About 9 years ago, we went camping with friends at Lake Cuyamaca east of San Diego, only to be chased out of the campgrounds by the Cedar Fire of San Diego.  We literally saw fires and smoke by the side of the road as we made our escape.  This time, we went back again, now with children in tow, and still saw plenty remnant signs of the fire.

Charred dead trees can make dramatic images, but I was glad to see that Mother Nature had not stopped.  There are signs of new hope sprouting everywhere.  It may take decades for the forest to grow back to the way it was, and we'll leave it to our children to enjoy them as we once did.

Following my recent method, I have posted a selected fews in the regular Gallery [HERE], and the full set along with many vacation snaps are in the Personal Gallery [HERE].

Now that all the announcement has gone out, and all of the Internet experts have weighed it, I thought I spare a few sentences here to gather my own thoughts...

Leica M  (pre-order at Adorama: Silver / Black)
We are a fickle lot of customers... people complained a lot about the M9 and wished for many modern features, and yet when Leica delivers them in the new "M", we complain about extra buttons, accessories, weight, and size.  I think what Leica has delivered here is a more modular system.  For the RF purists, just buy the body, turn off the live-view, and you'll have the same optical viewfinder experience that you've always had.  Nothing will change if you want it that way, except for improved ISO performance, better framelines, quieter shutter, bigger buffer, faster memory card write speed, longer battery life, and should have better IQ with wide-angle lenses (the jury is still out on IQ).  For the others, you'll find all of the additional features to satisfy you so you no longer need another camera to cover the shortcomings of the M9 (you know what those are).

I think the key, still unproven, has be an uncompromising image quality.  Many, myself included, love the results we get from our M9's CCD sensor.  By switching to a more modern CMOS sensor, they have got to get it to be at least as good, if not better.  Everything else is secondary.

Let's talk about the EVF.  People seems to forget that many RF shooters already use a bunch of external optical VF for our wide-angle lenses when they complain about the extra "hump" it would create.  What we'll get now is one EVF to rule them all.  No more needing different VF for different focal lengths, with the added bonus of seeing the exact framing, live-view, and focus peaking.  It's also tilt-able when shooting low or shooting on a tripod.

Leica touts the ability to use the old R-lenses with live-view and focus peaking, but what they didn't say is that you can adapt ANY OTHER lenses too (provided a proper adapter is found).  A real FF camera that can work with any other lens, as long as the aperture and focus isn't electronically controlled.

Video capability is something I'm unsure of.  While I'm sure that it'll work, I'm afraid that it won't be much help to me without autofocus and focus-tracking.  You see, I have tried to shoot videos on the Sony NEX5 with a 50'Cron.  Without image-stabilization and using only manual focus, let's just say that I didn't get a lot of useful clips.  To my defense and the defense of shooting video with MF lenses, I was trying to shoot videos of my son, which was a challenge already for still shots using RF.  Some are excited by the thoughts of shooting videos with the Noctilux... I just wish them good luck.

Leica M-E  (pre-order at Adorama: Anthracite)
The only thing I have to say is I wished they would have just kept the M9 name, since they are basically the same.  Let the M9 prove its longevity, because even though it's 3 years old, it's still one of the best camera out there.

I've gotten a fortune cookie that said: "Children are life's rewards."  I'm not sure how long ago it was, but it's still held on my refrigerator door today by a magnet.  Although the lottery numbers it also printed didn't make me a single dime, that sentence resonated with me.

Since the trip to Sequoia National Park, it's been a couple of busy weeks and I barely have time to take the M9 out of the bag.  Tonight, I imported some files that are left on the card and scanned through few shots taken here and there throughout the week and found them... quite enjoyable, mostly shots of my son.

Well... here is a somewhat uninspiring photo.  It was taken at an early hour, before the sun came out.  I sat the camera on a rock and set a somewhat long shutter time to catch the river in motion.  I forgot that I could set the exposure compensation lower to allow for longer exposure time, but it came out 80% of what I wanted.

I've managed to crop it into the way I liked, and this first image is 100% unprocessed, straight out of camera (except for the crop, of course).  It had the cold tones of early morning and looked flat.

Maybe I've already spent too much time on this "miss".  But since I already worked on it a bit, I wondered how much more can I do to it to try to bring some life into it.  A little contrast is certainly welcomed, and perhaps a tweak in color temperature to make it warmer?

Time to show off some accessories I've accumulated for the M9 for the past 6 months...  I've tried many, and the ones I like stayed on the camera.

• Wrist strap - the Gordy's wrist strap came from the previous owner of the camera.  It was soft and aged well, and felt really good and secure so I kept using it.  I prefer it more than the regular neck straps because I like to hold the camera while I walked.  I've also written a post before showing my unconventional way of connecting to another neck strap when I need two free hands [HERE].
• Thumbs Up - manufactured by Match Technical Services, it also came from the previous owner.  The curl brass hardware provides the perfect resting place for my thumb as I grip the camera.  It's great for pulling the camera out of the bag, and helps me stabilize the camera while shooting.  Since it brassed well and match the rest of the camera, I didn't feel the need to replace it.
• Soft release - I bought this little brass tab that screws onto the release button for about $2.  I never felt the need for it before I got it, and now I wouldn't consider taking it off.  I think it's suppose to allow you to click the shutter with less camera movement, but I just find it comfortable.
• Leica M9 Handgrip - officially made by Leica, can be bought from Amazon.  If you were to get it, there are two versions, so make sure you buy the one that matches the leatherette pattern of your camera.  I had a leather half-case before that had a built-in grip, but I wanted a bigger grip and found this to be much more useful.  This also serve as the bottom plate of the camera, so when I need to change battery, I only need to take off the grip, instead of leather case plus grip.
• Leica 1.4X magnifier - just got this recently for shooting with 50mm or longer lenses.  With the 50mm frameline, this magnifier enlarge it to be about the same size as the regular 35mm frameline.  It also enlarge the focus patch so it's much easier to see if things are in focus.  However, I think the best bonus is that it brings the viewfinder magnification to be close to 1:1, which allows me to look through the viewfinder with both eyes open and have the two eyes match.  It also came with a little cable and pouch so it won't be dropped or lost.  [Amazon link]

Labor Day weekend is a wonderful time for family vacations.  One can still catch some of the heat nearing the end of summer, a perfect chance to take a break from everything before the kids start school again.  This year, along with a bunch of friends (about 8 families in total), we rented some cabins in the Sequoia National Park and made our escape.

One of the attractions in Sequoia, besides the giant redwoods, is the Crystal Cave.  The subterranean cavern is decorated with curtains of icicle-like stalactites and mounds of stalagmites, most of all, a real challenge for a M9 shooter that did not bring flash and tripod.  I set the ISO to 1250 while inside the cave, and tried to use the lighting provided inside to limit the exposure time to be around 1/4 of a second.  If I squeeze the trigger carefully, I felt that I was able to hold it just steady enough so the motion blur won't be too visible when sharing the images on the web.

I shot about 320 photos over the length of the weekend, and had the battery drain out on me for the first time.  I've picked a few personal favorites [HERE], and if you're interested, you can see more in the personal gallery [HERE], which contains more vacation snaps.