Coding Leica M lenses

One thing has always bugged me about the digital M series. I use vintage or non-Leica lenses, and one morning I might remember to manually set the camera to a 28mm f2 lens, but then I'd shoot all week, switching lenses multiple times, and the EXIF data of all my shots would say 28mm f2 Summicron. I know, it's not THAT big of a deal, and it doesn't affect the RAW file, but I just wanted the same features and benefits someone with a new, coded 50mm Summilux f1.4 would get. However, being cheap, I did not want to send all my lenses off at $150 a pop to get them professionally coded.

At one point I attempted to download a template from the internet, but even when printed on card stock I could not cut the small holes accurately enough to make it work.

Then I ran across this listing on eBay -- Leica M Lens 6 Bit Coder Kit -- http://www.ebay.com/itm/Leica-M-Lens-6-Bit-Coder-Ver-3-0-Kit-M8-M8-2-M9-M9P-M-E-Digital-Cameras-/181046019078?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2a272f0406#ht_4280wt_1399

 For $75 I could supposedly code every lens I owned. I decided it was worth a shot. When it arrived I was not disappointed.

The plastic template snaps onto the M mount making it very easy to use the included marker to color in the spots that should be coded. The D-Coder gives you the best codes to use for Zeiss and Voigtlander lenses. The only downside is that it doesn't list the codes for all Leica lenses. For my 90mm Elmarit and 135mm Elmarit I had to do some googling to find the codes, but it was not hard to procure them.

I coded all seven of my lenses in about ten minutes at a cost of about $11 per lens. You can't beat that. 

Finally developed that roll of film

Back in January I popped a roll of Kodak TMAX 400 into the Leica M3 to try it out. I'd had some trouble with TMAX 100 and Ilford Delta 100 being underexposed when shooting indoors and ending up really grainy and losing detail. However, I'd never developed 400 speed film, so I was nervous about how it would react in Caffenol-C.

I don't know why, but I was really slow with finishing this roll. The 24 shots ended up spanning four months, but I finally developed it last night.

The first shot was from a visit to Austin in January.



Then there was a picnic in Herman Park that took place in February.



Then there was a trip to Offats Bayou in March.



Followed by some goofing off around the house.



And finally some sailing in April on our new boat Gimme Shelter.



I was very pleased with the TMAX 400 in Caffenol-C. I used the same developing time I use for TMAX 100, but I added almost double the Vitamin C. The extra Vitamin C was just added on a whim after seeing the results some other users posted on the forums, not because of the 400 speed film.



I ended up with much better exposures with only slightly bigger grain than a well-exposed TMAX 100 shot. I'm really happy with them. I also switched to a plastic negative reel, which was so much easier to load than those stainless reels, and for the first time ever I had zero pink spots on my negatives. That made things a double success.

I've got to shoot through two more rolls of TMAX 100 and then a roll of Portra 160 and a roll of Gold 200. Then I think I'm switching to TMAX 400 full time for all my film work.

I found my OUFRO

I know you mut have all been worried and just stewing over where it could have gone to for the past week. It was under the bed behind some clean laundry that had apparently fallen off the end of the bed and then got scooted under the bedskirt. I found the OUFRO along with the M - NEX adapter and the Nikon - NEX adapter. I'm back in the macro business. Unfortunately, I haven't had time to shoot anything all week.

However, we did go sailing on Gimme Shelter, the new boat, last weekend.



It's sooooo large and luxurious compared to the Seahorse. Thankfully, aside from being a challenge to dock, we had no trouble handling her under sail.



Mary and I are very happy with the upgrade. The dogs don't seem to care one way or another.



You can check out the new blog for our sailing adventures at www.svgimmeshelter.blogspot.com

My entire week has been consumed by the MS 150, which takes place tomorrow and Sunday. It's my third year as team captain, but it's still not easy to get 100 riders and 50 volunteers organized and informed as to what they need to be doing. Plus, I'm riding this year, so I've been spending my evenings trying to get the last bit of training in -- not that it will really matter much. The furthest I've ridden is 25 miles. I have to do 100 Saturday and 83 Sunday. It's going to be two very, very long days.

On the bright side, through my impending misery I've raised $625 for the National MS Society, and our team looks like we'll break $50,000 before the weekend is over.

I've just got to survive the MS 150 and OTC, then it's finally time for a little vacation!

I can't find my OUFRO

It was raining when I got home last night, and there was this one little resilient flower covered in raindrops. I was like, hey, that would be an awesome photo. I ran inside to grab my gear and put a macro adapter on the NEX-6.

One problem. I couldn't find my adapters.

Ok, maybe the hectic schedule of the past few weeks has left my house, car, and camera bags a bit disheveled. It's not easy when you have different shoots every day that require different gear in the bag depending on whether it's photo or video. I also scale things down to fit a smaller bag if I'm going to have to walk a long way.

Usually, I can remember where I stashed everything and what I'm carrying. I distinctly remember the last time I used the M adapter and the OUFRO on the NEX-6. It was the weekend of the boat show when I snapped this flower.



I just can't remember what I did with it after that.

I spent well over an hour emptying all my camera bags, which probably needed to be emptied and re-organized anyway. No luck.

Then I started going through drawers where I usually put things I don't want to forget. I finally found all my European power adapters, but as for the OUFRO, no luck.

Then I searched the car ... and the kitchen ... and the bathroom counter. No luck.

It's time to do some major spring cleaning.

Thankfully it's not like these adapters are irreplaceable items, but it's still stressing me out that they're missing. Hopefully I just set them aside somewhere and forgot.

Sadly I'll be missing the April Texas Historical Camera Association meeting and swap meet this Saturday because I'm showing the boat to potential buyers all day, but I am glad to have so many potential buyers wanting to stop by.

When is a project finished?

I purchased my sailboat the summer of 2009. The 1984 Starwind 27 was a sad moldy mess that had been full of water for who knows how long. Four years later after too many thousands of dollars, hundreds of hours of sweat, and an untold number of frustrations, I'm calling this project done.



Technically, she's not really done. This year I was going to replace the lifelines, put in a new galley countertop, and do some interior painting.



But I'm starting to realize that perfection isn't a requirement for the completion of all projects. Sometimes it's about meeting functional requirements and the cost-to-benefit ratio is not always high enough for further amenities or aesthetics.



Although she has provided me with innumerable adventures the past few years, the Seahorse is now for sale. With all of her systems working, I'm hoping to find a buyer who loves to sail. She doesn't deserve to be put out to pasture again.



It's now time for the next project -- an O'day 34 named Gimme Shelter, which we moved to our marina Friday evening.



I'll still be blogging about photography and other adventures here, but you can follow the adventures of Gimme Shelter on facebook at www.facebook.com/svgimmeshelter or on blogger at www.svgimmeshelter.blogspot.com

First sail of the season

What is a story without drama? Without risks and challenges, there is no adventure, just vacation. And really, who wants to spend their weekends relaxing?

Saturday morning the Seahorse finally left its slip at Marina Del Sol for the first time in 2013. Temperature was in the mid-60s and the wind was described as “breezy” in the forecast. According to our friends’ instruments it was a steady 15 knots with gusts up to 30.

We set out into Clear Lake around 10 a.m. and immediately got stuck in the channel right outside the entrance to Marina Del Sol. Throttling up and rocking the boat slowly plowed us through the mud and into the freedom of Clear Lake where we turned east and headed for the boardwalk.



The bouncing swells started at the mouth of the bay and a few waves broke over the bow splashing us in the cockpit, but we pulled up a double reefed main and headed for Redfish Island. We motor-sailed with the main close-hauled and made what is usually a three-hour trip in one hour and fifteen minutes.

We dropped the sail and turned to motor into the wind. That is the moment when the real adventure began.



This was the first time I had crossed into the Houston Ship Channel and left the confines of upper Galveston Bay. It was also the first time I had motored head-on into 30knot winds and pounding waves.

The good – my tough little Kubota Z482 kept running for the next five hours, pushing us south to Galveston. The bad – I couldn’t make more than 4.5 knots and the motor wouldn’t rev over 3,000 rpm.

The stretch from Redfish Island to the Galveston Causeway was a very rough, wet ride. The Seahorse became a bucking bronco and the cockpit was constantly being showered with spray. It was enough to chill you just to the point of shivering, but thankfully not so bad that it was unbearable. However, I had packed four different cameras to document the trip, and it was too wet to pull out anything but the dive camera, but even most of those photos were ruined by water droplets on the lens.



We motored on and on, following our friends in the Escondida who were leading the way, for what seemed like forever. Then, we finally came upon the Texas City Dike and turned west.

I had hoped that being on the north side of Galveston Island would give us some reprieve from the south wind, but it did not. We crossed the Texas City Flats heeled over despite not having any sail up, and we kept drifting to the edge of the channel. Halfway across, the autopilot refused to steer the nose back up anymore, so I had to hand steer. I made the mistake of trying to cut a corner of the channel as we got closer to the bridge. We came to a very abrupt halt as we ran aground for the second time. Thankfully we were broadside to the wind, so with a bit of reverse, it rolled us around 180 degrees and I was then able to pull back into the channel. After another U-turn we were back on track.



The railroad bridge was down when we reached the causeway, so we puttered in slow circles for 15 minutes while the trains rolled by before we could cross into Offatts Bayou. When we finally crossed, it was so good to see those glass pyramids at Moody Gardens. Our trip clocked in right at six hours as we were dropping the anchor.



Offatts is around 20’ deep, and I had only been carrying 5’ of chain and 100’ of rode. I decided to add another 20’ of chain before the trip to make sure we didn’t drag during the night. That’s when my friend Ray mentioned he had an extra 20’ of chain that he would donate to the cause if we needed it. What he didn’t tell us what that it was the thickest, heaviest chain I’ve ever seen on a pleasure craft. Needless to say, we did NOT drag.



I dropped the anchor while Mary was backing up the boat, but we had a pontoon boat full of spring breakers pass right behind us. I don’t know if she got nervous or if it was their wake, but suddenly we had made a U-turn and backed over our own anchor line. The engine came to an abrupt stop.

I knew immediately that I was going for a swim to get the rode off the prop, but I got out a pole and started pushing and lifting the line in hopes it would come loose. No luck.

I went downstairs and put on my swimsuit, bracing myself for the chill of the water. I don’t like cold water. I deployed the swim ladder and gingerly stepped into the water. It was cold, but if all those spring breakers were doing it over on the other side of the island, so could I.

Luckily Offatts Bayou has much more visibility than Kemah, so even without a mask, I could actually see the prop and the anchor line wrapped around it. It only took three dives to get it loose, and everything was good again. Thankfully there was no more adventure that night, but Matt did have to pull apart the carburetor on his dinghy three times in a row to get it running.



The wind finally died, and we got to witness a beautiful sunset before visiting friends on the Tina Marie for drinks, then having dinner aboard the Escondida. Our friend Carla prepared chicken mole and pumpkin pie. I struggle to make sandwiches on a boat, much less pumpkin pie. I have much to learn about cruising.



Unlike the last summer’s overnight anchoring incident, which included bouncing off the bottom at low tide, a dragging anchor, and no sleep, I crawled into the V-berth and was out like a light. I woke up around 5 a.m., stuck my head up out of the hatch to make sure we were still in the same place, then fell back asleep until 8 a.m.

I filled the ancient Origo stove and boiled water for some instant coffee. It was terrible, so I pulled the percolator out of storage and tried that. Much improved, but still not great.



Tina and Ray invited us all for breakfast aboard the Tina Marie, and thankfully they had real coffee. I think we went through two pots before finally hitching a ride back to the Seahorse and getting ready for the trip home.

I was warned that the bridge operator got upset when people sailed under the bridge, so we kept our sails down until we crossed under, then we shut the motor off and found that excellent moment of silence and symbiosis with the wind and water that comes from sailing.



We had dolphins swim by just as we reached the ship channel, and as we turned north I deployed the spinnaker pole for the downwind run all the way home.



It was my first time to use the spinnaker pole by myself, so setup didn’t go quite as smoothly as I’d hoped.



But eventually we got it.



Everything was going great until Mary went downstairs to use the head. She called back up to me, “There’s water coming up through the cracks in the floor.” Apparently sometime during the trip we’d lost the bilge pump. I handed her down the manual pump and a bucket.



It was about that time that we also lost the depth gauge. It just started flashing zero. I haven’t started troubleshooting that issue yet.

We didn’t take on much water while sailing, but every 30 minutes or so we’d pump out another bucket just to be safe and stay ahead of it.



When we turned in at Redfish, we were on a broad reach headed towards the Kemah bridge. The GPS on my iPhone was reading 6.5 knots – the Seahorse speed record – before we reefed the main.



That dropped us to 5.5 knots. About 30 minutes later as the wind continued to pick up and some nasty looking clouds moved in, we went ahead and dropped the sails and motored the last stretch. Motoring was causing much more ingress of water, so I probably need to tighten the stuffing box.

We pulled back into Marina Del Sol Sunday evening with stories to tell, and our first real trip under our belt. I also have a list of things to fix this weekend before we attempt this again – but it wouldn’t be a boat without something to repair.

What do you do when it's dark outside?

Saying that work has been busy is an understatement. We launched an entirely new program focused on early career development, and I'm now in the middle of converting our new hire orientation into an engaging animated video. Even with the onset of daylight savings time, I haven't been out with the camera before dark in a couple of weeks.

So what do you do when it's dark and you want to shoot photos? Well, you experiment with lighting, of course.

Last week I did some work on my macro and food photography. Shooting cookies is always enjoyable. I meant to shoot some Girl Scout Cookies as well, but ... they didn't last long enough.



With the macro shots, I found I got the best results at f5.6. The macro tubes dramatically reduce the depth of field.

This week I took it up a notch to attempt some of the fancier lighting I've seen on strobist. Last night I attempted this boxing scene in preparation to shoot a friend for his MMA posters.



This scene was shot at f4. It has a backlight to camera left putting the highlight on the bag, supplying most of the light to me, and creating an extreme contrast with the unlit background. A second light is behind me to create a halo effect and outline. (It was probably pointed a little too low.) Then there's another light to camera left in front of the bag to provide fill light. I felt like it was a good first attempt, and I like the backlit contrast for the gritty topic, but I'm not sure what to do about the shadows cast by the arms when punching. Guess it's back to the Internet for more tips and then back to the studio for more trial and error.

We'll finally be on the water again this weekend with an overnight sailing trip to Galveston aboard the Seahorse. Hopefully there will finally be something more interesting to shoot!