Photo: The Writing Life, SIHH 2012

Hi everyone,

I just got back yesterday from SIHH 2012 and thought I'd share this picture with you all as it captures some of the character of what those of us who write about watches for a living do. It's a very international business and even the people in it who live in the same city I do, I tend to see more often when traveling than around town. The two gentlemen in the picture are Jason Heaton, on the left, who's an expert SCUBA diver and resident of Minneapolis. Jason reviews dive watches and tool watches for REVOLUTION and also for other publications and websites --I met him, strangely enough, in Portugal, on a trip sponsored by IWC a year and a half ago. He immediately struck me as an enviably phlegmatic guy, as his luggage had been lost and he cheefully put up with two days of --well, doing what you have to do when you've arrived in a foreign country with only the clothes on your back, with remarkable aplomb. He's done several dive watch reviews for us since, but the first time I actually saw him in person again was at a departure gate bar at JFK, waiting to board the same flight I was on to Geneva.

The other gentleman in the picture is Benjamin Clymer, the owner of www.hodinkee.com ("hodinkee" is Czech for "wristwatch.") Jason writes for him as well --Ben is a real watch enthusiast, which has a lot to do with the success of his site. I see him much more often than Jason as he's based out of New York as well, but it's invariably at a watch event, and he and I have, since he launched his site, found ourselves in places as varied as a resort hotel overlooking the Pacific to interview Thierry Stern of Patek Philippe, and in a helicopter over the Swiss Alps, being choppered into the Vallee de Joux to visit Vacheron Constantin.

Believe it or not this is a lot of what we do, sit around departure gates looking at watches .

Jack

. . .a 35mm f. 1.4 Cosina Voigtlander M mount lens on an NEX 5N. Open all the way, just the way I like it I have to say, an M mount lens on a nice big APS-C sensor is a tough combo to beat.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/22/2012 06:48PM by Jack Forster.

What is the conversion factor for the 35mm.lens on the Sony ? Thanks.

Cheers,dreamer

. . . 1.6, so it's a 56mm equivalent. I'm used to a 50mm FOV from using a 50mm 'cron almost exclusively on my Leica M cameras, so it works out fine.

Glad you liked the pic

Jack

Jason and Ben are doing fine articles as you do too. What, you do not read Revolution yet ? Download while things are free.

Good to have you around.

And yes, the picture is great and the equipment behind is too. Though the idea to combine old and new is yours. I bet Sony never expected this when launching the nex 5N.

MarkS