I finally got around today to scanning the last of NYC'09 images. They can be seen here. Over 500 pretty good images in a week seems pretty good to me. Out of this loosely edited group, what, perhaps 50 or so are real keepers; I hope. I actually haven't looked that closely yet.

I'm off in a few weeks to Germany and Italy for the holidays. Most of my time will be spent in the Sächsische Schweiz, but I will also spend a week in Venice! This is what I'm really looking forward to! I've never been to Venice in winter so I'm curious how this will be. I'm expecting grey damp weather so I'm bring lots of B&W film and my trusty Mamiya 6.

My final full day in New York. As I awoke to light rain I didn't expect much from the day; I figured I just wander around a bit and enjoy the day. Well, before I knew it I was reloading my Mamiya 6, and again, and again. I ended up shooting all the film I had brought in my bag (14 rolls) and had to switch to digital for the rest of the day. I started off in the lower section of Chinatown and slowly worked my way up to Canal and then over to Broadway and SoHo, and finally up to Union Square. Much of the morning I was shooting at 1/125th of a second but they mid-afternoon I was up to f11 @1/500th.

I'm in NYC almost a week now but sadly must go home in a few days. I'm here doing street photography. I'm shooting mostly in black and white, using my Mamiya 6. What a great camera! It is simply the perfect street camera, even better than a Leica M. Why? bigger negative for one but I like the square format as well. When I do use my Leicas for street photography I'm often frustrated when I must shoot a vertical image; it just throws my rhythm and timing all off. If you're holding a Leica in the vertical position, even if it's not up to your face, it's pretty clear your taking or going to take a photo. My Mamiya allows me to be more discreet.

This image was not taken with my Mamiya though. By this time in the day I had run out of film, and was heading back to my room for more. I had to use my Nikon D700 and 35mm lens.

Photo: Chinatown, NYC

There's a new member in the family; my camera family that is.

A pretty nice Leica M4. It's not collectible nice but it's still pretty clean and very usable; which is the point of owning it. Yes I own a Leica MP but I had a M4 back while going to Brooks in Santa Barbara and sold it to buy a Nikon F3. I have always regretted selling that M4, but money was tight then and I couldn't have two camera systems at the time. So, I've been watching the Ebay listings.

Modern digital cameras, with the exception of perhaps the M8, just can't compare to film cameras of the past. Take a look at any of the classic cameras from the late '60s through early '80s, such as the Pentax Spotmatic, Nikon F2. These cameras would be cost prohibitive to make now days. I doubt any digital camera can truly become the friend a well made film camera can be.