My wife and sister-in-laws are thinking about starting a business to sell pet products.  I've been tapped to take product photos for them.  Not having much experiences in that area, I felt I needed some practice.  First, I purchased a 3 light setup with a tent (seen below) and set it up the best I could.  Then it's time to take some test shots.  I used my MiniDigi Rolleiflex as the model, mount the 90'MEM on the M9 and setup the tripod.  Although the diffused lights were too strong, I really didn't have to worry about shutter speed since this is still life on tripod.  After about 5 shots, I found f/8 to give me the right amount of depth of focus.  Now, I just need to iron the background a little...

Above, is a shot of my son shooting with the Rolleiflex MiniDigi camera.  He has come to think that it's "his" camera... just as well, I'm glad he's taken an interest into taking pictures.  We just wandered around the Sheraton Hotel while my wife went to the Farmer's market near by.  I'm kind of interested to see what pictures he got :)

Update: well, just finished look through the SD card from the Mini Rollei... shot by my son, except one by me.

This has been one hell of a late summer.  We haven't even need to turn on the air conditioning for the whole year until this past couple of weeks. Didn't want to stay home, we decided to go take a swim...

I brought the M9 with the 90mm Macro-Elmar, and of course, my latest toy, the Rolleiflex MiniDigi.  Rangefinder focusing really isn't that difficult, my wife was able to pick up the camera can capture of few shots of me playing with my son.

Here are few shots from the Rolleiflex MiniDigi:

This little camera has almost nothing going for it, except for its retro look.  The LCD viewing screen so horrible that I can barely use it to frame shots.  Apparently, it is always on ISO100 and the fastest shutter speed I've seen is 1/6 of a second.  Autofocus does work, but I think the minimum distance from subject is at least 1 meter.  I think most cellphones today take better pictures.  That's what you'll most likely to read in camera gear forums.  I often read about people's comments compare this camera/lens to that camera/lens, about how one gear is overly priced for its specs (mostly targeted at Leica), and how one cheaper camera performs better than an expensive camera, etc...  It just makes me think, if that's all we cared about, doesn't it take the fun out of photography?

There's no way to measure the fun factor of this little camera.  With all its handicaps, I find it challenging and rewarding to be able to produce a good looking shot from it.  "Limitations breed creativity", a wise person has said before.  You need to know what your gear can do, then work within those parameters to capture the best image you can.  Here are some shots I took this morning while walking my son to kindergarten.  So, whatever cameras you have, go out and shoot!

Some things are just irresistible... I've tried really hard to resist this little guy from eBay, but I finally broke down and bought one.  It's super small, probably about a little over 2 inches in height, yet has all of the elements that makes it look authentic.  You have to pop open the focus screen on the top in order to see LCD screen for framing and shooting, and you have to turn the crank to arm the shutter after each shot.  Of course, the 2-megapixel images that it captures isn't worth much praise, but the fun is all in the act of shooting this vintage-looking little toy.  Below is a shot of it next to a AA-size battery and a couple of first shots I got from this camera: