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  • Colour,  Daily photo,  Gear,  People,  Rome,  Thoughts

    Fujifilm X-Pro 2: Does It Worth It? (Lost In Via Del Corso)

    January 16, 2016 /

    As a Fujifilm camera early adopter (during time I got the X-pro 1, X100, X100s, X-E1 and X-E2) I was waiting for the X-Pro 2 to come and when that finally happened I didn’t feel so compelled to trash my (now) old cameras to do the switch. Long gone are the days of GAS (Gear Acquisition Syndrome),  so I shall not buy this new piece of electronics because it doesn’t do anything that I can’t do with my actual set up (in particular, with the X100s and the X-E2.) The only actual point of interest, to me, are the dual-slot card and the weather sealed body: but I never needed…

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    Andrea Monti

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    7Artisans 35mm 0.95 – Testing this Fujifilm X Mount Lens in a Demanding Environment

    December 22, 2024

    A Fountain’s Jet

    April 12, 2021

    Portrait of a young guitar player

    May 4, 2014
  • Artists,  Colour,  Daily photo,  Gear,  People,  Summer

    The Leica M9 CCDgate Outrageous Case

    December 11, 2014 /

    This is not “new” news, but is getting momentum: Leica M9′ sensors (including those fitted into the more than expensive “special” models) are plagued. The repair cost is 1.800,00 Euros plus VAT and shipping, not to mention the time needed to get the camera back (weeks? months?) Leica claims to offer paid support to the older, out-of-warranty customers but just doing a few math shows that it doesn’t worth it: if you own a between-three-and-five-years old M9 you’re supposed to pay 600,00 Euros (plus VAT etc.) while more-than-five-years old M9 owner will pay 1.200 Euros (plus VAT etc.) to get an old and outdated camera new sensor, affected by the…

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    Andrea Monti

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    Sic Transit Gloria Mundi

    January 14, 2013

    The EOS-M just sucks

    July 18, 2013

    A Vessel

    December 18, 2015
  • Autumn,  Cities,  Colour,  Daily photo,  Gear,  Past&Relics,  Rome

    An Old Camera

    October 14, 2014 /

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    Andrea Monti

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    A Shooter

    December 8, 2017

    No Tablet, No Problem

    April 12, 2013

    The Actor’s Nightmare

    August 3, 2013
  • Beach&Shores,  Colour,  Daily photo,  Gear,  Landscape

    Pentax k-5 And The Aquapack 458

    August 15, 2014 /

    Like the other two previous pictures, this one too has been taken by a Pentax K-5 housed into an Aquapack 458. This underwater housing, at least for APS-C dSLR, is a cheaper alternative to the more expensive, though bigger and better engineered, Ewa Marine. It fairly easy accommodates the camera and the DA* 16-50, but using this lens that has a 77mm filter thread forces the use a focal lenght of at least than 40-45 mm, otherwise the border of the external cap fills-in the picture. A DA* 16-50 at 16mm (I repeat: with a 77mm filter thread) is the bigger lens that can be accommodated into the housing, but…

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    Andrea Monti

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    Luck is an Attitude

    January 25, 2014

    Old Rolls, Immortal Style

    August 12, 2019

    Let’s get the party started…

    January 20, 2014
  • Colour,  Daily photo,  Gear

    60×40 Borderless Printing with a HP Z3200ps 24

    May 11, 2014 /

    Printing a 60by40cm image on a A1 roll (61cm wide) should be a pretty straightforward task: well, not on a printer like the HP Z3200. To cut the story, here are the settings: set your image landscape, and size it 60 by 40 cm, set your CANVAS size to 61,8 by 41 cm with a white background (highlighted in red, in the picture) so that the final image size is, indeed, 61,8 by 41, In the Print Settings menu select the Paper Size option and set a custom page size of 61 by 40,5, Again, in the Print Settings menu select the Margins/Layout menu and check the  Borderless radio button,…

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    Andrea Monti

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    Dreaming Of Giulietta (sprint)

    September 24, 2014

    An Exercise in Composition (was: Rowing Boats)

    February 18, 2024

    Sea Anemones

    August 20, 2014
  • Beach&Shores,  Colour,  Daily photo,  Gear,  Photography,  Spring,  Visual,  WideAngle

    Noon on the Beach

    May 1, 2014 /

    Another experiment with the Nikkor 16mm F/3,5 Fish-Eye. Using this lens in a less conventional way is really challenging for the composition. Keep trying.

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    Andrea Monti

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    A HDR Experiment

    December 9, 2013

    The Unconvinced Listener

    June 25, 2014

    A Fishnet – 2

    October 29, 2014
  • Colour,  Daily photo,  Gear,  Milan,  People

    Damned Autofocus

    April 20, 2014 /

    I like this photo very much. The two travelers, mutually unbeknownst, stroke a pose like if they were on duty fashion models. Unfortunately, the Fujifulm X-E1 autofocus didn’t work fast enough and, as I’ve already told, zone-focusing is a pain in the neck without a properly marked focus-ring. Long live to Hasselblad, Zeiss, Leica and Nikon…

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    Andrea Monti

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    Interpreti Veneziani – Vivaldi’s Four Seasons Live@San Vidal

    September 1, 2017

    Mistress Of Puppets

    April 30, 2017

    From Camera to Print…

    March 17, 2015
  • Barcelona,  Colour,  Daily photo,  Gear,  Spring,  Street Markets

    A Fujifilm X-E1 Annoyance

    April 15, 2014 /

    The X-E1 is a good camera, though has some annoyances that make it less handy for Street Photography. Contrary to Leica, (some) Zeiss or (some) Nikon lenses, zone-focusing is not set on the lens barrel. You must do it either through the viewfinder or the LCD, and this makes problematic the switch from one technique to another. Same is true for aperture settings. Operating the camera one-handed, happened twice to me, led to a change of the image quality settings from RAW to Jpg. Unfortunately I wasn’t aware while shooting and I’ve wasted half a day in Barcelona getting inferior quality pictures.

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    Andrea Monti

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    Under The Rocks

    August 14, 2014

    Table Dressing

    July 15, 2015

    Slow Walk at Mulberry St.

    January 16, 2014
  • Colour,  Daily photo,  Gear,  Spring

    Hanging Towels

    March 29, 2014 /

    This is what happens when coupling a summicron 50 (third gen) with a Fujifilm X-1.

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    Andrea Monti

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    Waiting for The Flight

    July 14, 2013

    Frank Gambale All Stars – Live@Teatro Marrucino

    November 22, 2023

    Hangmen

    May 21, 2013
  • B&W,  Daily photo,  Gear,  Photography

    The Google Experiment

    February 1, 2014 /

    The usual note: I don’t write about gear. But this time I want to do an experiment inspired by the consequences of having the post about Street Photography and Italian Law bounced by Adam Marelli and Luminous-Landscape. Since these two websites channeled my post around the world, the access to (other parts too of) my blog – mostly unknown, previously – steady increased. I’m far from saying that I’ve reached an “audience”, nevertheless this blog is gaining its space among the zillions  of pictures that live on the Internet. And it is “quality” space, meaning that visitors (you’re always welcome, folks!) find something of interest by looking at my pictures…

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    Andrea Monti

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    The Power of Underexposing

    December 25, 2019

    Will The iPhone Kill Traditional Cameras? Not Very

    October 15, 2019

    The Alien’s Seat

    October 19, 2013
  • Colour,  Daily photo,  Gear,  People,  Rome,  Streets&Squares

    So Long, Eos-M

    January 17, 2014 /

    A couple of days ago, while wandering around a street-market, I spotted a small “exhibit” of old Nikon and Hasselblad lenses. I thought it would have been nice to get the two “classic” lenses for the System V, so I traded my Eos-M (and lenses) for a Carl Zeiss lenses: a Distagon 50 and a Sonnar 150. The seller was eager to strike the deal, but I’m not sure who actually got the best bargain…

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    Andrea Monti

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    Posing at Milan’s Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II

    October 1, 2018

    A Portrait on the Nasdaq Building

    January 18, 2014

    Busy

    December 24, 2015
  • B&W,  Beach&Shores,  Daily photo,  Gear,  Photography,  Winter

    The Hasselblad Way

    January 2, 2014 /

    As the readers of this blog know, I seldom talk about gear because since the very first post on this blog I made a point of stay focused on (shooting) pictures instead of musing about pointless technicalities such as Camera A vs Camera B ISO performance, Lens X vs Lens Y sharpness, APS-C vs Full Frame and so on, but today I do an exception because of an old Hasselbld 500 C/M that I have been given to try (and that probably will buy.) There is only one way to shoot with a Hasselblad: following its rule. The film has to be loaded in a certain way, the magazine locked…

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    Andrea Monti

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    Lost in Another World

    March 17, 2014

    Call On The Docks

    August 4, 2014

    Italian Stardust

    April 6, 2015
  • Colour,  Daily photo,  Gear,  Landscape,  Winter

    A HDR Experiment

    December 9, 2013 /

    This is my first – and possibly, last – attempt of using HDR to post-process my pictures. Unless I’m able to get a more creative outcome, there is no reason to have pictures that look deadly similar to those of the other users of Nik Software Collection (as I am:))

    Read More
    Andrea Monti

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    Different Financial Transactions

    November 3, 2016

    Portrait of an Heavy Metal Singer

    November 21, 2013

    Claws of Fire

    September 27, 2017
  • B&W,  Daily photo,  Gear,  Visual

    VueScan and the missed Bits-per-pixel

    December 1, 2013 /

    Ed Hamrick’s VueScan is a great software that supports almost every scanner available, including out-of-production film scanner. Sometimes its interface behave in non documented way as in the case of the Bits-per-pixel option in the Input tab that disappears once the Infrared Clean option is enabled in the Filter tab. I wasn’t able to figure out the relationship between the two settings until Ed Hamrick himself kindly answered (lightfast, I would say) to my question. Kudos to him for that, but it would be nice to have this Infrared clean-Bits per pixel issue mentioned in the user guide :)

    Read More
    Andrea Monti

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    Trento, After Dark

    June 23, 2013

    What lasts of a springtime hailstorm

    June 22, 2013

    We Are All Made of Stars

    February 28, 2018
  • B&W,  Daily photo,  Doors&Windows,  Gear

    EOS-M. Manual focus tips and results for Street-Photography and more

    August 9, 2013 /

    In the quest for an acceptable use of my Canon EOS-M I think I’ve finally found a way to exploit my M-mount lenses after the poor experience with the LCD focus. The last two exposures posted, this and this, have been shot with a Carl Zeiss T* Biogon 35/2,8 through zone-focusing, while the picture of this post has been manually focused using the EOS-M’s 5x magnification feature. In both cases the results are more than acceptable, giving a new life to this severely limited camera. All I can say is that is true what seasoned photographers use to say about the cameras: as soon as you get acquainted with your…

    Read More
    Andrea Monti

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    Macarons. Again

    October 23, 2015

    Stairway to Nothing

    March 9, 2014

    Even

    July 9, 2016
  • Colour,  Daily photo,  Gear

    Carl Zeiss T* 50 1,5 Sonnar and EOS EF-M 18-55

    August 4, 2013 /

    Gear time again. Notwithstanding its quirks I can’t get rid of this EOS-M camera and still try to find a reason not to dispose of it. This time I wanted to see how does the camera performs with Zeiss ZM lenses (namely, the Carl Zeiss T* 50 1,5 Sonnar) thanks to the – again brilliant – EOS-M to Leica M lens adapter by Master Adriano Lolli. As everybody can see the results are of a poor quality compared to the (not stellar) performance of the Canon EF-M 18-55. The Zeiss is not faulty (I use it on a Leica M6 and it works like a charm) so I came to…

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    Andrea Monti

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    A Holy Sign

    October 13, 2021

    A Panorama

    December 30, 2014

    Action shot

    January 7, 2013
  • Colour,  Daily photo,  Gear,  Parks,  Projects

    A manual-focus atteimpt on a moving target

    July 26, 2013 /

    Still needs practicing

    Read More
    Andrea Monti

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    Photopanning in Rome

    December 3, 2019

    FUJIFILM X-T5 RAF have problems with Affinity Photo 2.1

    June 11, 2023

    Seeking Directions

    September 10, 2013
  • Colour,  Daily photo,  Gear,  Landscape,  Summer,  Travels

    EOS-M. An act of fairness

    July 24, 2013 /

    While I have been highly critical with the Canon EOS-M street-photography performance, I have to admit that this little camera (coupled with the 18-55 stabilized kit lens) performs pretty well in landscape and, since the cost has fallen down to a very affordable level, is it possible to “risk” the camera in harsh places without worrying so much.

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    Andrea Monti

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    Portrait of a Master luthier

    October 26, 2013

    No Tablet, No Problem

    April 12, 2013

    FUJIFILM X-T5 RAF have problems with Affinity Photo 2.1

    June 11, 2023
  • Colour,  Daily photo,  Gear

    The EOS-M just sucks

    July 18, 2013 /

    I made a point of staying clear of gearhead-oriented posts like: “x100s is better than M9” to focus on images and shooting only. In fact this blog only hosts two or three entries that talk about gear while the rest is dedicated to the exposure I catch. I want to break the rule again to provide an absolute subjective while definitive opinion of the Canon EOS-M: in one word (well, two, actually) it sucks. Thank to the ingenuity of Adriano Lolli, a pure genius, I have been able to couple my EOS-M with a Zeiss Sonnar 50 1/5, in the (lost) hope that by doing so I would have obtained…

    Read More
    Andrea Monti

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    The Google Experiment

    February 1, 2014

    What’s the Time?

    October 8, 2019

    Access Denied

    June 1, 2015
  • Colour,  Daily photo,  Gear,  Thoughts

    Kudos to Ricoh

    February 8, 2013 /

    I lost the external plastic ring covering the electronic contacts of my Ricoh GR Digital III. After an unsuccessful quest around the Net to find a spare part, as last hope (or desperate move) I sent a mail to Ricoh customer support asking where to find a replacement. To my enormous surprise, they answered fast and, since the part is not for sale as such, they offered to send it nevertheless. THIS is customer care. Kudos to you, Ricoh. You gained a customer and a supporter.

    Read More
    Andrea Monti

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    Close up of a chessboard

    September 1, 2018

    A lighter

    February 14, 2013

    Man in Trenchcoat

    November 20, 2021
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