As I mentioned yesterday, I recently took ownership of a Pentax 67ii and the one thing that had me worried was the mirror bounce…. this was largely down to reviews which speak of the difficulty in handholding the camera. The Luminous Landscape writes about how ghosting is possible even on a tripod with long lenses / slow shutter speeds while a seller on Craigslist offered 50lbs worth of sandbags free with his 67ii gear… Given I don’t even own a tripod (and have never shot with one), this was obviously …