← FroKnowsPhoto Photography Podcasts
Loading summary
Transcript1 lines
- [00:01]
A
Jared Polin, froknowsphoto.com and welcome to Raw Talk, episode number 185. The time is currently 3:18 in the PM on Wednesday, February 4th, 2026. And there's exactly 69% battery life left on my watch. And it's currently 32 degrees here in Philly. And we have a lot to talk about. Why? Because, yeah, I took two Leicas to Paris. As you guys know. I mentioned a decision was made last week, and. And I've already gone and come back from Paris. Two and a half days on the ground. A lot to talk about. That's all coming up. But first we need to talk about Stephen and his baby. Cause Steven and his wife welcomed a baby girl the other day by the name of. Drum roll, please. I didn't guess it. I was. I never got it. It is Molly Elizabeth Eckert, or me for short. Look at me. My initials are me. That's right. Shmee. Shmee. I love that movie hook. But anyway, Molly Elizabeth Eckert, or M E. E for short. Well, that's what I will call her. She is cute, I guess. I don't know. She looks like a baby. She looks like Steven, so maybe she's not cute. I mean, it's a baby. I mean, what are you gonna say? The baby just came out of the ba. Out of the mom. You're like, okay, it's a baby. I don't think any baby looks cute when they're first born. Give them a couple days or a couple weeks. You're like, oh, that's a cute baby. But when they're like 14 minutes old, you're like, yeah, I don't know about that. I don't have a baby, so I can't tell you what I think about a Bebe. But I'm gonna hopefully go over there and photograph the Bebe number two. Very similarly to how I photographed Bebe number one a couple years ago. Except I used. I know I had a Fuji at that time that was at GFX large format, the 1-800X. I almost called it the GFX 1- hundreds. I believe I was borrowing at the time. But no, I'd like to go back and photograph. So I need to set that up. So that is the first thing I wanted to get out of the way is congratulating Stephen and his wife on having another baby. So that is that Stephen is on paternity leave until he decides that he wants to come back and work. And. And then we will get back into working but that's up to him. He will decide to come back when he's ready. We don't have, like, official times, and I don't know how all that stuff works. It's whatever he needs, he needs in life. We'll figure out business later, I guess. Better get back to work soon. No, no, really, he needs whatever he needs to feel okay. And then we'll figure it out from there. Before I get to Paris and the Laikas, there's been some stuff on Instagram that I kind of want to talk about. And it's. I get served so many reels, and I get it. If you start sharing certain things with people, and even if you share it privately and you have some thoughts about it, then Instagram's like, well, you might want to see more of this stuff because you keep sharing it. I keep sharing really terrible reels and posts that, quote, unquote, photographers are posting about. This is a setting to get perfectly sharp images. As if one fucking setting controls what makes a sharp image. It goes way beyond that. But I keep sharing it because one, I'm tired of hearing one over 250 or one over 100. And I feel like I need to comment, but I need to stick to my rule of do not comment. It's not worth doing, especially if someone has like 500,000. So it doesn't matter how many people they have. I don't want them to think that I'm like, personally ripping on them, but they just don't know. And then I come back to the point as well. They haven't been informed or educated, and it's not their fault. They're going based off of what they've seen on the Internet. And other people say, one of the dumbest things I heard a few weeks ago was the box speed. And we're talking about a film photographer. And she kept saying, I used box speed 100. I'm like, literally, you're talking about the speed of the film. You mean ISO or ASA if you want to get old school. But the box speed, literally, she's going by the printed number on the box. Well, the box speed with 100, the box speed with 200. The box speed is 400. It's like, come on, guys, box speed. I don't know where you come up with this stuff, but it's not right. Who am I to say what's right or wrong? Well, I know who I am. I'm Fro Nose Photo. It's right in the name. Actually, I said it Philly style. It's fro no's photo. That's if I enunciate, that's how you properly say it. I'm not the arbiter of what is right and wrong, but there are things that you should get right. Like not one over 250, it's 2 50th of a second. Or I'm fine with one. 2 50th of a second. Right, that's 2-50th of a second. 500th of a second. 1 1,000th of a second. A thousandth of a second. Fine shutter speed, aperture, ISO. Yes, all of these things. But not one over 250. And definitely not a 70 by 200 lens. It's not 70 by 200, it's 72, 200, it's 70 millimeters, all the way out to 200 millimeters, which makes it a 70 to 200, not 70 by 200. Just basic things. But the thing is, it's not really everybody's fault, because if there's nobody out there to inform and educate about the proper ways of doing certain things or saying certain things, then it's not exactly the person's fault for not knowing. It's just this repetitive thing that happens is that some Instagrammer, some influencer, some TikToker. I deleted TikTok, by the way, the other day. I'm not gonna agree to the terms of service that the new American company of TikTok has put on there. I'm just not doing it. They literally want to have access to every piece of information you share. Not share, but don't even share. They want to know your sex, they want to know your orientation and they want to use it. So no, I will not be a part of that. And I don't have a huge following. I probably have close to 10,000 on there, but I don't want to agree to that. So I'm not going to agree to it. That's my choice. And it's also your choice to agree to it and not care and keep using TikTok. But I'm not going to willy nilly go press that button just to do that. So I'm not going to be participating in TikTok right now unless that changes or unless I read it even deeper and get some more understanding. But from what I've read about it, it is not good for just about anything if you don't want to be tracked. I don't care about being tracked. Like, I really don't. My face is out there. Everything's out There like all the information's out there, but shouldn't be voluntarily allowing them to take this information like and do what with it? Build a database to do what with it. Like if you say something negative. Anyway, don't wanna go down this path. So no TikTok for me anymore. And I also need to cut back on Instagram in terms of worrying what these people are saying. Yeah, so what I was saying is that the Tiktokers and the Instagramers and the influencers in the photo world who aren't actual photographers who have picked up cameras, totally fine. Awesome. Love the fact that they're being creative. Love the fact that they are doing something who hopefully gonna learn and get better and buy more product and just get better before they buy more product. But they just didn't have the education to know how to properly say things. So now all I get served is this type of thing. So like before this, earlier in the day, somebody made a really good suicide prevention type video and I liked it and I shared it and I posted it and then the next five videos I got were about suicide. Talk about a bad thing. I want suicide. Like suicide prevention. Fine. But then now you start telling me all about suicide. I'll be like, well, I don't care what people think after I die. Like, it's just stupid. It's just bad. So anyway, we need to inform, we need to educate and that would be better. And also the more you like or share or comment or do whatever on the Internet, the more the stuff is going to be sent to you. The one that I did, what's it called? A Snatch Incoming. No, Stitch Incoming, not snatch. I mean I would really like some Snatch incoming, that would be awesome. But no, it wasn't Snatch incoming, it was Stitch Incoming was this girl put out a video on Instagram that said I have the perfect setting to make sure you get perfectly tack sharp images every time. And of course she's talking about back button focus, where let me take a side step and say, look, if you want to use back button focus, don't let me tell you not to. I can tell you why I don't and I've shared why I don't and that's your choice. After that I use front button and that's fine. But she was showing turn off front button, turn on back button, go into this mode. She went into single focus mode, not servo mode on her canon, modern day canon by the way. And she has a stuffed animal and she's like, look, you just hold the back Button down to get your focus and then you can take your finger off the button and move the camera and compose any way you want and then take the picture and it stays perfectly in focus. It's like, well if you're shooting at 1 4, that's not going to happen. If your subject is moving, that's not going to happen. There is nothing wrong with focusing and recomposing. Except 20 years ago that's what we did. There is no reason to focus and recompose today. In single point focus, the camera, especially the one that she was using, has the ability to do lock on tracking and face detection or subject detection, which means it defeats the whole purpose to lock, lock focus in and recompose. That is a surefire way to make sure you don't get perfectly tack sharp images every time. That is a bad thing to suggest people do. The right way to do it is even if you want to use back button focus, which I don't agree with, but you could set back button focus on and it activates auto focus which activates the lock on tracking face detection and then you can keep it held in and then press the shutter button, which I hate. Having to press two buttons like hold one in on the back while you press the shutter to take a picture is awkward to me. Instead of just focusing with your pointer finger on your right hand and then pressing all the way to take the damn picture. That's one function. That's two functions with one finger, not two buttons with two fingers. That kind of makes your brain have to do more and I feel that it's slower and will slow you down. But her suggestions of focusing and recomposing are just bad because with lock on tracking technology, especially being able to shoot at 12 wide open and track subjects, that's why we do continuous auto focus with the subject detection and lock on tracking and thus why I made that real. And so I read the, you know, I looked at the. I haven't looked at the guy, I forgot about it today. So I'm not looking at, I haven't looked at the comments in a minute. But of course you get people. Why is this photographer so angry? It's like I'm not angry. I may get loud and I may share some information but it's just like I need to say what I need to say to help educate and inform people on why that is bad. And people are like, well, why it's not a problem. Actually I don't even think I made this reel. I think I filmed the reel and it didn't post. I realized I'm talking about the wrong reel. I wanted to talk about this one. The one that I posted that I got some shit about being angry for was where the person who said they got married was like, we couldn't afford a wedding photographer, so we used this service that has a QR code and allowed our guests to take pictures. And this organized it all in one place. And it was so amazing. It was so great. We didn't need a photographer. The point I was making with posting that video was this is not an answer to replacing a photographer. It's very similar to back in the day when you put point and shoot cameras on the table and you're like, okay, everybody take point and shoot. Just use these. Use these disposable cameras and take pictures of your dick in the bathroom and people mooning and just really terrible snapshots. No, it's fun. As an add on, the point I was getting at is this is not a replacement for a real photographer. You could say you can't afford a photographer, but then you also had 178 people at your wedding. If you can afford 178 people at your wedding and flowers and cake and all of that shit and the food, then you could afford a photographer. And the only thing that's living on from the day of that fucking wedding. And I used to say this to people, are your photos. Photos live on, food gets eaten, shit out, and flowers die. So I used to say, flowers die, food gets eaten, and people shit it out. Yeah, that's my sales pitch, guys. That was my sales pitch. I was like, the only thing that lives on are the photographs. Of course, videos and all that stuff live on too. But photographs are so important. And if photography is important to documenting your day, why would you leave that to. To someone to ask all of your guests to do all your photos? Now, when I go to a wedding, I absolutely do bring a camera. Just in case we run into an incident like at Dan's wedding where his photographer didn't show up. That was a thing. And that was the time where Todd was like, don't bring your camera, Jared. You're a guest. And all I had was a DX01. And I had to borrow one of his friend's videographers who had a 60D. And I didn't know how to use Canon at the time, especially the way he set it up. But I still took a bunch of raw pictures and I made it work. But I wish I took my camera, but I always take my Camera to weddings. But I will stay out of the way. I will sit in a seat and take photos from my seat. I will not get in the way of the photographer. One of the recent weddings I went to, probably a year ago at this point, it was just when I got the Wide Lux and I took the Wide Luxe to the wedding and I banged out a roll of film and these photos were fucking cool. It was the first time I used the Wide Lux and I gave that as a gift on top of the money that I gave. But I gave that as a gift to the bride and the groom and they loved it. So that video I made was just like, stop. Like, this is not an answer. Especially if you can't afford a photographer. At the very least, ask a friend with a camera to take your wedding photos. I never recommend that friends shoot weddings, but if it's the difference between not having photos at all or having photos, then ask someone you know who has a camera and be like, look, we would love for you to attend. You can attend. You can say, no, we know that you're not a wedding photographer, but we, we can't afford photographs right now. Would you be able to help us out and take some photos? Would that be okay? Like, if you do it night, totally fine. But just being like, oh, we paid for this other service and it's great. And oh, it was so much fun. It's great. Fine. As an addition, as an add on, that's fine. I want to talk about Leica, though. I want to move on, put that shit to rest. I was in Paris with two Leicas for two and a half days. We had the M11 monochrome. We had the MEV1 and the 35 1.4 Summilux Leica. And I will tell you the reason that I wanted to use the M11, as I said last week, is that Paris in the 30s. I wanted to feel like Paris in the 30s and 40s. A more softer type of look. And that is actually evident in the editing of the images that I've done. You can go see some of the images that I have posted on my Insta. Sorry, I have posted on my website, go to jaredpolin.com places. If you go there and you scroll down a little bit, you will see Paris 2026. Leica. Yeah, you will see that that is a gallery of the images. And you might notice it doesn't follow my normal style of super high contrasty or Skittles. Even for black and white. I was torn. Now when I edited with skittles I liked the way that it looked, but it also gave it a very modern digital look, which defeated the purpose in my brain of what I was trying to accomplish and what I envisioned for the images. So I went with a little bit more of a raw, softer edit. So the RAW files come in, there's no edits on them. And I kept them very similar to the raw data that came off the sensor with not a lot of processing after the fact, because I liked the grayer dynamic range of it, the gray or the more gray tone feel of it verse, the super bright areas and the super dark blacks, which is a style that I have edited in for a very long time. And I feel that actually as of late, I've been doing more pulling back on that than not. And the reason I've pulled back on it more so as of late is because it just felt. It just feels like sometimes it's too contrasty and that it feels more real when I pull back. And this might be an evolution of my vision, it might be an evolution of my style. It just feels. And part of it is from when I do the 4x5 project, is that I don't make those super contrasty because I like that they feel period specific and period authentic. And so my Paris photos, I believe, have that feel. So again, you could go to jaredpolin.com places, look for the Paris 2026 Leica Gallery and you can see those images. But I wanna read you a quote that I wrote. So I'm quoting myself here. And then I'll get into all of the Leica stuff, why I was there, who I took with me, things that I experienced, things that I did. But this is the overreaching quote that kept going through my mind after using the Leicas. And let me preface it by saying when mirrorless cameras came out, you might have heard me make a statement very similar to what I'm about, about capturing images and the new technology and why I went all in on what it offered and why I went to Sony from Nikon at the beginning. And then because of the IAF and the tracking and the unbelievable capabilities of the modern technology. So with that prefaced, here is the quote. I am able to capture things I otherwise would have missed. So with the modern technology, I'm able to capture things I otherwise would have missed. Whereas with a Leica, you, it feels like I'm able to miss the stuff I would have otherwise captured. And I know that there's Laika diehards and it is absolutely the cult of Laika. This is a very cultish following and group of people. Meaning they don't feel that laika can do any wrong. Or that regardless of how something looks or compares or is easier or is harder or is something else, they will always tell you that the Leica has a specific look. But there's no way they could tell the two apart. If I was to put an R8 image from Paris up next to a Leica image from Paris, Both done with 35 1.4s, it would be very difficult for people to know. They will always be like, oh, but there's this beautiful bokeh. Or the falloff is just so great. With the Leica, okay, that's all well and good, but the point that I'm making is that with the new mirrorless technology, if I was picking a system or a camera to go with, I would want to utilize. For me this is personal choice. I would want to utilize the latest technology that allows me to Capture focus at 1.4 and 1.2 repeatedly and fast and be able to also expose and compose and get the shot. Whereas with the Leica there's a lot more that goes into it. It is a much slower process, which is totally fine. They're all mechanical. I mean, yes, it's a digital camera, but you control your aperture, you. You control your shutter speed. With the shutter speed dial, you set your ISO, which I think is like, if you really want to shoot a Leica, then you should be forced to shoot 36 images at 1 ISO. Or if you really are such a die hard purist, then you should be shooting Leica, but with film. I'm not a rangefinder shooter. I can't believe that someone said, someone did say this and a lot of people that the rangefinder is a faster form of focusing than modern autofocus. And there is no way. Let me also say that I can't use a rangefinder. Part of the reason I can't use a rangefinder is that my left eye is more blurry than my right eye. My eyes are not perfect. And so having the blur in the eye is very difficult for me to line up those rangefinder boxes. It is very slow. So I am not very good at it. And that's why I use the M11 monochrome with the EVF built in. Because for me that gave me the best opportunity and chance of getting in focus images. Cause I could zoom in with the digital zoom, like right in you hit. So it's called focus assist. You press a button and it goes all the Way into the subject and you can like actually check focus, like really check focus on it. And it was very helpful if the subject isn't moving. On the flip side, and I'll tell you about what I was doing in Paris in a minute. The flip side, there's a lot of people that are like, well, you need to zone focus. You could zone focus. And so that all you need to worry about is taking pictures. And the zone will tell you that from 5 to 7ft the people will be in focus if they are in that 5 to 7ft distance from you. I'm like, yeah, but at 1.4, you're not going to get a moving subject. I don't care if you're the greatest zone focusing person in the world. If the subject is in a place that's close to you, if it's 14 and they're at 100ft or 20, 30, 40ft and you're at infinite focus, then it doesn't matter. That's not the point. The point is somebody up close and personal in a photojournalistic sense. You can't always have that 5 to 7ft. And so zone focus says, oh, go to F8, and that's going to give you like 12ft of focus. But now you're at F8, which kind of defeats the whole purpose of having a 1.4 lens or the new 1.2 lens they just came out with. Taking a step back, why was I in Paris? My buddy DeMarcus, who I met in the photo industry, he used to work for DXO like 15 years ago, I met him and he's awesome. And we've stayed in touch ever since. Well, Demarcus decided. He's lived in Paris for 17 years now. He's decided that he's going to be an entrepreneur. After he was let go from his last position, which was a good position, and he's taken a chance on himself. He's opened, it's now open a Pilates yoga workout studio which is near the Arc de Triomphe. It is right down there, Champs or wherever it is. It's close to. It's a matter of three blocks walking from there. It's insane. It's so close. It's one of the most. It's a bougie part of town. It's very nice. This studio that he is renting is ungodly, insanely beautiful. And he is catering towards literal supermodels. I use the word literal because I was there when supermodels walked by. I was like, they're real people. Six foot one, with a hat on, with a bobbed haircut, beautiful looking skin. And then of course, the yoga pants. But in my opinion, they're a little too thin. There's that, but they were real models. But anyway, he's catering towards this super high end thing and it's going to work and it is gorgeous and it's beautiful. And I was there to support my buddy DeMarcus. I told him that I will fly out to support you during your opening day. And I did. And it's funny, he's like, people say that stuff all the time and I don't believe them. He's like, but here you are. I'm like, well, yeah, I said I would do it. I do the things I say. I know people are like, yeah, I'll come out. But I have the luxury of doing that. And people are like, well, isn't that a long flight to go for just two and a half days? Well, it's six hours 20 minutes there from the East coast and it's seven hours and 20 minutes back because going, you have the tailwind and coming back, you do not have the. You have the headwind. But I used miles and they were super inexpensive. And I stayed at an Airbnb. Airbnb. And I took Austin, the new employee, for his first outing and shooting with me as an employee, to Paris, all expenses paid. And we eat well. We do not skimp out on food. We eat the food and I pay for the food because I'm the boss and he's there with me as my employee. So that was the first time that we've worked together intimately for a short period of time to create content. The goal is a vlog in Paris. With all the things that I did in Paris. Oh, I should have also mentioned that there's new Canon lenses. Yep, new Canon lenses that I actually took to Paris, which I'll talk about at the end after I talk about this. But I'll just mention real quick, 14 and I had to double check because I'm recording this before those lenses are announced. And I'm like, can I do this? Can I do this? This isn't being broadcast live, is it? No, this comes out Friday morning. That stuff gets announced Thursday night. So it is available 14.1.4 VCM and fisheye. 7 to 14 millimeter fisheye. One is. The fisheye is 1900 bucks and it's 2,600 bucks for the 14.1.4. The fisheye is 7 at 7. It's circular. It's 2.8. At 14 millimeters, it's 3.5 and a real fisheye, regular diagonal. I didn't even tell. Yeah, there's so much photo news Fix has the whole story on it. And then we'll make reviews of them after the fact. But Austin was there to document me photographing and doing what I was doing. And that is what I want to bring more to the channel. Videos that you guys could sit and watch on TV like it's a TV show and not get bored. Because, you know, it could be 20, it could be 30 minutes long or it could be a 40 minute long episode. And it's just a different piece of content that we don't have that I enjoy, that I'm already going to create, I'm already going to shoot. So let's document it. So that was Austin's first trip with me. And yeah, that's what I have to say about Boston. And by Boston, I mean Austin, Austin, Massachusetts. So, yeah, he's shooting with the Canon R5 Mark IIs and stuff. So anyway, my buddy DeMarcus was doing a thing. Then I asked about why don't I try to get Leicas and do Paris in Leicas? And that's why I ended up in Paris with two Leicas. And I used the mv. I did not use the MEV one very often. I did one comparison between that shot in color, which is to be converted, and then the M11 monochrome shot the same way, same lens, same settings. Now I want to point something out. The Leicas do not pass along the information from the aperture into the camera or into the file. So even if I was set to 1.4, the aperture that it shows in Lightroom is not correct. And I know this for a fact because I set it to F16 to take a picture. And it came into lightroom at like 1.7 because it doesn't pass the information along, which is so weird and so odd. I get it. It's all mechanical and there's no talking to the lens. I get it. But in this day and age, I don't get it. So how was it using the M11 monochrome with the EVF? I got used to it. I had it set up the way that I needed it to be. And guys, good photographers can shoot with anything. You can shoot with a potato with a hole in it and get good results if you know what you're doing. The fundamentals, photography, you can pick up any camera in any situation from any era, and you should be able to get good Results that is the difference between a real photographer and someone who just pushes buttons. Because there is no auto modes on those cameras from the 1940s. It's not there. You got to take meter readings, you got to do your manual focus, you got to do all of the different settings to figure it out, and you got to know it all. But the great thing about today is the modern technology is both helpful, but also could be detrimental if you don't take the time to learn the fundamentals. But you do have the ability to learn the fundamentals so much faster than we did back in the day and use the new technology to get better results. Thus, I'm able to capture things that I otherwise would have missed in the past if I didn't have this new modern technology. And with the Leica, it feels like I'm able to miss the stuff that I should have otherwise captured because of the technology. And I know that I'll get shit from Laika shooters, but I don't care because this is my fact. This isn't alternative facts and your vision being clouded by the cult of Laika. And this isn't a rip on Laika. Laika, the modern day Laika, has done an unbelievable job, an incredible job of resurrecting a dying brand and turning them into a global, profitable, sensational company. So big kudos to Laika for building what they've built. Anybody would kill to have a brand like Leica. So this isn't a reflection of the brand and it's not a reflection of the. Well, part of. It's a reflection of the people who use it and evangelize it and say that it's so incredible and that it's, you know, can't do no. Can't do no wrong. And I'm here to tell you that of course it can do wrong. And I know one of the biggest things people want to know is can you tell the difference between the monochrome image and then the one that is converted from color? And I posted images that were converted from color before I left. They were the snowstorm images and I think they were fantastic. And that was the first time I ever used this modern Leica. And that was the MEV1 and it has the built in EVF. That would be my personal choice if I had to choose between an M11 monochrome or the MEV one. And I know traditionalists will be like, well, it doesn't have a rangefinder. I'm like, well, I can't use a rangefinder anyway. And in this case, I Don't lose out on the hot shoe, because that's where the EVF goes on the M11 monochrome. And the difference between the monochrome and the color converted is. I really don't think most people will ever know the difference. It would be so hard to tell the difference between one image or the other, which, in my opinion, makes it. It kind of makes no sense to have the monochrome sensor. And remember, it's a Sony. I'm pretty sure it's a Sony sensor. A 61 megapixel sensor is the same in the A7CR, the A7, R5, the A7, R4 All Share this same sensor. They just tweak certain things to get rid of the color filter to allow it to be, they say, sharper and better. But how sharp can an image be when you have to manually focus everything? And even at 1.4, it's still difficult to nail the focus. Whereas with modern cameras, I know I'm going to nail the focus at 1.4. And doesn't it defeat the whole purpose that if you tell me to zone focus that I don't. Why would I have a 14 lens then? I don't want to shoot at f8. I want the background to look better. And there's a prime example of a photo of DeMarcus out on the street in Paris that I shot with zone Focus because we're on the street. And I was like, well, I want to make sure I get more in focus or I want to get something in focus. So I would then go ahead and shoot to Marcus at a higher aperture, which means everything in the background's in focus, which, I mean, I don't like. So I enjoyed using the M11 monochrome. I would have enjoyed more so the MEV one, because I wouldn't need that extra EVF on top. And I got used to the autofocus. I got used to how to focus it. I got used to how to make all the changes of the settings and quickly zoom in to check my focus. But I did have things that I missed because I couldn't move quick enough. And that's not from not. Not being like a shooter. That's from my settings are all right, but I can't quickly make sure that I'm focused at 1.4 and make sure that the girl playing in the puddle with the Eiffel Tower in the background's in focus. If I shot that with an R8, I would have nailed it because the focus would have gone right to the subject. And I would have been down there in the fraction of a second with the right focal length. Or even if I had a 35.14, I would have gotten in the perfect spot and it would have been focusing before I even crouched down. And it would have nailed it. And it would have banged it out real quick. No, I didn't shoot Motor drive at all. I shot on single shot the whole time. And I shot. Let me look. How many pictures did I take in Paris? It says I have 488 images. And I took three with the MEV one. Those are the comparison black and white conversions of the 488. I edited down to 178. So 178 I edited down to. And then of that, I edited down to 114 of the what I consider to be the best of the best. But then beyond that, it's the best of the best of the best. With honor, sir. I then put those up on the website. There's like 55 or 54 of those. So those got posted. And if I needed to, I could dumb it down. Not dumb it down. I could edit it down even more to get the best of the best. But there's multiple things. There's DeMarcus, there's some street stuff. There's a girl at Saka Coeur who was an artist, who was in college. And I know all this because I talked to her who was drawing Saka Coeur, and she had out charcoal pen. Like a charcoal thing and a pen, and it was drizzling. And then it was raining. And I walked over and I said, hey, is it all right if I take some photos of you drawing? And I did some wides, mediums, tights, and details, all with the 35 millimeter thing. And, you know, I only took a handful of images because it takes a minute to make sure you can get your focus right. It just takes time. And that's not wrong. That's not a bad thing. But for me, I want to be able to get the shot and not miss the shot. I don't want to miss things that I should have gotten that I know I would have gotten with a different piece of equipment. And so the Leica is not the type of camera that I personally would buy. I don't want to drop $10,000 for a body just shy of $10,000 and another $6,500 or $6,400 for a 3514 and then have to get the EVF. If you're getting an M11 monochrome which is another $999. So you're at $20,000. You're close to $20,000 with tax and cards and extra batteries and maybe the $500 freaking grip. Oh, my God, you're at $20,000 or potentially a little bit more. And for far less. I could have a Canon R8, which I would like to see them upgrade with the new, you know, just a bigger battery. That would be the only thing I would want it to have. Or the Sony A7C2 with a 3514 that they make, or a 3514 VCM that. That canon makes. And you're in it for $2,300, not $20,000. And no one's going to know. They'll never know. They just won't. It's really. You can put the images up. A winning image is a winning image is a winning image, no matter what you take it with. So Leica is a thing. Is it quality? 100% manufactured? Extremely. Well. Great tolerances, beautiful lenses, beautiful mechanisms, beautiful cameras. Very expensive. You need the grips. You just need the grip. It made it feel much better when I was out there shooting. But you're not going to get better results, in my opinion, with a Leica. You will get better results with, in my opinion, a mirrorless camera with the same. With spending 90% less. I mean, that's the story, guys. It really is. And I know that people are afraid to call it out and afraid to say it that, well, what are people gonna say? Why would they do this? Why? You just hate Laika. No, I don't hate Laika. I just shot with Laika in Paris. I made the decision to do it and I did it and I accomplished it. And I missed things that I shouldn't have missed. And that's not because I don't know how to use the camera. It's because it defeats the purpose. If I want to shoot at 1.4 or 1.2, I don't want you to tell me that. Well, you can't. And zone focus. That's the way you make sure you nail it. So there's that. Let me check my notes here. I also have some more stuff that I mentioned here. It doesn't pass the aperture along. You're basically paying a ton of money to get less. Leica store guy. Oh, yeah, the Leica store guy told me that. He basically said that the rangefinder is faster than autofocus in modern cameras. And I just don't. The answer is no. That's like, that's no. Just no. The most important thing note here is compose and expose. If you like barriers, Leica is great for barriers. One, the barrier of entry is super high. It's super expensive. Two, it's a much harder camera to operate and use because there's limitations to shooting everything manual and controlling everything manual. Like, I didn't do auto ISO, I didn't do auto shutter speed. I controlled the dial. I enjoyed. I love challenges I of shooting with gear, even with the Leica. I love the challenge. It makes me think, it makes me create something different. It makes me see the world slightly different, and that's fine. But I don't think there were things that I got with the Leica that I wouldn't have done with something 90% less expensive. I would have been able to get those results too. Is the sensor very nice from the M11 monochrome? 100%. Like, if I was off by a stop, like I looked at some of the files from 7 in the morning when it's still pitch black at the Eiffel Tower, and I raised the exposure just to see what would happen. And it holds up extremely well even with 61 megapixels. But the whole discussion that it's a triple resolution is bullshit. It's not triple resolution. It's a 61 megapixel sensor, full frame. If you start cropping in, that doesn't mean that it's triple resolution. That just means you have a lot of room to crop, which in my opinion defeats the whole purpose of buying such a quality system. And quality optics is to crop out, is to crop and take away that information. I don't agree with that. Like, you want to be a purist and be a purist, don't fucking crop like that. My thoughts, let's see. Yeah. And then I leave it with it's a cult, because it absolutely is a cult. Ah, let's see. Oh, something funny happened. Austin and I were walking in Paris after leaving demarcus Place. So we're in a nice area. The store window has a mannequin with a beautiful sweater on that caught my eye. It was this beautiful blue cardigan. And so the place is called Crimson and it says Crimson, the cashmere store since 1984. Crimson Dash Cashmere. Not a plug for them. It just so happens to be the name of the store. I went in, I'm like, do you have that in purple? And Shay pulled out this. And I'll post it on Instagram. I'm going to post a picture of myself on Instagram. About it. So you guys can go and comment and say you came from Raw Talk and you know the price, and you could put the price in the comments, because I'm going to ask people to guess the price. You can put the price in there. Just think. Think about a price in your head right now. Cashmere store, they had a purple that was beautiful. Like this very light, light purple that I just. At first, I was like, well, that's not the purple I like. But she put it on me, and it looks amazing with my purple scarf and my dark purple shirt. Oh, my God, was this gorgeous. And it's 12 layers of cashmere, so it is absolutely warm, and it is gorgeous. And she said it was on sale for 20% off. 20% off, bringing it down to €800, a little bit more than €800 with tax. And guess what? I did. I decided to buy it. I bought it. My dad's like, oh, how often are you gonna wear that thing? I should've been like, well, how often were you gonna wear your coogee sweaters that you paid 600 or $900 for back in 1991? Touche. But, yeah, I don't buy clothes very often. I wear the same things every day. I buy a couple of nice jackets. In the history of me buying jackets, but this thing was gorgeous. And because it was gorgeous, I have this thing that I do. And, yes, I can afford it, but even if it's not something super expensive, where if you encounter something that you absolutely love and you like and you can. If you can afford it, even if it's not super expensive, you make the. You just buy it right then and there. You don't wait. You don't go back later. You don't say, well, well, I'll think about it. If you feel in your feelses that it's the right move, then make the move. I was like, you know, so I go through my brain, I'm like, $1,000. Yeah, I can afford that. It's a couple of presets. Got to sell a bunch of them, but whatever. I don't buy anything other than properties. Houses and properties and food. That's all I spend my money on when employees don't count. But it's really property and food. That's where I spend my money. And so I was like, yeah, all right, I'll buy it. They threw in a pair of socks. That's right. Purple socks came with it. It's gorgeous, and I love it. And I wore it the other day, and I'm not gonna wear it too often, but it's fucking awesome. I really, really love it. And so that's why I decided to purchase it. And I only can think what Austin is thinking as a new employee as I throw down the credit card to buy $1,000 sweater. I don't know, cardigan. Loveful. Love me, love me, say that you love me. So I bought that. We also went to a Martin Parr exhibit. Look up Martin Parr's work. He just passed away a few months ago and he was a magnum photographer. So working in the 70s and 80s and all this stuff, his style of work is interesting. And I went through the gallery with Austin and we recorded because I had a microphone on my thoughts while there. And I will tell you this, that Martin Parr's work is not particularly my favorite style of work. I don't know if he was obtrusive in the street photography world or if he shoved cameras in people's faces and stole images like some Moskowitz or Marska, whoever that guy is, that I don't like at all. But from looking at Martin Parr's work, it doesn't look like he's stealing images at all. It feels like it's intent filled. And a lot of the images had people not looking at the camera. But he was capturing these moments. And what I said to Austin in the camera when we were recording is, this might not be my particular style of photography, but it's certainly a style and it works in a gallery exhibit. It works when you look at a culmination of a career over decades and you're like, this makes sense for the style of work. It really resonates for what he was doing over time. Now if you pull an image, one image out of the thing, you might be like, eh, here's a good image. It's interesting, but whatever. It's like a snapshot. But when you look at what he was able to do time and time again and stick to his style was pretty incredible. And so you don't have to like every artist's work or every photographer's work, but you can respect it. So I don't like every photographer, every classic photographer's stuff. Like I don't like Diane Arbus work personally, all of it, but I can respect it. And what she was doing in communities where nobody else would go was incredible. And there's some great work there, but some of the stuff I just don't get. But that's okay. That doesn't take away from the quality of work that she was doing. And in Martin Parr's sense, his work is his style and works really well. And what was interesting is I didn't take my camera out to shoot in the gallery. I'm like, why would I do that? And then I was looking at his stuff and you're like, well, he has pictures inside galleries. And I was like inspired to take the Leica out of the pocket. And this is very similar to when I bought the cardigan is if the thought goes through my mind that I should probably take my camera out, like the thought that I should just buy this, well, then maybe I should take the camera out because something is saying, take the fucking camera out and don't be a lazy bitch. Because sometimes I'm a little lazy bitch and I don't take the camera out and I should. And so if my brain goes, wow, maybe you should take the camera out. Even if I say, well, I don't really see images here, they're not here. Well, you're not looking through the camera. As soon as I took the camera out and I looked through the camera, I started to see the images and I took a bunch. And those aren't up on the website. I didn't include those in the gallery right now. They'll probably be in the vlog and stuff. I left them out because without context, I don't know that they work fully. Maybe I'll add a few, they're fine. I don't know if they set the world on fire, but it was my attempt at being Martin Parr for a few minutes. And I do highly recommend if you're anywhere near Paris, near the Tuileries, the Martin Parr exhibit is taking place in the tooleries at the. I don't remember the name of it. They were kind enough to leave me tickets for free, which I would have bought. Which I would have bought. There was a long line when we got there, which we skipped because I was like, excusez moi. Jem Appel. Jared Bolin Froknow's photo. My number is Jared Bolin. I'm on a list. And they were like, you are on a list. And then we went in. We didn't have to wait in the line. It wasn't even that long of a line, actually. It was a pretty long line, but they moved people through pretty quick. So if you are in Paris, look up Martin Par exhibit. It's running for a few months. I do suggest you go check it out. I didn't like the Picasso museum, but I did like the Martin Par one. It was Pretty good food wise. We had some good food, ate a lot of baguettes. The butter in Paris. Oh, is so good. In the famous words of my buddy Troy, this is what he would say when he likes something. That's right. Yeah. That's how good that burr is. So good. So good. Let's see, what other things do I need to talk about other than a good photographer can use any tool and get great results. Oh, yeah, the Canon lenses. So those two new lenses that I mentioned earlier, 14 1.4 VCM lineup of lens and the fisheye lens. Fisheye is very limiting. Like where do you use 7 and where do you use 14 fisheye? One has a 190 degree field of view and one has a 180 degree field of view. Or sorry, 180 diagonal, which is the fisheye at 7 millimeter circular. I need to make sure that my feet aren't in it or my face or my hair isn't in it. So you have to be very careful because my hair is going to show up in the photos if it's up to my eye because of how wide it is. So those wide shots would come in handy in stadiums. It showcases a scene. I'm not sure where circle gets used very often. A fisheye 14 is good in certain areas because it just gives you a wider look with some bowed edges. Whereas on the flip side, the 1414 is rectilinear, so you get straight lines. That's the difference between a 14 fisheye and a 14 rectilinear non fisheye is that you get straight lines with the other one. So that's that then. I gotta get home shortly because I have a workout. It's leg day and bowling day and that's what I got. So I'm not sure when Stephen's gonna be back for this discussion or back for his job, which I mentioned at the beginning. But when he does come back, we'll get him all caught. But I had a very nice time in Paris. I could see staying in Paris longer or living in Paris for a while. But then again, what would I do? The same thing that I do here. So might as well do it in Paris, I guess is the answer. But two and a half days was enough. I don't know what I would have done on a third day if we had another day. I think I ran out of things. But I would like to go to the south of France. I would like to try some other parts of Europe that I haven't done yet. But I do recommend going to Paris. If you go to Paris, it's beautiful, get the food, stay at an Airbnb. Stay somewhere if you can afford some. I didn't stay at a hotel because hotels are super duper expensive and I need two rooms with Austin. Me and Austin, we're not going to share a room, but I got an Airbnb with two rooms and it was right in the Marais and it was really great part of town, close to the metro and walkable to everything within 20 or 30 minutes, which was awesome. So really happy with it. Two and a half days felt great. Yeah, it's a long flight, but it was a pretty empty flight. So I got to lay down on the seats, the three seats, and just lay across it myself. So that was always a plus and a bonus at the end of the day, guys. Well, you could go look at the photos@jared poland.com places. It's a Squarespace site. Really easy to set up the Leica, I have to send them back, but it's not my jam. I can do it, but it wouldn't be my first choice. I've proven I can do it, but not the first choice that I would have because of the limitations. I don't want those limitations on me. I got my 4x5 for limitations, like really good limitations. But I can't justify spend. If Leica was to give me the camera, would I use it? That's a good question. That just popped into my head. The answer is I don't know. I really don't know. I don't know that it would be the. I mean, I love the size of it, but an R8 is pretty small with a 3514 as well. Slightly larger than the 3514 Summilux, of course. And the Leica's smaller and it's. I'm not gonna say inconspicuous, but it's smaller. And you could take it into situations more so than my R1, but I'll take my R1 and 28 to 70 into everywhere. My hair isn't gonna be inconspicuous. It's gonna pop out. It's gonna stand out all the time anyway, so I don't really worry about that stuff. I am very appreciative that B and H hooked me up with the MVP MEV1 to take. And I'm appreciative that the Leica store in New York was kind enough to just ship me a brand new M11 monochrome with a used EVF, which allowed me to make this video. And I Hope you know, I'm just gonna, I just say it like it is. I'm not gonna sugarcoat it. And I don't. Look, if you want to buy Leica, that's on you. That's your thing. That's, that's it. You're gonna get. You can do, you can do great things with anything. If you feel that that's the right tool for you, then fucking do it. Go support Allen's camera. Go support B and H helped me out there. I prefer going to Alan's camera, but also the Leica store in New York. Super helpful and appreciative of the fact that the guy sent me all of this stuff basically off of a phone call, was like, I'll help you out. Whereas the regular Leica people have told me no time and time again. So really a big thank you to the Leica store. Robert. In the Leica store in New York, the manager who hooked me up, thank you. Thank you for getting it. I gave it a fair shake, of course, and I got a nice photo story. You can't question the quality of the build, the lenses and the results. You can question the ability to focus when you need to focus quickly, especially at 1.4 or 1.2. With their new 35, 1.2. It is not built for that. It is meant to be a slower, more methodical, more barrier driven style of camera and shooting. I just didn't do motor driving. I put certain limits on myself. That doesn't make it bad, and I'm not trying to defend it, but it is absolutely a cult and that's up to you to decide if it's right for you. It's also super expensive. If I had $20,000 to spend on a kit, it's not going to be on one body and one lens. I could do some. You could do some damage. You could do some damage with an R6 mark 328 to 70F2. Look, even if you're traveling, you take an R8 and a 28 to 72. Eight, you could do that. Like, let me look that up real fast. 28 to 72.8 RF is a thousand dollar lens. $1,100 lens and an R8 right now is on sale for 1449. You could probably get it for even less at some point. But if they have it refurbed or refurbed in the store, it's probably 1,000 bucks. And that's the same sensor as you get in the R6 Mark II. Love it. Just bad battery life. That's the only thing and doesn't have a stabilized sensor, but 1400 for under 2,500 bucks. You're crushing it with those two lenses. But if you have 20 grand to spend, probably an R6 Mark III with a grip is a great starting point. You want to go to town? Get a 28 to 70, get a 70, 200, get a 85, 12, get a 14 to. Well, they don't have a 15 to 35 if you want. And you could for 20 grand. Holy shit. You could build an amazing kit. You could build a great kit for 20 grand. But a lot of people that have the money don't care about that. They want to spend it on the Leica because that's what they want. And there's nothing wrong if you're just a guy, a guy or a girl or a person or a non gender binary person who wants to go around and that's your love and you want to capture images with that. And if you miss something, you miss something and you just feel good using it, then use it, then use it. I could do it, just not my choice, not my personal preference. So I'm gonna leave it right there guys because I have to get home for leg day. Current time is 4:12. It's Wednesday the 4th of February. There's now 68 battery life meter, battery on my camera, on my watch, whatever. 4:12pm thank you guys very much for listening this episode 185. You could always text me, let me know what you think. Jared poland froknowsphoto.com See ya.