Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2010/12/30
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]I'd already sent in a ragtag few hoarded Kodachrome rolls, but yesterday evening I got the urge to burn a last few frames and see if they'd be accepted for processing. And I thought... what might be fun, in this modern world of stitching together panoramas, would be seeing what digital image I could stitch together from multiple scanned Kodachrome frames. And to keep it improbable, I figured I'd use Kodachrome 25. At night. So I grabbed up my sturdy Gitzo carbon-fiber tripod, the R8, the 180mm Apo-Elmarit-R, two freshly conditioned and charged (but aging) battery packs for the R motor drive... and a very warm jacket and wooly hat. Off I went to a walkway on the Jersey City side of the Hudson to try shooting a New York night-time cityscape in many slightly-overlapping 180mm frames. I have no idea if they were properly exposed (I bracketed each at 16, 8 and 4 seconds at f/4), properly focused by my aging eyes (one reason I stopped down to f/4), if Dwayne's got the package on time and will process it... you know, the classic film uncertainties. What I was reminded of which is certain is what a magnificent and perfect film-shooting device the R8 with motor drive is. I miss it, even while I don't miss most of dealing with film. I consumed two rolls in this kind-of-absurd project, then walked them to the nearby FedEx hut, sent them flying off for a promised December 30th AM delivery. Which is worrying me some, because the most recent tracking info they're giving me shows the package having arrived at the Parsons, Kansas FedEx facility in good time, but no actual delivery confirmation yet. I'm hoping it happened hours ago but just hasn't been logged into the system. Here's a little cenotaph: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jbm0/5307130879/in/set-72157621796358420/lightbox/ -Jeff