Let's see your gear

Looking good Ken.

I could never figure out how to use a film retriever. I just get the film out of the cassettes by popping the top with a bottle opener.

Here's a Heliar of a different sort.



An old 210mm f/4.5 for large-format - a legendary portrait lens. It was restored by SK Grimes and features a new Copal shutter. Try finding one of these in this type of condition! Anyway, its not mine. It belongs to a friend. I may be able to borrow it on the very rare occasion that I do a portrait and want a huge 4x5 negative.

My newest acquisition - a Leica 135mm f/2.8 Elmarit-M. I don't need it but I'm a sucker for a good deal. I got it for much less than what it is worth. It is hard to find one in such excellent condition too. It is monsterous relative to other rangefinder lenses and it is certainly a specialist lens. Focal lengths beyond 90mm become less accurate on rangefinders so there are goggles on the magnify the viewfinder by 40% to aid with focusing. Back in its day, some photographers like this lens for sports photography because, unlike with an SLR, the photographer could see outside of the frame and better anticipate when something was about to happen. This lens can also be used with SLRs. The front can be detached from the mount and then, with the correct adapter, can be used on the Leica R, Canon EOS, Nikon F's, etc. I'm not sure what I'm going to use it for. If I end up not using it, I'm confident that I can sell it for more than what I paid for it.

Canadian,even. Now you need an M4-2 M4-P to put it on.

I already have an 'all-Canadian' Leica kit in my IIIf and 50mm Summarit combo. I've always thought about getting a Portuguese Leica R coupling it with Canadian R lenses as Leica never built any lenses in Portugal - just bodies. My friend Rui said that such a kit would be a mirror of myself; "Corpo Português e visão Canadiano." However, at this moment, I'm getting away from 35mm SLR's.

This baby is definitely going to go on my M3 because of its 0.92x viewfinder. Coupled with the 1.4x goggles on this lens, I think that the 135mm framelines should become just a bit larger than the 75mm framelines on a regular M.

On a regular M with their 0.72x viewfinder coupled with the 1.4x goggles, the 135mm framelines would be about the same as the 90mm framelines. However, I do have a 1.25x screw-in eye-piece. With that in place, the framelines would just be a little bit smaller than the regular 75mm framelines.

Photographer Gueorgui Tcherednitchenko demonstrates good use of this lens on his flickr stream.
link

Along with this lens, I also purchased a rare TTH Cooke 3-inch (75mm) f/6.5 Primoplane and Carl Zeiss 25cm (250mm) f/4.5 Tessar on behalf of a friend. Both lenses are pretty old. I've dated the Cooke lens to between 1909 to 1923. I'm not sure about the Zeiss Tessar but was definitely made before WWII and very likely made before WWI. According to a list of Zeiss serial numbers I have, the lens was made before 1912 but Zeiss serial numbers are not easy to trace and many lists out there are not 100% reliable. Anyway, my friend will be using these on his 4x5 Ebony eventually. Both lenses need shutters. The Cooke 75mm is very wide - it will be like a 24mm on 35mm-format. The Zeiss 250mm is a short tele-photo - about a 75mm equivalent in 35mm-format.

Pretty impressive, Nando. Must be quite the change from those little lenses/camera you usually tote, no doubt.

Here's my newest piece:





The Sigma 30mm f/1.4. This lens has impressed me many times in the past, and I'm excited to finally be able to call it my own. I know Ken can attest to it's usefulness (on crop bodies )...I can't wait to put it to work.

More to come

Anthony Armstrong wrote:I know Ken can attest to it's usefulness (on crop bodies )...I can't wait to put it to work.

That lens SUCKS. Don't put words in my mouth

Just kidding, it's an awesome lens, I think you'll enjoy it. Just don't buy an FX-sensor body

I really enjoyed my Olympus Stylus Epic point & shoot film camera (pictured in the groups shot above) on my recent trip to Toronto. I shot 6 rolls of TRI-X in my Bessa and 2 rolls of the new Ektar 100 in the Stylus Epic. The pics turned out great for a $3.99 camera. I could probably do some colour-correcting, but I like them as scanned.

Anthony,
Congratulations on the new 30f1.4. I received the 135mm Elmarit-M today. Its big but not as heavy as I expected. Black-paint lenses are lighter than the chrome-plated ones I have. It's not that much heavier than my chrome 90mm Elmarit-M. I was afraid that the new lens would be in the same league as my 85f1.5 Helios (aka Big Bertha) in terms of weight but its not even close.

Ken,
The Ektar 100 film looks good. I'm not surprised with your results. The Stylus Epic has a great reputation.

I still have a roll of Ektar for you if you want it.

Ken,

Go ahead and use it if you want. I probably wouldn't use it until the spring.

I don't know if I'll use it at all... I'm pretty hooked on TRI-X right now.

Ok then, I'll take it.

I present to you, my 14th 'Fifty'. It's a sickness I tell you!!!!



This is a Leica 50mm f/2 Summar from 1935. It is now my oldest lens, beating my 1936 Leica 35mm f/3.5 Elmar. This was Leica's first 'fast lens' and it was in sold from 1933 to 1940. It's replacement, the 50mm Summitar (I also have one of those) arrived just before WWII either in 1938 or 1939. The Summar is known for its very soft and dreamy rendering at wide-open aperture. Lot of it comes from the fact that there is likely to be haze and/or scratches on a 70+ year-old lens. A clean Summar, wide-open, is both soft but sharp the same time. Hard to explain - the detail is there but the edges are soft and roll into the background. The German Leica fans have a word for this but I can't remember what it is. Stopped down, the lens is sufficiently sharp. It is uncoated but it renders colour beautifully. And it gives a "glow" like no other lens. I'm hoping that mine will be a clean Summar. If not, I can live with a 'dreamy' Summar too.

Some samples from flickr:

A dreamy Summar. "Tendering" by Gabriel M. A.:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/gabrielma/144301720/

A super dreamy Summar. "Untitled" by Okay_Banana:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/okay_banana/2133930311/

An example of glow. "Melanie, Staten Island Ferry." by Sanders McNew
http://www.flickr.com/photos/sandersnyc/2812321681/

Glow again. "Mary Alice" by Sanders McNew:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/sandersnyc/660820222/

More glow. "Robert at the Havard Club" by Sanders McNew:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/sandersnyc/535616331/

An example of the soft yet sharp effect. "Untitled" by Decopon:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/decopon/2334333490/

A Summar stopped down. "Wuppertal-Ostersbaum: Looking down from Hamburger Treppe" by Nikkormatfuser
http://www.flickr.com/photos/54788366@N00/2377732415/

14? I don't even have 1 fifty (outside of my DSLR I mean).

Yes, 14 if counting the 50mm for my Arax that is actually more like a 28mm on 6x6. I do use most of them... My last roll out of the M3, for example, has shots taken with a 50mm Elmar Red-scale, a 50mm DR Summicron, a 50mm Summitar, a 50mm Summicron Collapsible belonging to a friend, and the 50mm Jupiter-3! Mostly for testing purposes. Two of my fifties don't work - an Industar-22 which is not repairable and a 50mm Elmar Black-Scale that needs a CLA. I have a 50mm Summarit that is near perfect but one of the aperture blades is stuck and I'm afraid of using it. I'll be sending it out for repair one of these days. My least used 50mm is the Pentax 50 f1.7 SMC-PM simply because I haven't shot with my Pentax MX in almost two years. Actually, I do use that lens... as a loupe!

I admit that I do like collecting them but, save for my 50 DR Summicron and the 50 Summarit, I can't think of ever buying a lens as a collectible. In the case of the DR Summicron, it was a very low price and the lens was new in the box. I couldn't say no. With the Summarit, it came with the 1956 IIIf, both of which were made in Midland Ontario. About 10 times as many IIIf's were made in Germany than in Canada that year. I always wanted an all-Canadian Leica and having two M-bodies already, the IIIf was more attractive to me than an M4-2 or M4-P. Always regarded the IIIf be the most beautiful camera ever made too.

Most of the time, I do envision some sort of purpose for the lens at the time of purchase. I'm thinking of a project involving my mother along with her four sisters and wanted something special just for that. They are all older ladies now so I wanted something that would make a softer rendering. Both my Summitar and Summarit can deliver this but in the case of my Summitar, I'm already using it for two other projects and my Summarit needs a repair. Just wanted something slightly different so I started looking for a Summar. Plus, the G-man was buying more photography gear than me lately and I was getting envious.

Got my Luigi case today. Very nice.

The smell is the best part.

Nando wrote:The smell is the best part.

You've single-handedly taken this from being a local photography forum and made it into a leather fetishist forum

I don't plan on selling the Bessa, even if I did buy an M4-P or something else. I didn't mind spending what I did on the case, even if it wasn't a premium case.

I'm still getting used to the extra bulk it adds to the camera, but the little grip is nice.

The basic case does look good. Can't see what's 'basic' about it. Luigi does good work. The area around the strap lugs look tight. It probably won't fit my Bessa-T.

It was tight. At first I thought it wouldn't fit because the snaps wouldn't reach. It didn't take long for them to stretch just enough to fit.

Sort of like a new pair of leather shoes, I needed to put the camera in and take it out a few times before it formed to the body.

The Luigi case on my IIIf goes on and off quite easily as it is an older case. The case on my MP is two years old and still pretty tight. It's very difficult to take it off sometimes. It fits the camera like a glove.

I don't think I've ever had gloves with leather this nice

I finally got my B+W MRC filters, too. After a few weeks of waiting I quipped that they must be coming from Germany. Sure enough, the inside package was from Germany and the outside one was from the reseller.

Finally a shot of my new stuff.

D300, Nikkor 85mm f/1.8D, and an SB-800.

MB-D10 + EN-EL4 soon to come hopefully.

Congratulations. Looks like a big camera even without the battery-pack.

It definitely feels heftier (edit: heftier than my 30D, that is)--though that may just all be in my head.

It's a re-assuringly (made up word?) sturdy feel though. The thing I really love about the D300 is how well the grip fits with the body. With the 30D + BG-E2 you could definitely feel some play, and I felt like I always had to check to make sure the grip was screwed into the body securely for fear of it basically just falling off. The D300 + MB-D10 grip reminds me very much of the 1D which has the integrated vertical grip. You would forget it was even an add-on if it wasn't for the screw/wheel used to attach the grip. The MB-D10 grip even has the same comfy soft rubber grooved finger grips that the D300 body has.

Anyhow, here's a couple more. The 30mm 1.4 and 85mm 1.8 dwarf the 50mm 1.8. I really like how compact the 50mm is.





Not sure what's going on with that first image. Trying to upload it with that servimg hosting thing that the forum links to but it doesn't seem to be agreeing with that photo. Either way, you get the idea.

PS: Gotta love the effort I've been putting into my gear shots...haha.

Is that the Nikon 30 or the Sigma 30?