London Street Photography in Februry

Cold, Dull and Dark but it's always good weather for Street Photography!

This was a special day - I went to London from Suffolk (2 1/2 journey) to meet with Selaru Ovidiu for a day on the streets. He shoots only with a Leica M11 and is a Leica ambassador so was hoping to get some useful tips on how to best use my Leica M10. NOTE - I did take along my Sony A7cii in case it all got too intense for me!

Sony A7cii

Leica M10

6.45 and out the door - drive to Stowmarket and park-up in a sideroad - catch train at 7.30 to Liverpool Street. Underground x2 to get to London Bridge - walk to Grind cafe and meet Selaru at 9.30. Chat and coffee and out onto the streets at 10.

So from a Leica ambassador camera settings for street photography:- ISO set to "A" and 1/125 min shutter speed and 12500 iso max - shooting almost always wide open which in Salaru's case with a Leica 50mm F0.95 Noctilux is F0.95! Ridiculous depth of field but using live-view and zoom with focus peaking to achieve focus then using exposure compensation to get the "look" he wanted then waiting..... Sometimes using 5 frames per second burst to get exactly the right shot if say someone was walking through the frame against a bright background. Also occasionally switching the speed if say shooting pigeons in flight from "A" to maybe 1/1000th second and letting the "A" iso mode sort out the exposure.

So basically nothing that clever and not too different from what I've used since getting my Leica M10 although I do tend to use the rangefinder in preference to live-view as I wear glasses and avoids constantly putting glasses on and off. HOWEVER - I do have a Visoflex EVF so on the day ended up using that for most of the shots as not only allows focusing at (for me) F1.4 but also can set the exposure.

And then there's the Sony A7cii with a Sony 50mm F2.5G lens.....

Now here's the thing - shooting with the Sony is easier and faster yet less rewarding. It's weird in that the more effort a photo takes to get the more rewarding it is - I think that's true of many things in life too !

So with the Sony you can have all 3 elements of the exposure triangle instantly to hand - the rear dial is speed - on the lens is aperture and the front dial is ISO (with NO other buttons to press!) So exposure is a doddle. Focusing is also easier than the Leica with the choice of AF and here I use 3D tracking in AF-c - so just put the small box over the chosen focal point and back button focus and then compose and shoot.

Manual focus is also slightly easier on the Sony A7cii than the Leica M10 as it has way better focus peaking (I did note that Selaru's M11 seemed to have better peaking than the M10) Both have instant Zoom available when you touch the focus ring so equal there.

Then there's things the Leica simply doesn't have that the Sony does. IBIS - I shot a few shots on both with a very slow shutter to get a bus in motion going past Big Ben. The Leica as expected at 1/5th second didn't have a very sharp Big Ben but the Sony nailed Big Ben super sharp which did give a better image.

Flippy rear screen - it'd been raining and lots of puddles so many opportunities for ground level shots - the Leica M10 required getting wets knees and some guesswork to frame the shot as my days of acrobatics are over (actually they never existed!) The Sony A7cii just flip out the screen, bend down and frame the shot and even focus easily.

Personalisation - The Sony has many buttons I've set to do exactly what I want - shoot rate - switch to APSC mode (to get 75mm shots from my 50mm lens) - turn focus peaking on/off and selection of focus area and of course a switch on the lens for Manual or AF.

So all in all the Sony wins on so many levels in use - what about the actual photos though?

We've heard about the legendary "LEICA LOOK" Ok, but what about the Nikon Look, The Fuji Look and the Nikon D700 or D200 look? They're different and how does one judge "better"?

For me it's a question of "Art" - the Nikon D200 and it's CCD sensor absolutely has a "look" that's someway from reality and becomes "arty". I find Nikon generally has great skin tones so is great for people photos. The Sony is a true representation of reality with true colours (wasn't always the case but I find their later cameras much better in this aspect), sharp and contrasty images.

The Leica M10 (not so much the M11) is towards the arty end of things but with a subtle and refined "look"

So to be honest, for Steet Photography I guess I I'm not too bothered as I'll edit all the photos in Lightroom with a present to give them my signature "look" anyway. At the end of the day when I look at my finished images in the gallery I have no idea which was Leica M10 and which was Sony A7cii.

If we were talking a misty morning shot at the Norfolk Broads getting a low contrast moody shot then I'd pick up the Leica for sure as the images would have a great starting point but for street photography I'm actually leaning towards Sony for it's ease of use.

That said they'll be days when I use want the "feeling" that shooting with the Leica gives....