Capturing Landscape with the Leica M9 and Cambo WRS

 

Leica M9 Summicron 35mm

This posting is not meant to be a comparison between cameras and there isn't any "this one is better than that one"; simply put this is a review of a couple days of shooting in the Apache National Forest in eastern Arizona and a short trip into western New Mexico. So sit back and enjoy the ride.

Leica M9 Summicron 35mm

Sandy & I had taken off last month on a day trip traveling from the Tucson area to Alpine AZ where the elevation exceeds 8,000 feet and there was much cooler temperatures. In researching the area we found that the area gets a lot of snow each year; the average in Hannagan Meadow (approximately 24 miles south of Alpine) is 35 feet.

Leica M9 Summicron 35mm

A couple of events happened to make me want to return to the area; I got a great deal on a Cambo Viewfinder that I want to try out and we purchased and installed a great roof rack and basket on our 2009 Jeep. The rack and basket is from MBRP and during our conversations with them they requested a couple images of the finished install; so a trip was born. The rack was delivered Monday and Sandy & I spent a couple hours Tuesday morning installing it before the basket showed up in the afternoon; I considered the trip being "on" after the complete installation was done so I made a couple phone calls. I called the Tal-Wi-Wi Lodge in Alpine and found I could get a room there for 2 nights starting Wednesday so the trip was set. The plan was to leave Wednesday morning driving the 5 hours to Alpine and doing some landscape images along the way then drive into New Mexico taking a large loop before coming back to the lodge. The weather was outstanding, heavy clouds, thunder and rain. I've always said, the worse the weather the better the images.

Cambo WRS1000, Phase One P45+ and Schneider 35mm lens

I haven't been shooting the Cambo WRS/Phase One P45+ much lately as I've been using the Leica M9 however on this trip I was determined to put the Cambo/P45+ combo to work.

Cambo WRS1000, Phase One P45+ and Schneider 35mm lens

I shot 105 images with the M9 totaling 3.3GB and 131 images with the P45+ totaling 4.40GB. The images shown here were all processed using a combination of CS5, Viveza 2, and of course Capture One Pro.

Cambo WRS1000, Phase One P45+ and Schneider 35mm lens

The images from Arizona were taken for the most part along the 191 which runs North and South while the images in New Mexico were captured along the 12 and 60. There's some beautifully landscape opportunities in Western New Mexico.

Cambo WRS1000, Phase One P45+ and Schneider 35mm lens

Leica M9 Summicron 35mm

Thank you once again for visiting and please remember we welcome your comments.

Don