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S Is For Show Us Your S2 Shots

docmoore

Subscriber and Workshop Member
Bob, no long horn steers? Aren't you in Texas? ;)
I am in Texas and I do have a couple of herds of Bevos that I have followed but none have been close enough to the fence lines lately capture with the relatively shorter focal lengths of the Leica S system...may need to find a P67 400 EDIF.

Seems like every other herd has different breed...so many choices and here where the temperatures range from low teens in winter to 100+ F it is a bit tough. The owner of this herd said they thrive in these conditions.

Bob
 

GMB

Active member
Kurt--Sorry for asking again but would you mind revealing the secret of your focussing technique with the birds. In my expericence, the autofocus of the S2 is not fast enough to follow them and continuous shooting is also to slow. Am I therefore correct that you manually prefocused?

Georg
 

KurtKamka

Subscriber Member
Hi Georg, sorry about forgetting your question. The weather conditions probably helped out quite a bit as the gulls worked to hover in the wind currents above the waves waiting for a meal to be stirred up by the waves. I tried continuous focus, single focus and manual focus on the areas with the greatest amount of gulls knowing that I'd be able to capture a few of the gulls within the group. I ended up with the most amount of keepers by manually pre-focusing as you surmised. Here's one more:
 

woodyspedden

New member
Guys

I have been shooting almost exclusively with the Pentax K-5 and the X100 as I have been trying those systems for the areas of S2 weakness (macro high ISO, and telephoto).

I need to get back to shooting with the S2. I really miss it. My 120mm will be back to me on Thursday (after a trip to Solms to fix the stuck aperture blades!) I will get back out as soon as I can as I have some additional clean up surgery on my back on Friday.

So look for some new posts within a week from Friday

Best to all

Woody
 
Woody, I wish you the best in your "clean up" (as you call it) surgery on Friday.

You guys are killing me with all this talk about the 120mm. It has been all I can do to add the 35mm and 180mm to my kit. I have been telling myself I don't need the 120mm and y'all are ruining my internal debate.
 

KurtKamka

Subscriber Member
Woody, heal fast. We'll keep the light on here for you.

Sorry about that Mark ... but it's as good as it gets in Leica lens lore.
 

David K

Workshop Member
Woody, get quick soon... we need you shooting that S2 and posting some stuff.

Mark, this is a merciless crowd when it comes to lenses but you really can do without the 120mm focal length. Truth be told I bought mine simply because I found one available and I know how hard they are to get. And don't forget about the 110/2 Hassy with adapter option. No slouch IQ wise just a bit more trouble to work with. Still a viable option that I had intended to pursue.

Kurt, I did some lens test shots with the 120 maco. Need to do more before I give it an evaluation. But there's little to no doubt where that is headed based on just a few preliminary shots. Took some pics of a cyclone fence ringed with barbed wire. It is sharp, sharp, sharp...
 

PeterA

Well-known member
Come on guys - you all know that sooner or later you will own pretty much every lens Leica makes for this puppy! :ROTFL:

I am looking at selling pretty complete kits in Hasselblad V system, Mamiya RZ and ( maybe) Sinar/HY6 as well as Nikon and maybe even my M9 kit - before I buy anything else. Over the years I have accumulated so much nice gear that it is now a total and embarassing joke on me...

The ergonomics of the S2 make it far more useable in hand held use than I thought possible. The only camera system I will never sell is my Alpa and I will probably buy an IQ series back to put on it.
 

Paratom

Well-known member
Woody, I wish you the best in your "clean up" (as you call it) surgery on Friday.

You guys are killing me with all this talk about the 120mm. It has been all I can do to add the 35mm and 180mm to my kit. I have been telling myself I don't need the 120mm and y'all are ruining my internal debate.
Mark, I did it the other way aoutnd-first got 70, then 35 and 120 because I thought I wouldnt need the 180-ended up getting the 180 as well.
I have to say that the little more reach of the 180 comes in handy for many things and I use it more often than I thought. Optically I have the feeling it might even "Pop" a little more than the 120 while the 120 (even if its very sharp and has good contrast) might render slightly smoother. But I could be totally wrong, just not enough images taken.

The question I asked my self-after getting the 120, do I really need the 70?
While I like 50mm fov quite a bit on the M9, I have to say I now use much more often 120 and 180mm.
But then if you want to cary just one lens and keep it "small" the 70 is a nice to have.
 

glenerrolrd

Workshop Member
I was actually surprised but I like the 70 best of the 4 lenses available. The IQ of all 4 lenses is as good as I will ever need and not a deciding factor . The 70 shot wide open has just the right DOF to isolate a person and create a nice smooth bokeh . Reminds me of the 50 lux on the M9 but with better character ...plenty of resolution ,color etc without over powering contrast.

Comparing the 4 available lenses..they really got theses right as a set ...they all have similar character and top drawer IQ. This makes picking lenses based on the desired FOV practical.
 

docmoore

Subscriber and Workshop Member
Postprocessed a few captures from the herd a bit differently...


Early morning






Resting in the shade






"Mudhead"






Bob
 

woodyspedden

New member
Come on guys - you all know that sooner or later you will own pretty much every lens Leica makes for this puppy! :ROTFL:

I am looking at selling pretty complete kits in Hasselblad V system, Mamiya RZ and ( maybe) Sinar/HY6 as well as Nikon and maybe even my M9 kit - before I buy anything else. Over the years I have accumulated so much nice gear that it is now a total and embarassing joke on me...

The ergonomics of the S2 make it far more useable in hand held use than I thought possible. The only camera system I will never sell is my Alpa and I will probably buy an IQ series back to put on it.
Hi Peter

The best way to get rid of all your (wonderful) stuff is to pretend you are as poor as the rest of us! LOL

When I decided to go for the S2 (absolutely the right decision) I sold off my Nikon gear (D3X, D3 and a host of wonderful lenses), my M9 and again a host of wonderful lenses, Mamiya 7II, Hassy 501CM etc etc. The reason? I couldn't afford the S2 without doing so and I promised my wife I wouldn't add more money to get it (almost succeeded but not quite). So if you pretend you need the money, particularly if you are going to spring for the IQ 180, you won't agonize over selling the rest of the kit.

By the way, the only sale I regret in retrospect, is the M9 and the lenses I had. I sold it for the money but also because at my age and with my eyes I wasn't getting a good percentage of in-focus shots. However, I wish i still had it as the files were very MF like and nothing else I have seen comes close. So BE WARNED!

All the best my friend

Woody
 

Paratom

Well-known member
I was actually surprised but I like the 70 best of the 4 lenses available. The IQ of all 4 lenses is as good as I will ever need and not a deciding factor . The 70 shot wide open has just the right DOF to isolate a person and create a nice smooth bokeh . Reminds me of the 50 lux on the M9 but with better character ...plenty of resolution ,color etc without over powering contrast.

Comparing the 4 available lenses..they really got theses right as a set ...they all have similar character and top drawer IQ. This makes picking lenses based on the desired FOV practical.
This may sound weird but as much as I love the S70 I still believe the 50/1.4asph character shows even a little smoother bokeh.
 

David K

Workshop Member
Test shot I took yesterday with the 120mm... wide open. Punched up the contrast and clarity a bit to accentuate the shallow dof which is very, very shallow at around 5' distance. Nothing scientific here...just checking the AF accuracy on the lens.
 
I planned to buy into the S system soon after handling the prototype S2 at PhotoPlus in fall 2008. Early on, I planned on a two lens kit consisting of the 30-90mm zoom and 180mm. Unfortunately, the 30-90mm zoom is still a just a dream so I had to get the 70mm when the S2 was launched.

The 70mm was my only lens for one year and I have been very happy with it. It is a very versatile lens and the image quality is excellent in my opinion. Finally I have been able to add the 35mm and 180mm to my kit. I would love to have the 120mm as well, but I keep telling myself it would be too close in focal length to zoom which I hope comes out before too much longer.
 

David K

Workshop Member
Mark, not sure if I'd call the 120mm a must have lens irrespective of how good it may be. I'm going to test it against the Hassy 110/2 with adapter (a much less expensive and more readily available alternative) to see how they compare.
 

glenerrolrd

Workshop Member
This may sound weird but as much as I love the S70 I still believe the 50/1.4asph character shows even a little smoother bokeh.
You really have to test the lenses in the exact same situation to see the differences ...and my experience could be just finding some great light . The real point was that the 70 wide open on the S2 has a DOF thats similar to the 50 summilux wide open (may not be exact ) and that the 70 can create some of the same type of selective focus .

So I think about the 70 /2.5 on the S2 as having my 50 summilux on the M9 ..which is pretty neat .
 
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