It's been a great few weekends, nothing special but all good fun. So here's what I've found on a couple of my cameras, all in one post. Enjoy.

Firstly, a quiet Sunday session at my local, the George.

A not so quiet late b'day dinner for Rach. Candey learned not to take her shoes off on the dance floor, luckily the pub medic was very understanding and handy!! (And yes, that is her 'blood on the dance floor', hmmm.....that may be the perfect name name for my ukulele band).

A peaceful ride with Steve and his new product, Papillionaire bicycles. Check them out, a damn bargain if you ask me!

Then this weekend just gone of course it was broken finger time. No bikes or paddle boards makes Ty a crazy man; luckily the Robinson's had a great weekend in store for me and Elroy down in Victoria. Of course Cook is a little bit bigger since Elroy saw him last!

Firstly, Robbo and I headed up his local hill with the boys.

Then it was man time on the lake. Rods and beer, before the boys and girls visited. Yep, that's snow on them there hills, what a view.

A great night ensued. Dinner at Beechworth, then whiskey and dog play at home.

Sunday morning was a quick walk up Nailcan Hill, before coffee in town.

There isn't much better than a genuine weekend of non-action sport or sustained drinking to bring you back down to earth, I loved it. Thanks guys!!

.....who needs them anyway.

Note to self: Do not look at rocks you don't want to ride into. You will inevitably ride into them, fly over your handlebars and brake a bone in your hand.....

The ride to work this morning, after crashing last night, was excruciating. Sub-zero temperature did help numb it a little. Then the x-ray told me why it hurt so much. They say four weeks, we'll see......stupid bones.....

Here's some random pictures from the last month. The first set taken in civic with Jase on his M7 trial night. All T-max 400 @1600.

This lot are purely test images, the result of taking a $20 1960's Russian Industar 61 lens and attaching it to a $2000 German engineered body. Alarmingly sharp images.....

I paddled Lake Googong today. I found myself on an island. My own island. I'm not sure if the person/animal that had been there before had died from boredom or starvation.

In contrast to the relative fine weather I experienced today (10 degrees), here's a snapshot of what i can expect tomorrow morning, sub zero fog......

EDIT Sunday 14th: Okay, so maybe I was wrong. Blue skies and a balmy 5-10 degrees. T-shirt weather......

As alluded to in the last post, Saturday night was spent at AIS arena watching the girls roll around in circles, smashing each other. I'm not a spectator sport kinda guy, but Rollerderby is hands down the best sport in the universe to watch. No bogans, lots of beer and women in fishnets.

This week saw the girls from Brisbane, the Sunstate Rollergirls vs the local Vice City Rollers.

Next game is on the 27th, southside somewhere, can't wait.

I was far too busy cheering and drinking to take any worthwhile photos, but from my vantage point this is how it looked!

I woke close to lunch time on Sunday, after a great night at Roller Derby (pics to come),  a party afterwards and a 2am fry up with Jon and Wayne. I felt guilty that it was such a fine day, but later discovered that I'd done well to stay in bed as the morning was pretty average. We decided on a walk up Mt Majura to make the most of the rest of the day!

It was almost summer this week. Now it's raining. We made the most of the fine weather though.

On the frosty MTB journey to work today.

And a few from a week or so back. I love listening to the traffic below, in the gloom, while I'm above the clouds in the sunshine! (Yes, that is ice on my bars.......)

So, I sent this email today, to the generous soul who lent me the M7. He was beginning to have second thoughts about selling it as he came to realise that AE is a feature he really appreciates.......so this is how it went:

Yeah, i understand where you are coming from with respect to the AE; however, I personally am not completely convinced with the rest of the camera!!!
Are you ready!!!
It just doesn't feel 'right' to me, not the way the M6 just feels 'perfect'. I kept bumping the massive shutter speed dial and losing shots as it set itself to 1sec, I think that was partially because the stroke is so LONG that I had to fumble to wind it (because when the camera is on the strap under my arm, the stroke is so long that it contacts the strap!!!). I found that I never used the on/off switch either, ever. Then, with the amount of travel I do, and/or roaming the streets without a camera bag to store batteries in, I kept thinking that I'd be devastated to only have 1/60 and 1/125 when the battery dies....
Then lastly, after developing the roll I took with it, I came to realise that I pretty much never expose wrong with my M6 anyway (something I didn't realise until I had the M7 exposing for me; previously I'd assumed it was just the B&W film forgiving me). It is certainly far easier to use, but digital cameras are even easier and I don't use them often ;)
So, for what I do I prefer the mechanical camera, the old dial that is small and less likely to be bumped (i'm even used to it turning in the 'wrong' direction), and the WAY shorter silent stroke. All of this makes sense when you look at the M6 from the perspective of a street shooter; whereas the M7 is often described as the 'pro' M, carried by people wanting bulb capability, automation and the like.
So you may very well be spared from losing another Leica, and I think the M7 is something I will want one day, perhaps if I have kids and want a hassle free shooter for a different purpose....who knows.
I now understand why some articles on the net were controversial when it was released, as they called it the 'best Leica yet'. It is, but only in some ways!
(Look at me, now I sound like some kind of Leicaphile............)
I'm going to put another roll through it but I can't explain how much I appreciate the loan. It's the only way I could have found out. I think it may be the perfect M for your purposes.

Who would have thought. To be honest, it's a huge relief, as I could never have parted with the M6 and I couldn't have lived with her being dormant. So, now we are all happy, especially me in my mechanical wonderland!