Benjamin Marks
Veteran
I loaned an M6 and 50 chrome Summicron to a friend for an extended period. I even threw in roll of Kodak 400 TCN film. Typical of a non-photo-gear head, it took my friend over three months to work his way through the roll. Funny, it would have taken me about 30 minutes trailing after my kids. No shot selection disclipline - me. Whaddayagonnado?
So I had been kicking around with an informal lens test --
From my tongue-in-cheek post at the Online Photographer:
++++++++++++++++++
Well yesterday I had a camera come back from a several months'-long loan to a friend. I wanted to see how the 1960's era lens on that camera compared to a more recent lenses, when used wide-open. So out came the ruler and the tripod. Here are the results:
50mm f:2 Planar
50mm f:3.5 Heliar-S w/hacked Contax to Leica M-adapter
35mm f:2 Aspherical this-n-that
These lenses were all _freakin'_ sharp. I mean they were so freakin' sharp that you could count the zits on the posterior of the dust mites camped out between the millimeter marks on my test-ruler. SHARP.
50 f:2 Summicron (from the 60's)
50 f:1.5 Sonnar-C (some focus shift stopped down)
50 f:2 Heliar (interesting abberations wide open)
40 f:2 Summicron
These lenses were just plain sharp. I mean they were slicing photons with reckless, but ordinary, abandon. You could see the dust mites, but not the gang signs they were flashing.
But then I started thinking about how to approach my mother (in her 70's) about a portrait, and about how her favorite lens of mine is actually an uncoated 19th century brass barrel lens with no shutter and some unidentified gunk on one of the internal elements (wait . . . is that fungus?). And then I started thinking about the last time I actually needed the millimeter markings on a ruler separated by day-light in my photos. And then I got all sentimental and weepy about the thought of using a lens that was freakin' sharp on woman who has seen her share of troubles with a wayward, photo-gear obsessed son -- I mean what had she done to deserve that? And I reached for the Heliar. Now it might be freakin' sharp when stopped down, but there was definitely some glow-y, abberational, pixie-dust being scattered liberally about when the lens was wide open. And sure, the MTF graph for this lens at f:2 looks like the micro-encephalograph of a lab-rat being used to test the effects of Lucky Charms on 4 year-olds -- but hey. This is Mom, we're talking about.
And so, my fellow Americans with apple pie in my heart, in these troubled times I say: remember Mother before you reach for those graphs and charts. Or the keyboard.
+++++++++++++++++++++++
And THEN, I thought I should shoot a roll of film in the returned camera, in part because I'd had some odd back-focus issues with some of these lenses and my M8. I hadn't developed an actual roll of film in a good long while. Let me suggest to all that it is a wonderful thing to do once in a while. I finished off the roll with some snaps of my son with the 50 DR Summicron. You have just GOT to love film, regardless of what you think of digital. The film in question was Fuji Neopan 400 developed in straight (and surprisingly old) XTOL. Scanned as a color neg and massively down-res'd for posting here.
So I had been kicking around with an informal lens test --
From my tongue-in-cheek post at the Online Photographer:
++++++++++++++++++
Well yesterday I had a camera come back from a several months'-long loan to a friend. I wanted to see how the 1960's era lens on that camera compared to a more recent lenses, when used wide-open. So out came the ruler and the tripod. Here are the results:
50mm f:2 Planar
50mm f:3.5 Heliar-S w/hacked Contax to Leica M-adapter
35mm f:2 Aspherical this-n-that
These lenses were all _freakin'_ sharp. I mean they were so freakin' sharp that you could count the zits on the posterior of the dust mites camped out between the millimeter marks on my test-ruler. SHARP.
50 f:2 Summicron (from the 60's)
50 f:1.5 Sonnar-C (some focus shift stopped down)
50 f:2 Heliar (interesting abberations wide open)
40 f:2 Summicron
These lenses were just plain sharp. I mean they were slicing photons with reckless, but ordinary, abandon. You could see the dust mites, but not the gang signs they were flashing.
But then I started thinking about how to approach my mother (in her 70's) about a portrait, and about how her favorite lens of mine is actually an uncoated 19th century brass barrel lens with no shutter and some unidentified gunk on one of the internal elements (wait . . . is that fungus?). And then I started thinking about the last time I actually needed the millimeter markings on a ruler separated by day-light in my photos. And then I got all sentimental and weepy about the thought of using a lens that was freakin' sharp on woman who has seen her share of troubles with a wayward, photo-gear obsessed son -- I mean what had she done to deserve that? And I reached for the Heliar. Now it might be freakin' sharp when stopped down, but there was definitely some glow-y, abberational, pixie-dust being scattered liberally about when the lens was wide open. And sure, the MTF graph for this lens at f:2 looks like the micro-encephalograph of a lab-rat being used to test the effects of Lucky Charms on 4 year-olds -- but hey. This is Mom, we're talking about.
And so, my fellow Americans with apple pie in my heart, in these troubled times I say: remember Mother before you reach for those graphs and charts. Or the keyboard.
+++++++++++++++++++++++
And THEN, I thought I should shoot a roll of film in the returned camera, in part because I'd had some odd back-focus issues with some of these lenses and my M8. I hadn't developed an actual roll of film in a good long while. Let me suggest to all that it is a wonderful thing to do once in a while. I finished off the roll with some snaps of my son with the 50 DR Summicron. You have just GOT to love film, regardless of what you think of digital. The film in question was Fuji Neopan 400 developed in straight (and surprisingly old) XTOL. Scanned as a color neg and massively down-res'd for posting here.
