Carrying on from the previous post, I'm now back from the Venice trip. Some photos have been posted on my Zurich Daily Photo blog but the aim of this post is to give my impressions of using the 24mm Elmarit.

In the previous post I envisaged using it as a "standard" lens on the M8, and indeed I shot with this configuration a great deal of the time. However I also used the lens on the M3 with the 24mm finder. I came to three major conclusions, each of which was pretty unambiguous in my opinion.

• It's a superb lens - no doubt about it. I'm not just talking about objective things like sharpness and lack of distortion - these are well documented on various reviews, such as Erwin Puts site. It produces, in my subjective view, a special kind of image. You can point it straight into the light, or in any kind of challenging lighting situation and it doesn't have any problems. Highlights, even distant ones, are rendered beautifully in night shots
• It doesn't match the M8 very well in my opinion. Not because of image quality, but because of handling. It's too bulky in my view for a standard lens in the Leica tradition of compactness and unobtrusiveness. When shooting street photography I like to pop the camera in my jacket pocket, and especially with the lens hood this is often impractical. And for all this bulkiness, you are only using the cropped area of the lens's imaging circle. It also requires the largest brightlines in the M8 viewfinder, and I found these difficult to use effectively, often having to squint in the viewfinder. This coupled with the relatively large area of view blocked by lens/hood diminish the rangefinders advantage in my opinion. I'm going to get myself a 28mm Elmarit for the M8. I think that will be perfect.
• Although I like the M cameras and lenses matched to their viewfinders (M3/50mm, M4/35mm etc) I found the 24mm to be a much happier match than I expected when mounted on the M3 in conjunction with the 24mm finder. My complaints about bulkiness still apply, but in this configuration you have access to true wide angle images. For me a nice revelation after being tied in to the 35/50mm lenses for so long. You also get great image quality across the entire frame. Using a separate finder for focusing and framing is not a big issue with the generous DOF available - most of the time I didn't even use the rangefinder. I can see myself using it almost exclusively with film Leicas to take advantage of the full possibilities of the lens.

The bottom line? The M8 will be married to a 28mm as a standard lens (almost certainly the Elmarit ASPH). The M4 and M3 will continue to be used mainly with the 35mm and 50mm Summicrons respectively. The 24mm will be reserved for occasions when the subject warrants it, and probably only on the film cameras

The title sounds a bit odd "streets full of water.. etc" but it boils down to this. I'm spending two weeks in Venice and I need to decide what to take with me. So many pairs of underpants, so many cameras - that sort of thing. I've got the underpants bit sorted out, but what about the cameras. Venice is the photographers equivalent of a pigs trough and so choice of camera gear is uppermost in my mind. I've been before several times and carted just about everything I could imagine in order not to miss having that vital gizmo/lens/whatsit at the crucial moment.

However, recently I've been getting disillusioned with the whole shooting experience, exacerbated by digital I have to admit, that results in a plethora of images with no particular creative emphasis. This is probably just me, but then it's me that's going to Venice.

As an experiment in my whole approach to travel photography, this time I'm going with the bare minimum. The Canon and it's arsenal of zooms is staying at home, and it's going to be a Leica-only show. (I keep thinking, as departure looms, that maybe I should sneak in the old Hasselblad, or maybe the OM1 with a couple of nice lenses, but so far I'm being strong about it. My camera bag is looking ridiculously small and inadequate - will I survive?

Even with a Leica-only approach I still have a fair assortment. Here it is, and how I've approached the task. I'm taking three bodies to avoid changing lenses too much and to allow film variations.

M3 50mm Summicron loaded with TRI-X
M4 24mm Elmarit loaded with FP4
M8 35mm Summicron loaded with digital stuff

90mm Tele Elmarit, well it's tiny anyway

How this will pan out I don't know, and I may well change the lens/body configuration. I hate changing lenses. However eagle eyed readers will notice that the combination above basically just gives me two focal lengths 24mm and 50mm

How will it work image wise? Well I'm not going to get any long telephoto shots of the sun sinking behind the Campanile. Is this a problem? Will I kick myself afterwards? Am I artificially forcing myself to work in a particular way?

I'm not worried about any of these things, because over the past year or two I have found that photography with the rangefinder, and the limited lens choice has fitted neatly with what I instinctively like to shoot.

What is also going to be interesting from a purely Leica point of view is how the three cameras shape up against each other. Superficially similar, there is of course a huge difference between the three configurations I have chosen. The classic M3/50mm with it's life size viewfinder. The rather artificial arrangement of the M4 with the 24mm and additional finder, and of course the digital-ness of the M8

No, this is not about preserving the sound of that shutter release. Some people seem to like taping over the Leica insignia on their cameras. The reason given for this is that it makes them less obvious targets for theft. Come off it! Anyone that knows a Leica is worth stealing knows what one looks like tape or no tape. In Mike Johnstons's theonlinephotograher.com I saw he even taped over the "made in germany" lettering on the back. If someone was able to read that then the chances are you've already been mugged.

I think it's more likely that people want to try and make it clear that their Leica isn't merely bling, that they are serious photographers. Or just inverse snobbery.

Deleting images from the memory card is a piece of cake with the M8. In fact I read on one blog that it was so easy and such a pleasure to use that the person in question just kept merrily deleting, good and bad.

The point is that you do not get any confirmation "are you sure?" warning. Pressing the delete key puts you in delete mode. Pressing the set button deletes the current image, pressing the next/previous buttons moves to the next image without exiting delete mode.

Personally I think this is brilliant, maybe because I delete more images than I keep, but it certainly speeds up the process - reviewing/deleting is accomplished with both thumbs without having to navigate any other dialogues. Just need to be careful, that's all, but after using the camera for a week or two it becomes second nature

Zürich Augustinergasse. Leica M8, 35mm Summicron

All the time I was considering the M8, I worried about lens choice. I was pretty sure I'd use it like my other Leica M's - i.e. stick one lens on it and leave it there. Question is which lens. I'd had an M3 with 50mm Summicron for a while, and a couple of years ago I bought a second hand M4-2 and a new model 35mm Summicron Asph. I often use both cameras in tandem, but usually with different films, rather than for the different focal lengths.

Zürich Niederdorfstrasse. Leica M8, 35mm Summicron

Sometimes the 35mm makes a difference in (relatively) confined spaces, but generally my photography is based on getting in the right position for the shot rather than framing using lens/camera combinations. Telephoto isn't really a consideration of course, although I have a 90mm Tele-Elmarit that I'll carry around (short, Made in Canada version). So far I've been using the M8 with the 35mm Summicron and it seems to be a good combination. I like the 35mm framelines in the viewfinder - they allow the right amount of "outside the frame content" for my liking.

The other option I'm thinking of is the 28mm Summicron - to give me a "35mm M8". I'm not convinced though - it's a lot of money considering that a lot of it is spent on coverage that you don't use. So - I think I've answered my question. 35mm Summicron for the time being. I might buy a new lens for the M4-2 though - to give me a wider option.

Some people have said that the M8 shutter seems to have more lag than it should, and feels rubbery. As I explained in the previous post, I feel that once you are on the third release position, it feels positive and not unlike my other M cameras. The shutter lag question bothered me though, because there is no point in having a rangefinder if you are not 100% sure when the exposure is going to take place.

So I performed a simple field test. I pointed the camera at the station clock and tried to catch the sweep second hand on the hour and at 5 secs past. I didn't try and fake this or anticipate the moment because it was done for my own peace of mind. The results showed, to me anyway, that I can be quite confident about the moment of capture. (NB images shot at ISO2500 if you're wondering about the quality)

Zürich Hauptbahnhof. Leica M8, 35mm Summicron, 1/8000s F5.6 ISO2500