The Oskar Barnack competition
I don’t enter a lot of photo competitions, especially after seeing how skewed the judging is in many cases towards certain parties and against others. But I do participate in the odd contest now and again, and my entry in the Oskar Barnack Leica contest this year is now up. I know, the gall I must have entering such a competition using Canon photos.
In any case, my 12-photo essay is on the monks of Luang Prabang in Laos. Last year’s entry was on the scooters of Taipei. I didn’t stand much of a chance of winning last year, and this year looks much the same, but it was interesting picking out the photos, a good self-editing exercise anyway. There are many really kick-ass photos in there to peruse, so go have a look.
I also couldn’t resist, after reading so many articles on the new Leicas and seeing the wonderful quality of the photos, going down to the store last night to take a look at the production models of the M9 (NT$245,000, body only) and the X1 (NT$75,000). As before, the M9 felt top-heavy and overly thick after the near-perfect dimensions of my M6, and the LCD was abysmal. The X1’s screen was the same, and the wait for it to lock focus was interminable. Shutting down took a long time as well. I could see trying to live with those faults just for the image quality, but the prices are insuperable: the Invincible Rabbit is less than the X1, and a new Panasonic GF1 with the 20mm f1.7 is only NT$26,000.