A few new photos with my new 15mm Super-wide Heliar

[rich815]

Bought a 15mm Super-wide Heliar from a fellow RFF member a week or so ago. I have not had the time to use it seriously so my first couple of rolls are from my commute drive. It's obvious this lens will be for highly specialized purposes and subjects can distort awfully unless the camera is held absolutely perpendicular to the frame. But I really like it. Very interesting (and sharp!) lens.

Richard

 

[rich815]

couple more...

Richard

 

[Doug]

Fun, isn't it, Richard?! And a challenge too.

 

[sockdaddy]

what's the closest useable distance that you can focus with a lens like that?

 

[unsharp]

Hello Richard,

Funny shots!

I'm also thinking of getting this lens. Do you remember what aperture you where using? Did you do any digital vigneting removal?

Anders

 

[RayPA]

If I'm not mistaken, I know that merge in the first shot, off the bridge and north on I80 into Emeryville. It's pretty tricky, especially while taking a picture. I'm envious and admire your ability. 😉 This is a skill that I believe is being pioneered and refined by California photographers. 😀 I'm guilty of driving and shooting too. :angel:

http://www.rangefinderforum.com/photopost/showphoto.php/photo/9567/sort/1/cat/500/page/1

http://www.rangefinderforum.com/photopost/showphoto.php/photo/9553/sort/1/size/medium/cat/500/page/1

Seriously, the lens looks great, and I hope we don't "meet" on the freeway. 😉

 

[rich815]

Anders, I believe I shot at f/8 or so. And no, no removal of vignetting, just basic scan on my LS-4000, some levels adjustments and re-sizing and unsharp mask.

Ray, good eye! You caught it! Yes, shooting while driving is a little nuts but I do NOT do it when driving 50+ or anything. These were mostly taken in bumper to bumper traffic when I was barely moving. It's one of the ways I keep sane sitting in such traffic!

Thanks for the comments guys!

Richard

 

[pthurst]

I love this lense. When I bought my R3a with its 40mm 1.4, I asked about wide lenses and the guy said that as the 15mm isn't sync'd up for the R3a so he'd give me a bessa L body for free 🙂

Incredibly I have only used the lense on the R3a at the moment but am delighted with the results. Even though it needs some work beforehand its a great way to take pictures if theres no film in the Bessa L....

I basically set up my Nokton 40mm and frame the shot to be taken, set the aperture at 4.5 or above (the 15mm starts at 4.5) and consider the reading given from the onboard lightmeter.

Then i fix the 15mm lense and go manual, making adjustments to the exposure settings dependant upon weather the 15mm shows more or less sky and after sorting the focus based in the 'f' stop, click the button!
The results aren't too bad...

 

[jmilkins]

It's a fun lens to use isn't it? I like getting in close or low and using the amazing depth of field. I've read that the best image quality seems to be round f5.6 to f11, so I try to remember to take advantage of the hyperfocal distance rather than stop down too much.

8 shots with the Heliar here:

http://www.rangefinderforum.com/photopost/showgallery.php/cat/801/page/1

 

[chug]

I think we need a Super Wide Photo Forum thingo to post all our good Super Wide shots into 🙂 I dunno why, but I use the 15mm more than anything now that I have an Bessa L. I love it so!

 

[shaaktiman]

Wow, holy distortion! (on that one at least.) When you shoot with a lens like this, do you have to make sure it's fairly level to prevent distortion? I take it that's what the bubble level accessory is for?

I own the 21mm and I have tremendous vignetting issues, it's amazing to me that the 15 is clean. Does anyone have any tips to prevent light falloff at the edges with these super-wides? Does stopping down help at all? Some of my evening shots look like they were shot with a Lomo, they're pretty bad.

adam

 

[jmilkins]

If a straight horizon is an important element in the image then the bubble level would be very useful - I don't own one and it takes a fair amount of care to ensure straight horizons otherwise....
However I don't use this lens much for the more "traditional" landscape scenic image that includes a lot of horizon. I think it distorts a bit much for that. So I hope most of my images with this lens have foreground interest that distracts from a wonky horizon!

In terms of light fall off - it's certainly noticably at smaller apertures, but I kind of like that "framing" effect with this lens as the vignetting circle complements the off-axis distortion of the image (to my mind at least)..