Month: February 2024 (Page 1 of 3)

–Well, back to the M11. I might be missing some settings, but test pics on the Safari just don’t look great.

Dilemma: It’s super-hard to focus the Zeiss 85 in the bedroom at night using the Visoflex 2. Similarly with the Biotar. So: maybe one needs an M9 for its history/look, and a CL for lenses that won’t focus on a rangefinder without a Visoflex. Could the built-in EVF of the CL be that much better than a Visoflex on an M11? Maybe.

Later: Turns out the CL viewfinder DOES support nice focusing of Zeiss 85 and Biotar. Will use CL for non-M (i.e. non-rangefinder) lenses, and black M9 for M lenses only. There are a few. Don’t know what I’ll do when the Paul Smith CL comes back. It’s cool and all, but the one I have came new. We’ll see.

–Walked to UPS (!) to pick up the Cheburkov flipper. Nice blade, though it has foggy sections, and the flipper tab is way too small: it’s a pain to open. Crap.

–Got bagels at New York Bagel Cafe.

–Back is bad today; took a Tramadol at 4.

–Back still hurts, a little worse than yesterday. Taking the combo Advil/Tylenol caplets, which don’t seem to have a huge effect.

–Leica M9 (black) came in. Nice enough, 688 shutter actuations, takes fine photos. No box, no accessories except a Leica charger that doesn’t work. Ordered another on eBay ($125 for the Leica name on a $10 charger).

–Noticed that NCIS Hawaii season 3 episode 3 “License to Thrill” was a dead takeoff on the Keanu Reeves/Patrick Swayze film Point Break: older, super-likeable criminal takes a young police officer under his wing as he’s being investigated. At the end, the criminal jumps out of a plane and disappears forever, similar to Swayze paddling out into killer 30-foot waves.

–Back is better, somewhat. Looked up the previous episode from March 2022: it lasted 8-9 days. So, a few more days of this.

–Bought a Leica M10-P Safari from MPB Camera.

–Back bad all day, always on the verge of spasm.

–Still don’t know jack about photography. Took some bedroom shots to check focusing. The M9s were 1/60, f3, ISO 400. The M11 was 1/320, f 1.4, ISO 2000. What??? The M11, known for low-light capability, opened up the lens, did 10x ISO, then snapped at 1/10th speed. It’s like the M11 is saying “do whatever you have to to use a super fast shutter speed.”

–Back still bad.

–Birds and squirrels are getting more numerous at the feeders, and today a cute brown rat showed up to work on spilled bird seed.

–Back is better, but still not good.

–Did a showdown with the Leica C-Lux and D-Lux 7. C-Lux won: much longer zoom, excellent image quality.

–Back was somewhat bothersome yesterday, and sure enough it blew up overnight. Took a Tramadol this morning (which may not have played well with all my other meds), and napped much of the day.

–Got out the Leica, which I thought was wrecked, and was surprised to see it takes as nice a pic as the M9. Shutter count is > 26,000, but it looks and works fine. I do recall I had to re-calibrate the rangefinder–successfully, it seems.

–Took Grace shopping at Bel Air. Saved $35.

–Bought a black M9 on eBay which had its sensor serviced by Kolari. Looking forward to it.

–Went to the dermatology PA. She froze several, asked if I wanted to biopsy a couple. I said let’s wait and see. Made an appointment for three months. Really need to find another dermatology practice.

–Rolex 1680 came in. Disappointing (though not hugely surprising): watch is 1978 while bracelet is 1994; crown guards, while likely unpolished, are not as fat as I had hoped; runs poorly on the Timegrapher: amplitude 200, beat error 0.7ms, timing +23 s/d; caseback has considerable corrosion around the edge. Dial and hands are in good shape, though, and–while I really didn’t notice it–the dial may be blacker than many of this era. And the bezel insert is a gorgeous fade.