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S Is For Show Us Your S2 Shots

D&A

Well-known member
A few comments about recently posted S2 Images:

Georg, nice to see the S2 used in ways not often associated with the S2. Detail is great and many of your pics are impressive. I too would like to know where in Africa? What I find most interesting and enjoy seeing is when a camera system is used in an area of photography, not normally associated with it's strengths or possibly a bit out of its element. Then its up to the photographer to make it work and even use it to some advantage over what would be conventionally used.

Kurt, not often do we see (at least I haven't) the S2 used for this sytle of imagery. I know from your past postings you wanted and thought the S2 could be effective in shooting a wide variety of circumstances, even street/reportage, and you clearly demonstrated that, especially with your photographic skills. Although I like them all, my favorites are #2 and #3. Interesting how the vertical stack of building materials he's carrying on his shoulder emulate the buildings behind him. The look from the barber shop has me wondering what he's thinking? I don't think it was "Nice S2" :)
My thoughts though say ....extremely nice images!

Dave (D&A)
 

GMB

Active member
Really nice Georg... and a happy new year. Looking forward to more wildlife pictures with the S2.

In which part of Africa are you?

Cheers,
Pete
A few comments about recently posted S2 Images:

Georg, nice to see the S2 used in ways not often associated with the S2. Detail is great and many of your pics are impressive. I too would like to know where in Africa? What I find most interesting and enjoy seeing is when a camera system is used in an area of photography, not normally associated with it's strengths or possibly a bit out of its element. Then its up to the photographer to make it work and even use it to some advantage over what would be conventionally used.

Dave (D&A)
Pete and Dave,

Thanks for the kind comments. I was in Sabi Sands, which is a private game reserve adjacent to the Krueger national park in South Afirca (more specifically, I stayed in the Sabi Selati lodge in Sabi Sabi, one of the private reserves within Sabi Sands). The entire Sabi Sands is open towards the Krueger park, so animals can move freely between the park and Sabi Sands and within Sabi Sands. However, you can "only" move within your reserve.

The reason why the S2 worked well was that you get very close to the animals, at leas the big five, because the vehicles can go off road and the animals are used to. For example, when I took the Rhino head shot, I was may be 2 m away from the animal. At 100% crop, you can see the iris of the eye.

The S2 worked well most of the time. However, good light helps. While I could often hold up to 1/90 with a monopod, you obviously got motion blurr as I could not persuade the animal to keep still. Biggest problem was in my view the slow autofocus, which may be fine for a MF, but is too slow for a moving animal (OTOH, when the animal did not move, it was very precise). Also, on a few occasions I would have loved to have something longer.

If I would ever take the S2 on a safari again--and I hope I will--I would also train a bit in a zoo. Time on safari is short.

Anyway, a great break and it is hard to now be back in grey Europe.

Georg

PS: On a few occasions, I saw others shooting with i-Pads. The LCD on them is impressive and beats the S2 by a mile. :ROTFL:
 

GMB

Active member
Kurt,

I love these images. Congratulations. Being in Europe where everone is so paranoid if you point a cameram at him, it is refreshing to see that people apparently enjoy being photographed.

Georg

PS: What did you use for the B&W conversion?
 

baudolino

Active member
Here's one from the region where I grew up in the Jizerske mountains in the Czech Republic, taken during my cross-country skiing holiday last week. With the 35 mm lens.

 

gogopix

Subscriber
Happy New Year to all of you. I started 2012 early this morning. All shots with the 180, except one of the Rhino shots with the 70. The detail in some of the shots is truly awesome. It does of course help that you get close to the animals. Post processing was quick and dirty on the labtop.

Georg















Really nice captures.

One question, on focusing. Are these all autofocus? My experience with the S2 is that is shares some of the older MF AF problems, that is, finding the most detail (like foreground or background foliage) rather than the main subject. I keep nagging for "Spot Focus!!!!":eek:

Did you have to adjust? manual focus? or did the S2 grab these for you? (and they do have good focus on main subject!)

regards
Victor
 

GMB

Active member
Really nice captures.

One question, on focusing. Are these all autofocus? My experience with the S2 is that is shares some of the older MF AF problems, that is, finding the most detail (like foreground or background foliage) rather than the main subject. I keep nagging for "Spot Focus!!!!":eek:

Did you have to adjust? manual focus? or did the S2 grab these for you? (and they do have good focus on main subject!)

regards
Victor

Victor,

Thanks. All autofocus. No manual adjustment. As I said, when the subject was not moving, the autofocus was quite good. I was particularly surprised by the below example. F 3.5, 1/125 at 640 ISO.

Focus pretty much spot on between nose and eyes despite the irritating branches. BTW, this is copped to square but no cropping at the bottom/top.

Georg

 

KurtKamka

Subscriber Member
Thanks for the comments, Dave, George and CEH.

Lovely photos Baudolino and Bob. Georg your photos demonstrate the crazy detail available with the S2 and S lenses combination.

Dave, I'm loving the S2 for what I like to shoot. For street photography and documentary photography, the weatherproofing and amazing detail are wonderful tools to use to try to tell a story.
 

D&A

Well-known member
Kurt, love that sign behind the woman in the red dress "sitting". It sums up exactly what she appears to be thinking.

Nice to see some street photography in color too. Not sure if you mentioned it, bu what country/location were these shots taken in?

Dave (D&A)
 
Kurt: Just now (re)discovered your blog, found out that you moved to Manila and I am really, really overwhelmed by the treasury I found. With your photography, documented there you open the door to a fascinating (strange to me) country. Thank you very much for sharing and the inspiration!

Have to quote my former post: Those are singular. Hope you find a apt way to make them accessible/publish them for a broader audience.
 

KurtKamka

Subscriber Member
Dave, she didn't know what to think of this westerner as I came out of nowhere, saw the sign and asked her if I could snap a picture. I'm in Manila in the Philippines and will be located here for the next couple of years.

Thanks for being so gracious Hermann. It's a fascinating country to explore due to the nature of the country's attempt to move up from developing nation status. While the Philippines has many natural resources, government corruption and a lack of infrastructure have made the transition slow. There is a great disparity in wealth distribution in the country and a lack of a middle class. As a result, many college graduates earn less than $500 per month in wages.

However, the greatest asset the country has is its people. Well-educated, English speaking and hard-working, the people are some of the most open and friendly people that I've ever met. Business Process Outsourcing and call centers have exploded here recently, putting more and more people to work in technology services. The Philippines now employs more call center employees than India.

I'm planning to take the images that I'm shooting and at a minimum, organize them into a book or two that I'll self-publish and distribute to some of the many friends that I've made in the local neighborhoods that I wander.

Kurt
 

LWH

New member
Just finished reading through this thread from start to finish. It took a while but was very entertaining and informative. Thanks to all the S2 users who contributed.

Like others, I've been a little surprised by the lack of S2 camera and lens reviews and pictures on the web (which, ultimately I put down to the rarity of the system), and am glad to have found so many pictures and discussions about the camera and lenses all in one place.

I'm not looking to buy an S2 but have been researching Leica M lenses for use on another camera, and while the S series lenses (and the S2 camera) have their own unique characteristics, it's been good to see such nice examples of the 'Leica-look' that they share (to some extent anyway) with other Leica lenses.

Even though the S2 system is about as good as it gets for Leica, and as such will remain out of reach for a lot of people, the examples people have provided here can still be used as inspiration and reference material for others using 'lesser' (but perhaps in some ways similar) systems.

So, again, thanks for all your input, and for demystifying the S2 mystique somewhat.
 
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