Any 135mm shooters out there?

[ch1]

I can't say that I use a 135 regularly. However, sometimes you have to get in close, but you aren't able to stand close to the subject. Example: A top hat and white gloves in the back of a RR Silver Wraith, which was not my car and in a display mode.

This is a great photo. Even not being a Brit it makes me think of 'toffs and the better elements of society.

This picture says to me: "Why is it that the class I once cursed is the one to whiich I aspire?"

To another it may say" "Cursed to the priviledged; for they are the burden we all must forebear."

GREAT PHOTO!

 

[ch1]

135? Not for me. I'm of the Robert Capa school ("If your pictures aren't good enough, you're not close enough"). Even when shooting a head-portrait I like to get really close, never mind the distortion. I never have the urge to shoot anything longer than the "normal" length of the given medium.

Noble sentiment.

But remember, Capa got himself blown up.

And, I, as a WTC 9/11 survivor (yeah, really) may not be too comfortable with the "up close and personal" in certain "situations".

Seems to me, let the lens suit the photo op - not the other way around.

 

[Heath]

The only 135's I have are for my M-42 SLR's. Very nice Hanimex 2.8's are what I have. I might have to keep my eye out for a J-11 for my Zorki-4 to go with my J-8 and J-12.

Heath

 

[DougK]

I have one for my Pentax SLRs, never had a rangefinder that could handle one (although that will change shortly). It's a great lens but I've never really been comfortable with the perspective at that length; also, since I tend to forget my tripod or monopod when I'm rushing out the door I've never really been able to employ it to best effect. Probably just means I need to practice more.

 

[varjag]

I only recently obtained 85/2 and 135/4 for my Kiev, and switching the vision to long focal mode takes conscious effort. Am getting the hang of 85mm for the streets now, and it is a fabulous portrait lens of course. Still need to get used to the 135.

 

[Solinar]

Varjag, are you shooting color or B&W with the Jupiter 9?

 

[Sonnar Brian]

> My S2 came with the 135/4 and I just now obtained a 43mm UV filter for it

George,
Is that the Nikkor 135mm F4? I know the Nikkor F3.5 lens takes 43mm filters, I thought the F4 lens took 40.5mm filters.

I keep filters on all of my lenses for protection. Getting some of them is a chore. I bought about 8 Canon 43mm coated filters from Woodmerecamera at a show, and have most of them used up. Getting 40mm filters is even harder, and I use a lot of Series VI adapters.

 

[Stephanie Brim]

What would be nice is if Voigtlander stepped up and started producing filters in some of these hard-to-find sizes so that we don't have to go scurrying around the 'bay or worse anymore. I'm going to have to look for B&W filters in 40.5mm size eventually and that's going to be a chore. Importing them out of Japan is going to really hit my budget.

 

[varjag]

Solinar, BW only so far; I don't shoot color film often.

 

[jaapv]

I use my apo-telyt 3.4/135 for just about anything when I feel like it,saves me a lot of cropping 😀 For these, I would have had to swim to get them with a shorter length.

 

[Nikon Bob]

I have a 135/3.5 for my nikon SLR and a 135/4.5 Hector for my IIIf. They are both capable lenses but I just find 85/90 focal lengths are more generally useful for me. If I only had a 135 then I would make it work for me.

Bob

 

[Uncle Bill]

I have a Hecktor 135 I got for a song that I don't use that much and I should more often.

Bill

 

[Nikon Bob]

Bill

The Hector 135/4.5 was a real surprise for me in how good it can be. It is even more useful now with the excellent fast films available today.

Bob

 

[VinceC]

>> My S2 came with the 135/4 and I just now obtained a 43mm UV filter for it<<


Some video camcorders (Sony, I think) use 43mm filters, so these have become more widely available in recent years. A decade ago, junk bins in European camera shops were awash with 40.5mm filters. I don't know if that's still the case, but I scavanged a lifetime supply that way. Plus a few gems like Zeiss 40.5 UV and yellow thin-ring filters for the 21mm Biogon.

Some people disagree, but I've always shot with a filter. In my mind, the protection factor outweighs any tiny image loss with a good filter. And I've dropped and banged just enough cameras to smash, shatter and bend my fair share of filters. With the older lenses I use, a good sunshade is the most important way to ensure a good image, not going filterless. On the other hand, I was convinced for a year that my Nikkor 8.5cm f/2 was really overrated, because its images were blurred and lifeless. Then I removed the filter I'd kept constantly on it and discovered it was perhaps the sharpest lens I'd ever owned. It had been a high-quality filter (Heliopan, I think), but perhaps it hadn't aged well, because it had totally degraded the lens.

 

[ch1]

> My S2 came with the 135/4 and I just now obtained a 43mm UV filter for it

George,
Is that the Nikkor 135mm F4? I know the Nikkor F3.5 lens takes 43mm filters, I thought the F4 lens took 40.5mm filters.

I keep filters on all of my lenses for protection. Getting some of them is a chore. I bought about 8 Canon 43mm coated filters from Woodmerecamera at a show, and have most of them used up. Getting 40mm filters is even harder, and I use a lot of Series VI adapters.

Brian,

When I wrote that I could have just walked two feet over to the cabinet and confirmed. (I'm so "new" to this gear that I should rely on aging memory cells! :bang: )

It must be the 3.5 since the 43mm filter fits as is the case with the 50mm and the Skopar 25.

I'm fortunate to reside in NYC so usually I can get hard-to-find filters at B&H or Adorama. But I usually first check The Filter Connection @ http://www.2filter.com/ since they are usually lower in price than the big guys, offer free shipping for a relatively low miniumum price order and, being in neighboring CT deliver quickly w/o me having to pay sales tax. 😎

Regards,
George

 

[ch1]

I meant:

"When I wrote that I could have just walked two feet over to the cabinet and confirmed. (I'm so "new" to this gear that I SHOULDN'T rely on aging memory cells! :bang: )"

See what I mean? Organic RAM definitely breaking down! 🙁

BTW: I just checked the The Filter Connection site ]http://www.2filter.com/ and they carry both Hoya and B+W 40.5mm UV filters. Didn't check to see if they have skylights and others - worth a browse if you need some though..

Regards,
George

 

[rick oleson]

I picked up a 135/4.5 LTM Leitz Hektor from KEH (rated "UG") several years ago, for $29. Not knowing what to expect from the lowest condition rating, I was surprised when it arrived: not the slightest hint of a cleaning mark on it, except for some scuffs on the chrome it's in really excellent shape.

Only problem I've had with it has been a tendency toward looseness between the viewfinder foot and the shoe of the camera, which at 135mm can lead to serious framing errors. I've taken to abandoning the separate finder, framing on the rangefinder spot and guessing around the edges, and gotten better results.......

http://rick_oleson.tripod.com/colortwo/page1.html
http://rick_oleson.tripod.com/colortwo/page4.html
http://rick_oleson.tripod.com/colortwo/page11.html

I also have a 135/4 Sonnar for the Kievs and Contaxes.......

http://rick_oleson.tripod.com/colortwo/index.html

: ) =

 

[varjag]

Rick, while we're here I should mention that an underscore ('_') is not a valid character in the Internet domain name standard. Some nameservice implementations still resolve it, but the one we've stuck here with does not.

I often see your site referred from 'useful links' sections of various resources, but can only wonder what's in there.

 

[Kin Lau]

rick_oleson.tripod.com currently resolves to 209.202.240.100, so just put the following entry in your hosts file w/o the quotes, and it doesn't matter whether you use spaces or tabs. If you're using W2K or XP, then it's located in "c:\windows\system32\drives\etc\hosts" (substitute winnt for windows if necessary, make a copy of the hosts.sam if one does not already exist). On Unix/Linux, it's /etc/hosts. PM me if you need more help with this.

"209.202.240.100 rick_oleson.tripod.com"

 

[rick oleson]

Thanks. I've been aware of that for some time... but my website is over 6 years old and 50MB deep, and it's a little late to pull it up now.

If you can't get to it, try typing the URL in the format of:

http://members.tripod.com/rick_oleson ..... this works for most people who have trouble with the underscore.

At one time I did go through and retype every internal link in this format, only to then discover that these are cached copies and the host didn't update the cache real quickly, which caused other problems, so I had to go through it and change them all back.

I COULD just scrap the whole thing and start over, but I haven't got the energy...... I apologize for the inconvenience.

: ) =