My Heliar 50mm/2, am I missing something?

kshapero

kshapero

South Florida Man
Local time
3:55 AM
Joined
Mar 27, 2006
Messages
10,044
Last week I shot a whole roll of Fuji 800 Superia. I wanted extra latitude because I was shooting indoors in incadescent light. I attached an B+W KB-15 filter on my Heliar 50mm/2 lens. So now I am 2 stops behind the 8 ball. Of course I dialed a full 800 speed. With all that I am still shooting f2 or close to that, even slowing down to 1/30sec or even 1/15 sec. I refuse to use a flash. To me a flash kills my "invisabilty". So thats out. now the results: Absolutely great exposure and white balance, but crappy sharpness. Needless to say in this combo the bokeh sucks, but I need my sharpness. Am I getting old and focusing poorly?
Any ideas?
Examples can be found on my gallery below of some kids Bar Mitzvah.
 
Last edited:
It would be easy to say anything if you have posted one or two photos, as now it can be anything, generally 800 iso color film are not very sharp, besides at 1/15 don`t expect perfect sharpness, and plus to that did you scan them? or printed in minilab? try to enlarge them :D
 
I get them scanned by a pro lab at about 6 megs each. I wanted to go to 400 ASA but I wouldn't get a decent exposure.
 
For some stupid reason I can not browse flickr
"We apologize the site you are attempting to visit has been blocked due to its content being inconsistent with the religious, cultural, political and moral values of the United Arab Emirates. "
Click to expand...
These guys are bit funny I have to admit...
 
Nachkebia, You gotta be kidding. I thought they were one of the enlighted ones, hmmm, guess not. Too bad they are missing out on some great Bar Mitzvah parties.
 
The Heliar is known to be soft at full aperture. It's part of the lens' charm. Some people say it makes for great environmental portraits. It becomes razor sharp at 5.6 or so. I use mine for exerior shooting for the most part. I like its lightness comapared to my 35 'lux asph. I still plan on buying the 50 lux asph for low light situations.
 
Try running a test using the same film and filter and use a tripod while shooting at f2.
you might be surprised to find that the loss of sharpness was due to the handheld low shutter speeds.
the f2 Heliar has a very pleasing old fashion look at full bore, like a Summitar, from the photos that I seen taken by this lens.
 
The shots that were properly focused and did not suffer from shake or subject movement looked perfectly sharp. Besides, 800 speed film won't give you the maximum sharpness potential of a 200 speed negative film which I consider optimal if yor a sharpness fiend.
 
This Heliar is made of special glass and analysis on PopPhoto's test bench indicated nearly identical numbers as the 50mm Leica Sumicron from 1996 (not sure which version that is).

My 50 Heliar Classic is quite sharp wide open, and only suffers from some Vignetting from my experience. Not sure in this case, but I only shot it in daylight and with ISO 200 film.

JCA
 
at 1/15, combined with focusing at f/2 in darkness, i would not expect wonders. Sometimes you might get lucky but mostly it should not be depending on the lens quality...
 
From personal experience I have another suggestion for possible lack of sharpness. Just last week-end I was using this lens. I pulled out the lens from its collapsed position, ASSUMED that it was FULLY pulled out and locked in place, and started shooting (I was in a hurry). When I was finished I went to re-collapse the lens and found that it had never been locked-in in the first place. As a result, the lens was perhaps 1-2 mm less pulled out than it should have been. I have not developed the film yet, but I would assume that such a difference in distance might not affect exposure but would nevertheless affect sharpness.
 
Heliar Sharp (soft)Snapshot

Heliar Sharp (soft)Snapshot

Heliar gives nice bokeh at f2. SnapShot of first roll. Fuji Color 400 at 1/60sec
 

Attachments

  • Antonia-2.jpg
    Antonia-2.jpg
    132.4 KB · Views: 0
A couple of the pics look quite sharp to me over the WEB, especially since you're using ISO 800 film. (What really separates lenses is most evident on B&W ISO 100 film). So my guess here is camera shake, especially given the very slow shutter speeds you're using.

If you don't do your own conventional processing, get a roll of B&W chromogenic CN400, which is about as sharp as Provia, an ISO 100 color transparency film. Shoot a test either on a tripod or at 1/500 if handheld. I bet you'll see quite an improvement.:)
 
Did you consider leasving the filter off, and saving two stops, then color correcting in Photoshop (or image editing program of your choice)? One of the strengths sof color negative film is that you can (within limits) color balance after the fact.
Good luck, and I liked your images. Very Photojournalistic
Dave G
 
ronnie_retro said:
A couple of the pics look quite sharp to me over the WEB, especially since you're using ISO 800 film. (What really separates lenses is most evident on B&W ISO 100 film). So my guess here is camera shake, especially given the very slow shutter speeds you're using.

If you don't do your own conventional processing, get a roll of B&W chromogenic CN400, which is about as sharp as Provia, an ISO 100 color transparency film. Shoot a test either on a tripod or at 1/500 if handheld. I bet you'll see quite an improvement.:)
Click to expand...

I'll give it a try. Thanks,
 
gurtch said:
Did you consider leasving the filter off, and saving two stops, then color correcting in Photoshop (or image editing program of your choice)? One of the strengths sof color negative film is that you can (within limits) color balance after the fact.
Good luck, and I liked your images. Very Photojournalistic
Dave G
Click to expand...
Just downloaded Photo filter and I will give it a try. Thanks,
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom