Malmaison by The Hour Glass at Knightsbridge: most beautiful store in the world?

Malmaison by The Hour Glass in Knightsbridge stands as one of the most beautiful stores purveying luxury in the world. A brainchild of Michael Tay, this store is a treasure house to showcase luxury. Not satisfied with just offering the world's best watches, Malmaison now also offers a beautiful line of menswear, luxury perfumes and jewellery.

I undertook this little project as part of the Leica S2 review, and spent a happy afternoon with my friend Christopher Lee photographing the store.

Covering a total of approx 6,000 sq ft, the entire ground floor is dedicated to the usual high end watches carried by The Hour Glass, but also a little corner of gentlemen worldly goods...like suits from Rubinacci, shoes by Corthay, and many other interesting treasures. But upstairs, we find a small book nook, carrying titles from TeNeuss and is the only retail outlet in the world to carry my "Pour le Merite Collection" title.

Click on the image for a 1920 wide image.

Looking around, the general view of the upstairs

Another view

And an interesting experiment...a 6 panel stitch of the Summarit 35 each done in portrait orientation, covering approximately the same field of view as a single shot with the same Summarit 35 in landscape mode. First the stitched photograph

Single shot

My conclusion, if it is not for a gigantic print, I rather prefer the single shot...so no need for all the trouble to stitch. Perhaps for super large prints, I do mean really big print, as the regular S2 file is some 36 Mpixels is good enough for very large prints. A0 is certainly exhibition quality, larger possible at larger viewing distances.

DeBethune DB25T

I had the opportunity to view and photograph the magnificent DB25T again...

Truly a magnificent piece, beautifully conceived, finished. Jaw drapping beautiful.

The dial, hand flamed titanium to achieve the deep blue...nothign short of amazing. And the second morte complication is nicely emphasized with the large sweep seconds making its precise jumps each second.

The movement is even more amazing. I love the blued steel titanium bridge which holds the jumping seconds mechanism. And the tourbillon spinning quietly below:


And a side view, to show the depth of the movement. The movement and the rest of the watch is magnificently finished.

This series of photographs were prepared for a Leica S2 camera review. And was photographed with the excellent Summarit 120mm macro lens. The final image is cropped because the lens only focusses down to 1/2 magnification, and hence not a true macro lens.

Closer look at Leica S2, Summarit-S 120 and Kari Voutilainen Vingt-8

Following up on last Friday's remarks using DeBethune's remarkable DB25T as an example, today's post I use the same combination on the Voutilainen Vingt8 (28). Also photographed in L'Atelier by The Hour Glass using my usual set-up.

I have featured the Vingt-8 before. As I described earlier, this is a magnificent watch.

As mentioned in Tuesday's post, the APO MACRO SUMMARIT-S 1:2,5/120 mm only does images to half size. However the sensor size is very large (almost the same size as the one in my regular Hasselblad H3d-39), and for web use, there is plenty of room for crop. Here are some cropped images.

The establishment shot...showing the whole back of the movement. This is a cropped image.

Click on the images for a 1920 wide desktop wallpaper image.

The movement is designed and manufactured by Kari Voutilainen...a Finnish watchmaker who has made his home in Motiers...a little village just a few minutes away from Fleurier in the Swiss Jura.

Note the amount of detail captured by the Leica. I also loved the way contrasts are rendered. And the colour is almost perfect out of the box. These images are jpegs straight out of the camera, stacked using Helicon Focus, and minor adjustments and cropping made in Photoshop CS4.

Also note the magnificent balance bridge, like old timers used to do for tourbillons. I would have preferred a tapered rounded bridge like those used in Lange's Pour le Merite Tourbillons, but Kari's example is very nice as well. Next week, I explore the Leica S2 in interiors, when I shoot with Chris Lee at MalMaison by The Hour Glass.

Closer look at Leica S2, Summarit-S Makro: Debethune DB25T

Following up on my walkabout impressions of the quite remarkable Leica S2, here are some photographs I made in L'Atelier by The Hour Glass using my usual set-up.

I have featured the Db25T before, it is a remarkable watch. I particularly love the jumping seconds hand, and the beautiful Caliber 2109 with the magnificent bridge especially for the seconds morte mechanism.

With the APO MACRO SUMMARIT-S 1:2,5/120 mm, the largest aperture is f/2.5...a rather wide aperture for a macro lens. This, and the maximum magnification of half size leads me to believe that Leica intended this lens more as a portrait lens than a true macro lens.

Most macro work is done with the lens stopped down. Almost all my work is done at f/11 or f/16. This is due to the fact that when you close focus a lens, its depth of field is narrower than focussing at a distance. To get a larger depth of field, macro photographers have to use advanced and complex techniques like focus stacking.

The Summarit S focusses only to 1:2, meaning a half live size image of the object can be formed at the sensor. This limits watch photography to shooting the entire watch. Doing extreme macros like I often do in Watchscapes requires up to 2X magnification, and cannot be attempted with the Leica.

However, I find the lens to be superb. Beautiful sharpness. Excellent rendering of details. And very nice contrast. The lens also draws beautifully...the bokeh is nice and creamy. The MTF of the lens reads like it was taken straight out from theory. The charts are spectacular and truly testament to Leica's capabilities to perfect glass.

Click on the images for a 1920 wide desktop wallpaper image.

The movement...magnificent, beautiful. Stylised shield shaped bridge is very beautiful. And the jumping seconds bridge in blued titanium is certainly very nice.

And a 3/4 oblique view

More next week.

Leica S2 walkabout impressions

The Leica S2: impressions from a walkabout

Just a quick walkabout to give an impression on the Leica S2. I am preparing a longer report and review of the Leica S2 system on my watch shoot, but in the meantime, just quick impressions. Note this is by no means a review. And just quick impressions.

I was at Orchard Ion, amidst the Christmas lights, so this tribute photograph to the large Cartier shop. This is a 3 panel vertical landscape stitch with the Summarit-S 1:2.5/35 mm ASPH.



The first impression when I started to process the files are that the camera's AWB is awefully good. It seems to get the white balance spot on, even with mixed and difficult lighting conditions.

Inside ION is an example...the cafe just outside the Miu Miu store. Note the wall of light on the Miu Miu store, and the intricate texture on the wall is intact. This lighting condition is quite tricky. The dark cafe, backlit. Also with Summarit-S 35mm.



Strong halogen on a mannequin. The spot light on the mannequin is at least 2 stops above the rest of the store. Lens is the Summarit-S 1:2,5/70 mm ASPH.



One of the best aspects of the S2 is the rear LCD is very nicely done. Crisp, sharp, and able to give a much better impression for focus confirmation and colour rendition than the aweful LCDs on the Hasselblad H system.

The interior of L'Atelier by The Hour Glass. Mixed lighting. With the showcases much brighter than the environment. Summarit-S 1:2.5/35 mm ASPH.



The 35mm Summarit is quite sharp, and relatively distortion free...for a lens this wide...it is very impressive. The following are photographed taken hand held:



The form factor of the S2 is very DSLR like. Indeed feels about the same as the Canon 1ds3, or Nikon D3, though the lens are considerably larger. The walkabout ability is certainly a very nice feature of this camera.



And a quick watch photograph...with the APO Macro Summarit-S 1:2.5/120 mm is not a true macro...it focuses down to only 1:2. I would consider ability to shoot at 1:1 a requirement for macro.

The MTF specifications of this lens is amazing...almost theoretical.



Cropped image shown above. Single image, no focus stacking. Renders detail nicely, but perhaps I need to investigate a bit more, but it would seem at f/16, there is some diffraction.

p.s. Thanks to Leica Singapore and Christopher Lee for arranging the camera. A more detailed report, in conjunction with Chris will be done up later.