London In B&W

 

 

Hi all, I was recently in London for a photo trip underground and overground. I think London was my preferred destination for a long time and I was aiming to try just a camera and two three lenses. The goal was to be very light weight and somehow efficient. London in February, you probably don’t need colors. So instead of taking two or three different camera, I chose to take the Leica Monochrom type 246 and my beloved Zeiss Ikon with Kodak T-Max 400 inside

Three lenses: the 35mm Summicron Asph. (Type IV), The Voigtländer Nokton 50mm f1.5 Asph. (Classic line in M mount) and at last a wide angle, the Leica Elmarit 24mm f2.8 Asph. A very drastic choice to me, I have to admit. I’m usually taking much more gear with me.

Due to a severe back pain, I was unable to carry more with me and even I surprised myself by going out only with the Monochrom and the 35mm and 50mm. Doing street photography with a Leica Monochrom is a crazy stuff for most of the photographer, it’s a kind of madness certainly. « Ouch! In black and white only, no AF, are you crazy man!  »

Yes, probably, I am! But it’s right that I love the felling of seeing an image before I’m taking it and I like to apply my predictable focus in advance. Yes, it was a stunning trip, a big walk in a big city and something like 250 images taken over 4 days.

Here’s a sample of what I took with this camera. One of the surprising things for me was that most of these images where taken only with the 35mm. This focal length became my work horse for street photography in London.

It worked well in any light conditions. The camera is also versatile and I never struggled with it. High ISO are very good. This is an impressive camera. A very good choice by the way I should add.

From my stand point, this was also an experimentation of having only black and white and no other choices. I don’t want to say more about the gear in this article, as I will certainly write something about my experience with the Monochrom. Six month already with this camera and thousands of images.

I have also checked the Monochrom type I, the one with the CCD. It’s an incredible camera provide impressive results. But this is also another story, something for a next post.

The most important here are the images and the good time I had there. Hope you’ll enjoy.

Cheers

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And the final Frame: