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The Bazooka and the Button

Godfrey

Well-known member
Two big boxes arrived from the Leica dealer yesterday. One box contained a Leica Vario-Elmarit-SL 90-280mm f/2.8-f/4 ASPH lens for the SL. The other box contained a Leica Summicron-M 50mm f/2 lens for the M-D. "The Bazooka and the Button": Can two lens systems from the same manufacturer be any more different? :thumbup: Can't wait to put them to use!

The Bazooka at first impression feels like a heavy stovepipe affixed to the front of the SL, but—shockingly—it balances very nicely for hand-held use and the SL body's grip and controls really work extremely well with it. I've only made a couple of test shots so far ... the image stabilization seems to be amazingly good: a 1/30 second exposure of a model on my bookcase shelf at 280mm setting is just stunningly crisp and shows extremely little camera motion. I'm sure in less ridiculous shooting circumstances it is going to do exactly what I hoped for. The rotating tripod mount is very sturdy and beautifully designed. Quite the lens! I'll get out with it during the week.

I just fitted the Button to the M-D for today's outing to Redwood City. The focusing on this lens is just right: beautifully damped and precise, light but not twitchy. This is a used lens, approximately 2008-2009 manufacture, but you'd never know it. Just right on the M-D body...

The reason why there were two large boxes, instead of just one, is that my long-considered equipment rationalization is happening. The dealer sent me both lenses in big boxes with a huge surplus of packaging materials because five Leica cameras and nine Leica lenses are going back to him for trade/consignment sale against these two lenses. They leave on Monday. Next I'll be posting the Pentax, Nikon, and Olympus gear for sale ... I'll do a for sale post here and then move it to Ebay.

Lots of changes. Lightening up feels good. I just want to make photographs and get to work on books and movies to distribute them. One more step along the way. :D

G
 

Jorgen Udvang

Subscriber Member
Next I'll be posting the Pentax, Nikon, and Olympus gear for sale ... I'll do a for sale post here and then move it to Ebay.

Lots of changes. Lightening up feels good. I just want to make photographs and get to work on books and movies to distribute them. One more step along the way. :D

G
Isn't this a repeat post from a couple of years ago.... :ROTFL:

Congratulations with you new lenses :)
 

Godfrey

Well-known member
Isn't this a repeat post from a couple of years ago.... :ROTFL:

Congratulations with you new lenses :)
It is, actually. I didn't do the sales I intended then, for a variety of good reasons (some of which had to do with more the pressing concerns and attention I had to put towards my health), but not least of which was that I didn't have a clear enough notion of what I wanted to achieve.

Now I know exactly what I want to achieve with my gear reorganization. My health is improved enormously and I'm on my way back to the gym and full fitness again, and I've retired. So I can finally concentrate as much of my energy as I feel comfortable using on where I want to get to with my photography and camera equipment.

This trade/sale is the first step. There are six steps I've identified, to be done in sequence. At the end of which, I'm done. :D

Life is good.

G
 

Godfrey

Well-known member
My now "complete" SL kit is all in hand so I tested out the Tenba Cooper 13DSLR bag with it. It fits comfortably the SL+SL24-90, SL90-280, and Super-Elmar-R 15 along with iPad Pro 12.3 inch, power supply and cables for the iPad Pro, battery charger and cables for the SL, Lightning to SD Card Adapter cable, two spare batteries, and as many spare SD cards as I want, with a bit of room to spare. Not bad. The only difficult thing is that the bag stuffed with that full kit weighs in at nearly 18 lbs, a couple more than I'd estimated. I can save some weight by switching from the SER15 to the WATE, switching to the iPad Pro 9x7 ... that cuts it down by about 2 Lbs. Still pretty hefty though. :toocool:

So yes: I likely will purchase that Trifecta backpack if I find myself wanting to head out into the field with the whole kit frequently. And/or have another custom insert made for my Pelican 1510 rollaway case for the SL kit for slightly less aggressively 'hiking' capability. Carrying that kind of load on my shoulder or even across my back too often would eventually damage this old body. :cool:

I picked up the Leica M-D bag with two lenses in it a moment later and it just about floated out of my hands. :ROTFL:

G
 
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