Buying additional toys for the M system. Gearing up for tomorrow's location environmental portrait. Fun with real life.

 

This image of Michelle is included for the fun of including a portrait image.

It is not related to the job referenced below but entirely coincidentally it was 

made with one of the Pentax 150mm lenses on a 645 film camera. Seems 

sharp enough for me.

I shot some portraits on Sunday using the 120mm f4.0 Macro lens for the Pentax 645. It's the one I mated to my Fuji GFX camera with an adapter. The whole set up works great and the images were wonderfully sharp and color accurate. Well, at least as color accurate as my eyes could gauge...

My success with a really nice medium format lens that amply covers a 645 format negative (much bigger than the sensor in the Fuji GFX cameras) led me to head back up to the local camera store where I originally found the lens to see if they had any more unexpected, used Pentax 645 treasures I might want. 

Sadly, for me, they sold through whatever used Pentax medium format inventory I might have missed on my earlier visit. But, of course, that never stops one from "browsing" (Latin for "looking for new ways to waste money"). So I gave the 6,000+ square foot showroom a thorough once over and came across a lens I've been interested in for the M series Leica mount cameras. 

It's the Voigtlander 35mm f1.4 Nokton Classic II. A tiny lens that's very similar to the overall look and size of the 40mm f1.4 Nokton VM I picked up back in 2022. Both of these lenses are based on the look and design ideas of camera lenses from the 1960s and 1970s. They are not as well corrected as lenses using more modern designs but they are current products and they are long on delivering "character" (which means optical flaws that people seem to like. The idea seems to be that a few optical flaws bolster the feeling of authenticity in an image). 

The 35mm type 2 is an update of the original and was redesigned to minimize focus shift as the lens is stopped down. Maybe not a big deal in the realm of mirrorless cameras but pretty important for rangefinder focusing. Voigtlander makes this lens in both a single coated and a multi-coated version. The SC (single coating) has a bit less contrast and isn't as well corrected against flare. The MC version is a lens with multiple personalities. It's soft outside the center third of the frame when used wide open but gets better and better (more like a modern formulation) as one stops down. The improvements in performance become apparent at f2.8 and the lens, as far as sharpness and constrast are concerned, hits a good overall performance around f4.0.

No matter which version you get there are some flaws that never get ironed out. The lens has some barrel distortion. It has vignetting until you hit the "modern look" f-stops. And, at the wider apertures the extreme corners get --- mushy. In the center everything looks pretty good from f2.0 onward. 

The plus category includes tiny size and low weight, the feel of older, smaller Leica lenses, and a very nice overall look. Some say the bokeh is a bit frenetic but I don't notice that and if I did I'd fix the images that showed the effect with a Neural blur filter or some such thing. 

I bought it as a partner for the Carl Zeiss 35mm f2.0 Biogon ZM lens which is very sharp nearly everywhere and at every distance but can be a bit clinical and overly contrasty for some subjects. My feeling is that the Carl Zeiss lens is near perfect for most color work while the Voigtlander is a sure bet for that black and white, nostalgic, Life Magazine feel from the old days. Nice to have choices. 

I brought the lens home, tossed it on an M240 and went out for a test run. It's fun and really nice to handle on the camera. And as M series rangefinders from the digital age can feel a bit heavy the tiny size and lower weight of the lens is welcome. At f 1.4 the lens has....a lot of "character." At f4.0 the lens is sharp enough and well corrected enough to use for just about anything. 

The copy I bought looks and feels almost brand new, came with the requisite lens hood and cost $450...after negotiations. Hey, I lived in Turkey for two years. Negotiating over prices is half the fun!

I packed up for tomorrow's shoot this morning. Right after swim practice. We knocked out a clean 3200 yards in our hour of swim practice and our coach was... pushing us hard in the sets. Out of breath? That's de rigeur for the hour. Max pulse rate 156 (according to the Apple Watch). Most people don't know that they could go a lot harder in their exercise practice than they generally do. It's the hard workouts that convey the most cardiovascular benefit... Sweating, breathing hard and keeping a fast pace is the aim point. Not a flaw.

Back to the packing. I have one, big rolling case that's got two Nanlite FS-300 LED lights in it along with extension cords, power cords, reflectors, clamps, and scrim devices. There's also just enough room for a camera bag filled with MF stuff. The GFX 50Sii, the 50mm GFX lens, the Pentax 120 Macro lens, an extra battery etc. The camera is loaded with two, new 256 GB V90 SD cards; one for the files and the other for redundant back-up. 

The only other baggage is the stand bag with four light stands, a 60 inch umbrella, an arm for the round diffuser I use to kill the over head "can" lighting and a tripod. That's the long and short of it. 

I'll have the car loaded before swim practice. We swim from 8-9 a.m. Then coffee and a breakfast taco at Trianon Coffee and I head into downtown. The client has the 23rd floor of a new, downtown office building so I'll head to their attached parking garage and then up the elevators to their floor. The set up for lighting and composition takes about half an hour, the session itself will take about 15 minutes and then I tear everything down, pack it up and go in reverse. A lot of planning and travel for 15 actual minutes of photography. But that's pretty typical. Thank God I don't charge by the hour. I'd lose money every time. 

It's raining and 78° here today. Nice all around. Gotta go grab more blackberries from the store. We're out. 

MJ wrote something today about his exercise routine. I think he was looking for feedback. Not sure he'll like mine. It's mostly based on a book I may have mentioned called, "Younger Next Year." It's my standard recommendation for "senior" people who NEED to get started on a daily exercise regimen and it's a fun book. Time is short. There's no time in the schedule for laziness. I think the more you move the more you want to move.