I know it's been two months since my last activity on this blog, but I had a physical condition that prevented me from moving my right arm, and as a side effect, that forbade me to shoot any picture! But it's almost fixed and I am back!
What a great day! I actually just come back from my post-brunch walk in Midtown and Chelsea, with my good friend Werner, who wanted to get introduced to film photography, and... to the Leica. He shot two films with my M6, and he won't admit it but I guess he was quite convinced. Hopefully the results will soon be posted in our new common blog (That's a scoop!).
So we decided to go to the Hells Kitchen Flea Market, on 39th Street and 9th Avenue, where he burnt his first roll in 10 minutes (yes, he's coming from digital...). At this point I got quite worried as I only brought 3 rolls for the afternoon! We got there by 2pm which was the perfect time, with strong light and high contrasts! The perfect time as well to test my new Voigtlander Color Skopar 25mm lens with the M8 (for photo geeks, see the technical note "Why did I buy a 25mm lens???"). At the end, we walked down to CRC to develop the films (which was closed), and ended going to L&I, which actually provides an excellent service as well. Anyway, here are a few shots from this afternoon.
Click on the pictures for better colors and contrasts.
HK Flea Market 1 © Hugo MARTIN - 2008
Camera: Leica M8
Lens: Voigtlander Color Skopar 25mm f/4.0
HK Flea Market 2 © Hugo MARTIN - 2008 
Camera: Leica M8
Lens: Voigtlander Color Skopar 25mm f/4.0
Camera: Leica M8
Lens: Voigtlander Color Skopar 25mm f/4.0
Camera: Leica M8
Lens: Voigtlander Color Skopar 25mm f/4.0
Camera: Leica M8
Lens: Voigtlander Color Skopar 25mm f/4.0
Penn Station Taxi 3 © Hugo MARTIN - 2008
Camera: Leica M8
Lens: Voigtlander Color Skopar 25mm f/4.0
Post Processing: Contrast and Brightness Adjustments
Technical Note: Why did I buy a 25mm lens???
As you may have noticed, my preferred focal length for street photography is 35mm. I have always paired my Voigtlander Color Skopar 35mm with the M6, but when I attached it to the M8, due to the smaller size of the sensor (27mm x 18mm instead of 24mm x 36mm for a standard film), the focal length was multiplied by 1.33 (this is what we call crop factor). As a result, it almost became a 50mm, which was too narrow for me. So I decided to buy a wider lens, with two constraints: first was quality, second was budget (I heard times are tough). I read good reviews about the Color Skopar 25mm f/4.0, which happens to be 8 times cheaper than a Leica 24mm f/3.8, so I went for it. By the way, as I was not able to find this info anywere on the web, this lens does bring the 24mm framelines in the viewfinder.
Copyright - Hugo Martin (See That Shot)