World Heritage Site "Völklinger Hütte" (Steel mill)

I took my X Pro 1 with the XF 14mm and 18-55mm to a visit to this spectacular place.  Enjoy!

On the way back, we passed by an old abandond factory near the mill, so I took some quick shots there as well.

to be continued...

 

North Dakota

 

Back in the day...

I recently browsed through my old transparencies and negatives that I took mainly in the 80s and 90s of the last century (man, that sounds weird...).

It's been a long time since I've seen those pictures and I was amazed about how many there are and how many of them I had totally forgotten about.

But I didn't want to get nostalgic but rather find out if it was worth digitizing some of them in order to share them with others over the net.

Since most of them are 6x7 (a few 6x6) medium format, I decided to get a decent flatbed scanner and give it a shot. I opted for the CanoScan 9000F. In terms of a few hundred 35mm slides and negs I decided to put them aside for now and maybe have the best ones printed in 8x10" later in order to scan the prints rather dealing with those small negatives. From all what I hear that's the better solution anyway.

For medium and large format however, a good flatbed scanner will do the job.

After all, it's not about getting them printed later - since I have negatives, I can get those enlarged - but for viewing them on computer screens only.

Since I'm not done scanning all the ones I chose, I will start by showing you a few of them today and adding more from time to time. So don't forget to check back once in a while.

After all, it's not done with the scanning process. the digitized images need to be processed with various tools and often there are many ugly dustpecs on them which require a lot of time to get rid off... .

But in the end the results are quite acceptable. More so, there were several negatives that brought out more detail now then in the days when I enlagerd them in the darkroom... .

 

Yosemite Valley

Half Dome, Yosemite

 

 

Bryce Canyon

 

Bryce Canyon

 

San Francisco

 

Shell 

 

 

Bryce Canyon

 

San Francisco

 

Mt. Rainier NP, WA

 

Wyoming

 

North Dakota

 

Mt. Rainier, WA

 

Glacier NP, MT

 

Malta

 

Grand Canyon

 

Malta

 

Malta

 

"Rock" Puget Sound, WA

And here some color scans:

 

Lake Mead, AZ

 

North Dakota

 

New Hampshire

 

Yoesmite Valley

 

New Hampshire

 

Bryce Canyon

 

Malta

 

Puget Sound, WA

 

Mono Lake, NV

 

Olympic NP, WA

 

to be continued...

Panasonic Lumix LX7

I like my LX7 !

It's a great little compact to go everywhere I go. Originally bought as an addition to my Panasonic Lumix GH2 which I only use with the 100-300mm telephoto lens so the LX7 is used when I shoot video and need shorter focal lengths. 

The reason for my decision to get the LX7 despite its very small sensor were the outstanding video capabilities plus the one of a kind Leica 24-90mm f1.4 lens.

But to me the LX7 is worthy of being my everyday camera when even my Fuji X100 is too large to carry with me.

The above shot was taken at 24mm and auto bracketing with -2, 0, +2 exposures, blended in Photomatix Pro and then processed with Silver Efex Pro.

This is my video setup for the LX7. It consists of a Kamerar QV1 LCD Viewfinder attached to the camera which rests in a Gariz halfcase (to achieve a higher position of the LCD screen as well as a more centered tripod screwmount). The viewfinder delivers a bright 3x enlarged field of view and of course eliminates any daylight affecting a clear view of the LCD.
Pressing it tightly against ones eye also minimizes camera shake.

The Viewfinder can easily be folded up in order to have a normal view of the LCD...

... and can easliy be detached by means of a magnet holding it tight to its baseplate which is even Arca Swiss compatibel.

Here is my LX7 equipped with a 24mm optical Viewfinder, that I was able to get for a bargain. It's not exactly 24mm as the shortest focal length of the lens, but very bright and therefore a great gadget to achieve fast shots outside even in bright sunlight.
Unfortunately, I haven't been able to find a case that fits the camera with the viewfinder attached so far... .

to be continued...