How does the Leica 90mm Elmarit R look on the Leica SL2? Let's find out.

One week ago today we'd just suffered through two nights of near zero degrees, the wind was howling and our expectation for the low last Wednesday night was somewhere around 12°. What a difference a week makes. It hit 87° Fahrenheit here in Austin this afternoon. Time to put on a pair of shorts, grab a sun blocking hat, and hit the streets. What better reason to go out than to try and divine just how well a 40 year old lens might work on a brand new, big res, camera body?

The lens in question is one that pops up on the used market every once in a while. It's an Elmarit-R, 1:2.8, 90mm and it's old enough that they lens is inscribed "Leitz" instead of "Leica" which was used on more modern lenses (but not on Elmarit Rs). Mine is worn such that the numbers on the aperture ring are faded but the lens is physically solid with a silky smooth focusing ring and no play in it at all. I bought my well used 90mm Elmarit from a photographer friend for around $350 but a pristine, late model, three cam version can go from anywhere from $500 to $750. While the optical design is simpler than modern lenses picking up the lens informs you that the optics are dense, even though the system is comprised of four elements in four groups.

Mine is a type 2 variant which was a redesign adding a built-in, collapsible lens hood and, after 1983, a third cam for sending the camera lens information. The one I own, according to serial numbers, was built in 1983, and the entire run of Elmarit R 90mm f2.8 type two lenses, over a decade and a half, numbers about 16,000. 

The camera of the day today was the Leica SL2 and I mounted the lens to the camera with a Novoflex R to L lens adapter. It's a "dumb" adapter so the lens is used in a totally manual mode but interestingly enough, if you dive into the sub-menus on the camera you can set the actual lens model, letting the camera know the basic characteristics of the lens. This is a good feature since the information is used for image stabilization as well as exposure metering. As a result, the camera actually records the aperture used and this is shown in Adobe Lightroom. I don't know but I wonder if Leica has also included in their in-camera lens profile information about the basic characteristics of each lens; including its amount of vignetting, and geometric distortion. If I used more R lenses on the camera I'd probably be motivated to find out but I'm happy with the combination as is. More information won't improve or reduce the quality of the lens...

I owned a copy of this lens back when I was shooting with a bunch of R series cameras in the 1980's and 1990's and I found that I was most successful if I stopped down to f4.0. Using it wide open was hit and miss and mostly limited my contrast and overall sharpness. An aperture of f4 cleaned up most of the performance issues--- but the lens really comes into its own at f5.6 and f8.0.

Since there's no autofocus I depended on the SL2's focus peaking. The FN button on the back of the camera allows one to toggle through four screens for shooting. One screen is totally clean with no information, one has basic information and a level while yet another one includes focus peaking. You needn't dedicate a separate button for this, you just toggle through the available screen options. 

Today I shot almost exclusively locked in at f4.0. I like stuff to go out of focus in the background so it's a nice compromise. All of today's images were shot in the Natural profile as large, fine Jpegs. I did not apply sharpening to the images but did mess with highlights and shadows where I was looking for a different balance for a few of the shots. 

Older lenses tend to have been computed and designed to perform best at certain distances. I'm going to go out on a limb and say that this one performs best when used between 6 feet and about 30 feet. That's not to say it can't be used at infinity or at its close focus distance of approximately 25 inches, it's just that entering the range I described above gets me the best optical performance. 

I've reviewed the photos shown here at 100% and I find them to be sharp, but not in the way my more modern Lumix 50mm f1.4 or the Sigma 85mm Art lens are. Those two show off a very high level of resolution along with a well balanced contrast. The Elmarit doesn't resolve anywhere near those lenses but the simpler design goes a long way toward delivering high contrast. It's a different look. Probably part of what gets described as a "film" look. But it is different from modern optics and so has a place in the equipment drawer for those times when contrast and acutance are more aesthetically important that a tamer, high resolution look. 

In the end I have to say that I find the look the lens delivers to be really nice. I feel that many of the R series Leica lenses shared that high acutance and high contrast look but it was mainly attainable in the 35mm, 50mm, 80mm and 90mm lenses in the R catalog where you can really see this. The wider lenses were good in their day but nothing special compared to current wide angle primes. 

If I intended to put together a group of R lenses to use with the SL2 I would have a small list. It would include the 50mm Summilux 1.4, the final version of the 50mm f2.0 Summicron, the 80mm f1.4 Summilux, this 90mm Elmarit and the 180mm f3.4 Apo-Telyt. While there are other good lenses in the range these are the ones that always delivered the best looks for me. If you are a real portrait geek you'd also add in the 90mm f2.0 Summicron but you'd be aware that it's softer wide open than the others. Not a fault, more of a feature. Stop it down and you'll find it fits right into the family.

When adapting wider lenses to the SL cameras I think I'm happier with some of the Contax Y/C and N series lenses. My current fave being the 28mm f2.8. But when considering wides I always come back to modern, well corrected zooms for the few times I use them. 

Take a look at the images and tell me what you think. Do they look different from the zoom lens photographs I usually post? Maybe it's all in my head...

The camera does quite well at ISO 5,000. I did drop down to f2.8 just to stay under ISO 10,000. 

Not bad for such a high megapixel camera!

What I have learned from a mentor.

Amy Smith. Assisting on a photo shoot with me many years ago. I'll save this one.

 It sounds a bit silly to have a mentor at 65 years of age but there it is. My mentor is not a photographer and has nothing to do with advertising, imaging or freelancing. He was a successful business person who made his fortune and retired. But he has also been a world class athlete since his years in college. 

Lately, when we've talked on the phone I've tried to push the conversation toward things like "legacy" and "happiness." These are buzzwords in our generation and they have different meanings for different people. For most photographers of a certain age legacy seems to mean getting your photo archive in shape to leave something behind. This gives many folks a reasonable sounding excuse to putter around their office, looking through sheets of slides, contact sheets and online galleries, spending time reminiscing and taking photos from one stack and putting them in another stack. There are all kinds of strategies that the usual "experts" on line will share as if these strategies are a bold and effective battle plan. 

We're told to rank images and put them into "keep", "maybe", "probably not" and "throw." The web-visor usually convinces us to put aside one "platinum" pile of images that will have resonance with your family and, perhaps, collectors. This stack is generally limited to one hundred images which have "stood the test of time." It's the artist equivalent of having a park bench named after you....

I asked my mentor about this at one of our casual meetings. He had recently completed a 10 mile open water swim race (at age 74) and he was very direct with me. This is a paraphrase of what he said (but it's pretty much accurate): 

"All that shit you are supposed to do when you "get older" is rank bullshit. When people get old they tend to get stuck in their own comfort zones. The idea of sorting stuff is just an excuse to sit comfortably in a favorite chair and aim your whole being toward your impending death." 

"You only have X number more years to live. If you are lucky! Do you want to spend them sitting on your ass waiting for the big decline or would you rather head out the front door every morning in search of a big adventure, a new adventure, a thrill, a challenge, a kick in the ass? Because I can guarantee you that aging isn't a process whose pace is carved in stone. You can speed up aging or you can slow it down but the secret is that if you aren't dedicated to enjoying RIGHT NOW to the hilt you are already deep in the sordid process of dying." 

"If you want my advice you should take everything that isn't absolutely precious to you and toss it now. Do it the day they come to pick up the garbage so you can't change your mind and go retrieve it. Throw away everything you don't use, don't want, haven't played with and haven't shown to people. That way you break the leash. You pop through the protective barrier and you startle the people around you who thought you should just slow down, and shut up, and age gracefully."

"Swim harder, train faster, and if you have to be a photographer then go out and be a photographer because, as I understand it, your best work is always, always just ahead of you. The stuff you already did is finished. It's a race already swum. It's already given you your time on the awards stand. Do you think if you play with those pictures over and over again they'll give you another ribbon or a trophy? Dude, the magic is in the race. It's in the experience and the practice. It's certainly not resident in the snapshots of you standing on the award blocks."

"Do you know what you should do every time you finish a great race? You should start training the very next day for the next race. And when you swim that one you should start training the very next day for another one." 

"There are two kinds of people in life. Those who do and those who sit on their ever growing butts and watch everyone else have the real fun. Which one would you rather be?"

And with that he stood up, thanked me for the coffee and (literally) ran off to get started on his next project. Starting a running program for kids at risk.

Later in the afternoon I looked at a pile of stuff on my desk that I'd been trying to sort. Mostly ancient headshots for big companies that made up my client list for most of my career. I carefully pushed all the old envelopes off the side of the desk and into a convenient trash can, put on some walking shoes, grabbed a camera, and headed out the door. There might be gold out there. Just maybe. But I know I've got better things than to find places for images I never want to see again. Or move statements around from desk to filing cabinet to trash.

This blog is just a thought as I get ready to go out today. And I had one last thought about my mentor, the swimmer. If people could transfer, just for one day, their consciousness into a 74 year old's body that was in infinitely better shape than their own, full of strength, energy and endurance, free of all pain, would the experience inspire them to change their lifestyles the minute their consciousness switched back into their own bodies? Would they start walking with the goal to start running? Would they take up Judo or long distance swimming? Would they live their lives at the peak of their potential? --- once they discovered that it felt great and WAS possible? 

I'd like to think they would. But I'm always haunted by the idea that most people are complacent enough to prefer just embracing the entropy and giving in. 

Everyone, it seems, gets a choice.

Fond memories of corporate events past...

 

We spend a lot of time at the dining room table talking over dinner. Ben, Belinda and I have been sharing nearly every evening meal together for the better part of the pandemic. Breakfast is different. Ben and Belinda are grumpy when they wake up and I find it's more efficient (and better socially) if I head to swim practice before they get up. They mumble answers at the breakfast table and, sadly, I am the only "morning" person in the family. Best that we all keep a quiet and respectful distance until they are fully awake.

But dinner is much more lively. They are completely conscious; animated, and we discuss everything from exercise, diet and politics to sociology, technology and advertising.

Last night I got off on a tangent about corporate events. How they were held just over a year ago and before that all through time immemorial.

The image above triggered a memory for me of an over-the-top event I photographed for a high technology company in the first decade of the new century. We camped out at the Breakers Hotel in West Palm Beach, ate Lobster at Mar-a-Lago and sat through presentations on  How to Save your Company given by professors from Stanford and the Wharton School. (ironies of ironies...)

While always physically in the middle of things but on the periphery of relevance I loved these kinds of events where I was well paid to be a social documentarian. Catching nuance of the meetings and events for some unknown, future use. 

My favorite part of the whole show (after the bits of high strung corporate drama and posturing) was waking up early in the mornings to see the sunrise or walking down the beach in the late afternoon with a camera in my hands and a break in my schedule. 

I'm sure events will come back at some point soon. Everyone will have their vaccine passports and we'll gather once more to munch on crustaceans and guzzle expensive liquor. I hope the photographers will be invited back, along with the caterers, meeting planners and various other barnacles clenching tightly to the bows of commerce. 

The Breakers' breakfast nook?

It was one year ago when I made this portrait of Kriston Woodreaux for his one person performance of "Every Brilliant Thing" at Zach Theatre. It seems like a decade.

 

Kriston Woodreaux.

Photographed with a Panasonic S1 and the first version of the Sigma 85mm f1.4 Art lens. 

I liked the results very much and this early success led me down the path toward cementing my creative feet into the Lumix system. 

My take on what Garry Winogrand's stuff would have looked like if he had been a landscape photographer instead of a social documentarian. Damn it, I forgot the tilt. (What tilt?)

 

A few more Fuji images from the Barton Springs Pool spillway. Not sure if I was channeling Stephen Shore or just "Napping by the Barton Springs".

 

A man scrambling over the fence at Barton Springs Pool. A random act of disobedience. His dog did not approve.

 

And now for something a bit different. My Moriyama period.

Can't quite put my finger on it but for some reason today I thought I might be happier to walk around and make black and white photos with my little Fuji camera instead of my usual color snaps. I ended up walking down to the Barton Creek Pool spillway to see how many people would be playing in the water a week after the deep freeze. As I expected, it was full of people and dogs. 

Daido Moriyama is a Japanese photographer whose work I really like. I used my Tri-X custom recipe and even added some contrast to it today. Not that the bright sun wasn't supplying enough contrast. It's fun to step outside the box from time to time even if the box is your own construct.

This short post was typed using the traditional touch type method. It was faster to type than saying each word out loud. I used my stock, iMac Pro keyboard and a stock Apple iMac Pro mouse. They worked fine. 

 

Out and around with a Fuji X100V on a beautiful day. What a contrast with last week!!!

The cold weather vanished yesterday and the skies all cleared. It was a gorgeous day in Austin as the snow melted away and people came out in droves to thaw out and actually see what other people looked like. I'm no different. I grabbed my little black X100 and headed out for a long, long walk in the sunshine. 

My family got lucky. We had no real trauma other than the anxiety of anticipation. Our water was out only once, overnight, and our power outage lasted only 12 hours on the third day of the big freeze. Damn, it was cold! I pulled to covers off the flower beds and pulled the wrapping off the smaller trees. I think everything will come back okay.

The Fuji X100V is quickly winning my appreciation. The camera is small and light and rather than tossing the strap over one shoulder and carrying the camera that way I find I'm just letting it dangle in the middle of my chest, ready for immediate use. 

At first I thought I would feel limited by the camera's 35mm equivalent lens but like floaties at a pool, the ability to "zoom" to 50 or 70mm was all it took to make this camera comfortable for me. In bright sunlight it's great to have the four stop neutral density filter in place so I can use f4.0 and f5.6 so every shot isn't at f11 or f16. The smaller apertures render so much in focus that the images start looking like cellphone photos. The wider apertures look best to me.

Yesterday I went against the Fuji religion and actually shot Raw+Jpeg and ended up working here with only the raw files. There is so much detail in the Raw files that post processing was a breeze. 

I had been out the day before with the Leica SL2 and I have to admit that I work much more quickly with the Fuji. There is something about the bright line view in the finder that frees me up from overthinking each shot and taking too much time. I also find that I'm much quicker to find compositions I like by seeing what's just outside the frame and being able to move a bit, and quickly, to include or exclude what I'm seeing in and around the frame. It's a nice way of working. I assume the camera works in much the same way in "sports finder" mode.

One thing I find interesting, and which few reviewers or photographers mention, is that the battery in the Fuji seems to run forever. I was out for hours yesterday and never bothered to turn the camera off. Sure, it went to sleep on its own but still, after a couple hundred frames, and a lot of looking, the camera was only down by one bar on the battery indicator by the time I quit shooting and headed to Trader Joes to see if they finally got in more milk. (They had not). It must be a combination of the efficiency of the leaf shutter and the efficiency of the focusing drive that accounts for the good battery life. Whatever it is, I am happy with it. 

I did try a bit of video with the ND filter which was part of last week's firmware update. It works well. I think the X100V may be a very good choice for a gimbal mounted video camera. The focusing in C-AF is at least as good as the Panasonic cameras and they were able to deliver sharp video for me last Summer during my big video project for Zach Theatre. I can't wait to put one on a gimbal, balance its light load and get to work. Should be fun. 

On a different note, I toyed with the idea of retiring from the profession this year but the last week and the proceeding months were enough of a break. I get bored far too easily.  I think I'll ramp up some marketing and remain in the mix for at least the next year or two. The one lesson I think I've learned is that I can afford to pick and choose and only take the jobs I think are fun and interesting. We'll see how it goes. I might feel differently in a couple weeks, after my second vaccine dose. You may find me on some quaint beach instead. Ah, the unknown. 

Thanks for the check-ins, the nice e-mails and the good comments over the last week. All were very, very much appreciated. Here's my "we survived" walk photos: