Summicron 50/2: Orange Foliage

Here is a shot of a beautiful tree going through its autumnal colour change, we see lots of trees with red and yellow leaves, but only a few that have this striking orange, so I pulled over and took some shots of it.

ISO 160 F4 1/250th of a second

time to kickstart my blog site again now that I have more time on my hands

funny thing is, I put this shot up as an afterthought and it hit flickrs top 125 most interesting on explore!


nite

Summicron 50/2 : Shimmering bokeh

I dont know whats going on with the left hand side of this shot, but I like it, shot at F2 and ISO 160

I think its just the out of focus rendering coupled with the edge of the lens/sensor deficiencies.

Intriguing nonetheless

Summicron 50/2: Candid Portraits

My brother from Ottawa was in town with his family and at the farewell meal I skulked around with my summicron 50/2 and a Metz MZ 40 attached to my M8

 The difference was I used a homemade cardboard snoot to make the flash more of a spotlight, I also tried to capture people as they acted more natural or themselves as opposed to perfectly posed portraits

 All shots are ISO 160 f5.6 and the flash set for 1/16th power

Summicron 50/2 : How sharp is this lens?

Hi all

 after taking some shots of the vintage aircraft I noticed a cool 1969 Chevrolet Corvair in the parking lot as I was leaving , I took a few shots of it as it was quite sunny and hot and I didnt have any sunscreen on :(

 here is one at f4 , so the lens is stepped down 2 stops F2>F2.8>F4  and its incredibly sharp , probably one of the sharpest lenses Ive ever used and its older than me, in fact 48 years old to be precise :)

and Ialso took this one, which is wide open at F2 , the bokeh and depth of field are very nice but whats striking is how sharp the in focus areas are, wow A highly recommended lens and I always lust after newer gear ( lenses, M9 etc) but Im thinking that for a 6 year old digital camera thats *only* 10 Megapixel it does quite well still..........

Summicron 50/2 ; the Hero Pose

I was at the local airport this weekend as they had a fly-in of the yellow wings of Canada , its a flight of 4 aircraft that were used in flight training during WW2  ( yellowwings.ca )

here is a nice shot of a friend of mine who flies for them , I thought it looked like a WW2 hero pose

Summicron 50/2 : Natural Light portrait

At a pals house there was a ray of sunlight from the setting sun that went through 2 doors and a hallway and had this finely defined edge, so I got a pal of mine to stand in it. he was reluctant to be photographed, and wanted to take a shot of me.

So I asked him to stand there so I could get the camera setup, I took this shot , and handed the camera to him for 1 other shot. By then, the light was gone......

 I took 2 of my hand to get the exposure correct and then took this one shot , we took a total of only 4 !  I converted this one to B+W to see if it looked better ?

Helios 40 VS Cron 50 VS Elmarit 135

Even though last year was supposed to be my 365 project, I miss posting shots on my blog file, so its time to get back in gear!

This shot was ISO 100 f2.8 1/25th of a second , all of these shots were handheld BTW

 its a shot of a tulip in our garden just after sunset taken at point blank range with the overkill lens the Helios 40 85mm T34 tank gunsight. I say Overkill because it weighs a Kilo and is stiff as heck to focus, sometimes focusing it unscrews it from the camera, next thing I need to do is get it adjusted and lubed up.

here is what it looks like on Camera ( taken with the Elmarit 135)

 Just like the  Elmarit 135 lens on the leica M8 its a chore to use and you really suffer for your *craft* but if you ever nail it, wow, what a great piece of glassware! sharp in the centre and a rapid falloff to the edges, plus that deliciously smooth bokeh

  here is one that is similar to the next 2 comparison shots

ISO 100 f2.8 1/160th of a sec

so thats the 1965 Helios 40 85mm f1.5  stepped down a tad to f2.8, the reason for this is the Elmarit only goes to f2.8, and I wanted to compare them on semi-equal footing  :)

 Next up is the Leitz Kanada Elmarit 135/2.8 , complete with my new IR cut filter , so here is the best shot I got from that lens .

ISO 160 f2.8 and 1/125th of a second

 This shot was before the sun went down below the houses and horizon, but it is still appealing to me because of the dreamy quality the light gave it , oh to be back in San Diego now that I have some good cameras! 

 The main disadvantage of the rangefinder camera is that the minimum focus for most lenses is quite far, on the 135mm lens its 1.5 metres ( 5 feet) which is a drag  as you have to focus , and then look at the LCD and see how it looks :(   as you can see , this is a little out of focus , but the out of focus background is what I wanted to compare anyway so no big deal.


 I really like the bokeh/depth of field/ out of focus type of shots , and sometimes its nice to have a bit of fun with processing also .   Hmmm ,  even though for years I was a staunch purist now I think about it ,  no crops , no processing , no anything, blah blah, I can safely say I was full of S%$# . I have access to a fully digital workflow and darkroom, and I enjoy it a lot more than I used to, because I can get the results i want quite readily.

 so enough confession, here is the fun shot

shot wide open at F2.8 ISO 160 and  1/500th of a second .

I messed with the white balance and the contrast, I then added in some grain to make it look vintage. Ive always liked the 70s album cover shots that look like they were shot on grainy film, and thats what I ended up with after listening to Vangelis' Opera Sauvage again while editing!

 The background came out really nice and I think the colours remind me of a mid 70s sunset in the UK


 Last and definitely not least is this shot :

 Taken with the 1964 Summicron 50/2 lens , stepped down to f2.8 , as you can see , the background is a lot more defined , illustrating the difference that a change in focal length can make. 

ISO 160 f2.8 1/125th of a second

 for a goof here is a shot at f8 to see how sharp it gets

ISO 160 F8 1/125th of a second

and the best part about doing comparisons and tests, is that my kids are always nearby, and even though I was trying to keep track of the settings etc in my cameras, I managed to snap this of my eldest as she took a sniff of the tulips while I still had the cron 50 mounted

 is it flared out? a little low in contrast ? I dont care to be honest, I think its captures what being a kid is all about, sniffing flowers on a beautifully warm evening