Member David Farkas

Townsend, VT

Leica S2 with 70mm, 1/500th @ f/8, ISO 160

Leica S2 with 35mm, 1/15th @ f/13, ISO 160, Schneider 0.9 Soft Grad ND, Tripod

Leica S2 with 120mm, 1/45th @ f/8, ISO 160, Tripod

Leica S2 with 120mm, 1/125th @ f/8, ISO 160, Tripod

Grafton, VT

Leica S2 with 70mm, 1/15th @ f/13, ISO…[Read more]

Pete Walentin;882 wrote: Hi David,

I've used the Kaesmann Circular Polarizer MRC 82mm back in my Canon days with the UW lenses. That works fine for me as well. I have not used them on the S2. I was a little bit unsure about their effect. At all I am not a big fan of filters. 😉
What I have used on the S2 are Cokin Filters. But they attract…

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Here's another one from Moss Glenn Falls. It's a four-shot pano stitch with the 35mm. Image size is about 82MP (12,000 x 6,000 px).

Pete,

These are really powerful images. I especially like the first one. The symmetry is just perfect and really works here, with the arch framing the cross.

Cam,

Beautiful shots!

Regarding your question, I usually upload images which are 1800px on the long side, quality level 90 out of LR.

Love to see more images.

A few of my shots from our first day….

Mirror Lake in Woodstock, NH

Leica S2 with 35mm, 1/30th @ f/11, ISO 160, Schneider 0.9 Soft Grad ND, Tripod

Leica S2 with 180mm, 1/4th @ f/11, ISO 160, Schneider 0.9 Soft Grad ND, Tripod

Leica S2 with 120mm, 1/30th @ f/4, ISO 160, B+W Circular Polarizer, Tripod

…[Read more]

Joe;771 wrote: I was recently able to use my iPad 2 as a viewing monitor of S2 images in the field. I thought you might have an interest in the process if you have an iPad 2. Here are some thoughts that I shared with David recently.

David,

Here are some links describing the iPad 2 to S2 set up process. As mentioned in the links, I have…

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Jack MacD;775 wrote: Roger,
After telling you to do a test, I decided I should also. Especially after David expressed a bit of surprise that I would be going on his fall trip with such a light tripod as the Gitzo#2
Maybe if I had a 180mm I would go for the #3.

I merely did an 8 second test shot of a star on a very heavy tripod that I…

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Full review is up in the News and Articles section:

Testing the Leica 400mm APO-Telyt-Modular-R on the Leica S2

hikemate;752 wrote: Hi Dave I love the forum.

Thanks!

What kind of how-to's are you looking for?

Roger;740 wrote: Thanks David . The series 3 size with a good ball head (RRS,ARCA etc) seems like the right size but I was reacting to the article on LL where the author swears we will be giving away some necessary stability.

Maybe with a 645DF. 😀 The S2 has an extremely well-dampened mirror and an almost-vibration-free shutter.…[Read more]

Roger;738 wrote: I know to extract the most out of the S2 that a heavy tripod is recommended. Looking at the latest article on Luminous Landscape and David s post on the Telyt conversion …both seem to be using a GITZO 5 series . I have one but use it with a Gimbel head for long lenses .

The series 5 GITZO is as solid as I ve seen but…

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madmanchan;732 wrote: You can use high Detail amounts (even 100) with S2 files, but please do so carefully. High Detail means ACR/Lr will do its best to extract every ounce of detail & texture available in the file. This is almost always undesirable for portraits or perhaps even general-purpose use where a smoother result is preferred. But for…

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Well… I made a decision and went for two Crucial m4 512GB drives and configured them in RAID 0 on my current laptop. Just got finished cloning my system back over and ran CrystalDiskMark:

As you can see, it's much faster overall. I'm a little surprised that the 4K random reads was actually 2MB/s better on the old drives. Where the…[Read more]

fotophil;717 wrote: Hi David:

Leica lenses eat everything for lunch at wide open apertures. My Pentax 400mm tests confirm that the performance is disappointing wide open but greatly improves stopped down 2 stops and even better at 3 stops. In long lenses there is no free lunch. What is the going price for the Leica APO 400mm and…

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Pete Walentin;716 wrote: WOW! That is really great.

I guess there are shot on a tripod? Would like to see some handheld as well. 😉

Looking forward to the whole report.

Cheers.

Pete,

These were all shot on a Gitzo 5-series with the Systematic Hydrostatic Ball Head. The lens weighs 9lbs alone, hardly hand-holdable,…[Read more]

Doug Herr;718 wrote: Should we assume the larger lens head would work too?

Doug,

I would assume so, as the image circle limitation comes from the focus module not the lens head.

With the larger 400/560/800 lens head and the 1.4x, you'd have a drool-worthy 560mm f/4 on the S2!! 😎 This is equivalent to a 450mm in 35mm land.

fotophil;713 wrote: Hi David:

What a great 400mm set-up for the S2!!! After the the dust settles, please compare with the Pentax 6×7 400mm ED lens.

Phil

Phil,

Our 400mm P67 lens has been on loan to a forum member here and is on its way back to us for comparative testing. Even without a side-by-side, it's safe to say that the…[Read more]

Arif;711 wrote: How fascinating! David, Will I have to do permanent changes to my APO-telyt or can I manage via an adapter?
Thanks for posting,
Arif

Arif,

I'll post all the details in my article, but no, this isn't done via an adapter. The lens has to be shortened to achieve infinity focus. This also involves moving the aperture…[Read more]