First outing with the Voigtlander 75mm f1.9 MC lens. Looks pretty good to me...

I wanted a longer lens for my Leica M240 camera. The longest lens I owned for those cameras before this was the 50mm Voigtlander APO f2.0. That one was amazing enough to pull me into the Voigtlander camp as a source of lenses for what is basically a personal, hobbyist camera system. I did consider the 90mm Voigtlander APO Skopar f2.8 for the extra reach but having owned Leica M cameras in the "film" past I remembered how tough it is to compose in the very small rectangle in the viewfinder that comes up when using that focal length. The 75mm focal length is a good compromise between the ability to isolate subjects but also to operate with confidence. Really, if your work always depends on a lens longer than 75mm I think you'll better off sticking with a "traditional" mirrorless camera like a Leica SL2. I often find myself using the long end of the 24-90mm Leica zoom with them but most of the time I get greater enjoyment from the diminutive Sigma 90mm f2.8 Contemporary lens. It's small, light and razor sharp. Even wide open. But doesn't work on the M cameras.

There is a range of 75mm lenses made for M mount cameras. Leica makes a very pricey 75mm f1.25 Noctilux M ASPH lens for the "reasonable" price of $14,000 USD, a much cheaper 75mm f2.0 APO Summicron for a paltry $4795, and I'm sure there are some used, older Leica 75mm f1.4 lenses floating around out in the wild. Voightlander makes a 75mm f1.5 Nokton Aspheric lens (in black or chrome) for a cool $1,000 --- brand spanking new. And, the lens I ended up buying, the Ultron, is available in both a multi-coated version and a single coated version. 

I read some reviews of the VM f1.9 lens including one by Phillip Reeve and thought I'd take a chance on it. 75mm f1.9 Ultron is small and light, has a twelve bladed aperture for great bokeh, three non-standard lens elements. An optical design of seven lens elements in five groups and the ability to focus down to half a meter. Most M lenses are limited to (.)75 meters so this is one of the few that focus closer. 

I bought mine in a "used, like new" condition from B&H for about $525. When it arrived I was surprised at how small and light it actually is. The lens came in the original box and also included a metal lens hood with a lens hood cap as well as a more traditional lens cap for the 49mm filter ring. 

On my first day out with the lens I decided I'd test it with a Leica SL camera. It's a camera with a sensor configuration that is much better optimized for M mount cameras than those in some competing camera brands and it's a good match for the flange distance and sensor configuration of a traditional M camera. But being able to fine tune focus via a high definition EVF and the focus magnification feature meant that I would not end up blaming the lens for any focusing errors that might come from using the rangefinder camera. It's slower to stop and check focus at a higher magnifications from shot to shot but these are mostly static test photos so that wasn't really an issue in this instance. 

 

Here are the "pros" of the lens: It focuses closer than most M series lenses. At f1.9 it's relatively fast and, since it is sharp even at f1.9 (at distances from one meter and beyond) that wide open aperture is highly usable for serious work. It's small enough so that without the lens hood the lens does not protrude into the image frame lines when used on an M camera. Being small and lightweight also makes it pretty damn charming when used on a bigger camera like the SL. Which means you can carry the combined package longer without wearing yourself out. 

There are two "cons." One is that the throw of the focusing ring is very short and you have to pay attention when you focus so you don't overshoot your "in focus" mark. It goes in and out of focus with the barest of focus ring movement. Secondly, at wide open and at apertures up to f2.8 the bokeh balls of lights out of focus in the background show what is sometimes referred to as "ninja" patterns where the edge of the light circle shows the repeating edges of the aperture blades. Certainly not an issue for me but worth noting. 

Would I buy it again? In a heartbeat. It's exactly what I wanted in order to complete my M series Leica system. And it's a magnificent portrait lens for the M240 cameras.

Images above and below. Text written back in pre-Christmas December. That's why you are seeing holiday shots in this post. Ah well. We can't always be timely. 

Hilarious tree topper at Austin Motel. 

The motel's motto, being a stone's throw from downtown and the Capitol Building is: "So Close yet so far out. I thought the above adaptation was great. 

Near the close focus limit and wide open.

the lens does mannequin photography quite well and the camera and lens together do a very nice job with red fabric. 

Sign for an old tree in the courtyard at Guerro's Mexican food restaurant right there in the middle of South Congress Ave. Just down the street from the Austin Motel.

far away and....

close up.

using my custom profile for Leica SL raw files converted to Jpegs. 

 

Thanks to (redacted commenter) for convincing me to take a few weeks off. Otherwise I would have been posting fun photographic content every single day between the 13th of December and the New Year. And moderating comments about photography at the speed of light... I am sure as readers you appreciated the time off...

Scanning old photos of friends. Just stumbled into a cache of Pentax 645, black and white negatives. Fun, fun, fun.

https://www.willvano.com/ 

I have known photographer, Will Van Overbeek, since the late 1970s. For a brief spell we both worked out of the Ark Cooperative Darkroom to make our early black and white prints. Will's path took him into editorial work and then high end advertising work. I stumbled into regional advertising work, video and then book writing. He got featured in Communication Arts Magazine. I'm still a bit jealous. And, he's still making great images for clients right now. His work is collected by museums and his one man shows are pretty darn spectacular. 

The story here is that he and I were heading somewhere to shoot something maybe 20 years ago when we stopped for lunch at a Pho restaurant. I was carrying along a Pentax 645 film camera as a "snapshot" camera and I fired off a few frames while we were waiting for our soup. I caught him mid-sentence. 

I'm going back through tons of old film to pull out images that still have meaning and resonance for me. I'm sure I'll find a better image of Will but I'm in that "honeymoon" stage of learning to camera scan and post process stuff in PhotoShop so I'm pretty much putting any negative I'm remotely interested in through the process. 

Just over the last week I'm really zero'd in on doing multi-shot, high res photographs of the negatives. I'm using a Panasonic S5, a Sigma 70mm f2.8 macro lens, some Negative Film Supply film holders and an LED light source. Inverting the captured image is my first step in processing. Then I set a black point and use curves to nail the tonal curve I like. Every film frame seems to need "spotting" so I'm getting a lot of practice using the "healing" tool. 

This afternoon we're heading over to Will's house for some sort of Dutch holiday delicacy. I can't wait to hear his critique/compliment or complaint about this image. Feedback can actually be fun... as long as no one takes it too seriously.

If you don't know his work be sure to check the link above. I have to say that among the small handful of contemporary role models I've had his methodologies have probably influenced me the most. Along with those of Wyatt McSpadden. Not their photos, per se, but the way them constructed and pushed their process to completion. Mostly,  how they handled the people side of the photography equation.

Reviving older images is much more fun than I expected it might be. 

Happy New Year. 

Warning. Don't approach before this photographer has his first cup of coffee... Unless you are bringing coffee.

 

Expression before the first sip of coffee....

Photo by: Henry White

At Sweetish Hill Bakery, Austin, Texas

Camera: Pentax 645N with 75mm. Tri-X. 

A long, long time ago.

Sorry not to have posted anything about swimming yet.

I've been told that no one would see it because everyone everywhere

is watching football on TV.

Here I thought watching American football was a "last century" thing....

And... people have told me... that football is just for people who can't swim....

Revisiting the Fuji Tri-X formula in the GFX50Sii. I still like it. It works well.

I keep coming back to the Google building as a subject because of its odd, curved architecture. It's different. And in different light it reveals different personalities. I was using the GFX 50Sii yesterday along with its 50mm f3.5 lens. The custom setting was my recently concocted Tri-X formula which was provided by the iPhone app, "Fuji Weekly." I also dialed in a yellow filter setting. To my eyes the images that come from these settings are a very close approximation of the Tri-X film, dosed in D76, that I remember from the 20+ years I spent in my darkroom. Making prints for clients and for myself.

The Google building has become a regular subject for me. I know many people can only photograph well if they are constantly in new locations. Basically, they love to photograph things that they've never seen before. I find that early shots of a stationary subject are more of a scouting exercise and that repeated exposure to a subject reveals it, and me, in a progressively different way. 

I am currently reading biography of Josef Koudelka and he suggests that he worked best in his own home country and in areas he returned to again and again. He likened the process to distilling a subject down to its essentials. 

I have the same photographer relationship with the building most Austinites refer to as "the Jenga Building" named so after the game in which players attempt to remove blocks from a stack without collapsing the stack. I have photographed it in all weather and all different times of the day and I keep coming back to it because I find the design both novel and intentionally humorous. The butterfly bridge is a good foreground frame. It's nice that an architectural team can, in this day and age, embrace a certain whimsy to some projects. It would be sad if all our new buildings were strict, rectangular boxes stood on end. 

As I am sure you are aware by now I enjoy photographing store window mannequins. They are a breed apart from the more introspective in store mannequins. This one in particular is a current favorite mostly because some crafty window designer decided to construct a risqué pose with the exposure of the plastic breasts being central to the display. I find it both funny and charming. I had a friend who was visiting earlier in the month from some smaller city in the midwest. His remark? "This would not fly in _______." 

Whether or not one enjoys the mannequins I have to say that the camera and lens do a great job showcasing detail. The braided strap on the purse of the mannequin is wonderfully detailed. It adds a lot to the blandness of endless white plastic. 

Actual, human window designers. Caught in the act of planning and measuring. 

I love being in Austin between Christmas and New Year's Eve. Downtown is uncrowded. The weather (especially this year!!!) has been almost exactly perfect. The days start out in the mid 40s and are quickly warmed up by the nicely angled Texas sun (as opposed to say...the UK sun. Only recently became aware that so many different suns rotate around the earth....) and by noon it's in the 60s. The strong but slanted sunlight, coupled with clean, clear skies, makes all the color pop. Which is kind of an odd thing to write in a blog post about black and white photography. But even in "monochrome" the special sunlight of mid-winter makes a difference. The skies are bright until about 5 or 5:30 in the late afternoon, and only after the sun sets does the temperature start to drop back down. 

I also love this week because traffic more or less disappears, lines for the hot food bar at the flagship Whole Foods Store disappear (which makes lunch much more enjoyable...) and reservations are not required everywhere. (I wonder, if Austin keeps growing and people continue to abandon home cooking, if we'll need reservations at places like McDonalds and Starbucks....?). 

I used to feel that the Fuji GFX 50 might be a smidge too big to drag around and make photographs out in the street with. If people would find it odd or intimidating. But no one bats an eye anymore at someone with a camera. Essentially they seem to see it as either a new and fun hipster thing or, if you are over 40, something their crazy uncle does because he never graduated from the last century. Either way it's become non-issue. Might be the invisibility conferred by age-ism. I don't care any more since I discovered I can also wear whatever I want.

"clue." Written on the envelope. 

Mindscape Capital. Made me think for a moment that all wealth is just made up and 

mythical. Not sure about Unknown Ventures but I think a lot of us depart on them every day.

With mixed results. 

You can always tell when I am serious about taking a photograph because I'll have the camera up to my eye. You can't imagine how insanely dorky I think it is when I see a person holding the camera out in front of themself with one hand while studying the screen on the back and waiting for the AF to lock in. Same folks who walk  around with their lens hoods put onto their lenses backwards. Don't like your lens hood? Just leave it at home. 

One of the few downtown mini-murals that has yet to have been destroyed by unwanted graffiti. It's been there since long before the Covid years. Elegant, but more so in color. Silly me. 

This steering wheel was on a matte black golf cart that was parked in front of Shiner's Saloon. It was parked on the sidewalk just off Congress Ave. I don't understand the allure of a customized steering wheel on a golf cart but I am neither a "car" guy nor a licensed psychiatrist... To each their own? Maybe. 

Not sure I'd get my hair cut and colored at a place called "Ceremony" but I'm a sucker for neon lighting on signs so I gave them points for that. Ceremony connotes lots of steps, lots of ritual. Seems like adding a lot of expectations for something as routine as hair care... 

There are a number of things I like about the Fuji medium format camera and its lenses. The format adds details to images that seem a bit more shy with smaller sensor cameras. Then there is the ability with the bodies to use hundreds of different film formulas people have created to match films you might have loved or looks that resonate with you in a good way. The lenses are very sharp and contrasty and, in concert with the IBIS of the 50Sii you can handhold them down at ridiculously slow shutter speeds. 

I love this Tri-X film formula because it adds filmic grain, gives a nice, contrasty look but still maintains a long tonal scale and well defined mid-tones. After some recent camera scans of actual film I now want to experiment with other favorites like Ilford PanF formulas. Can't images working with a monochrome only camera where the one formula for black and white imaging is baked in. But whatever floats one's boat. 

I also like the viewfinder, the rear screen and the top dials and top data window. But vis a vis the data window --- the always on nature of it is at first disconcerting. Eventually you get used to it. At least I did. No "deal killers" with this camera.

I spent most of last week swimming, walking, photographing for myself and, together with my wonderful partner, having great dinners with friends. Nice time to be alive, at least for most of us.

It was a fun holiday in which I added another Leica M240 to the mix (cameras should travel in pairs) along with a Voigtlander 75mm lens for the M mount. All good, all fun. More to come.

Hope your holidays were great. Welcome back to the blog.