Pre-war Leica glass, show your photos

[megido]

Simply ADORE this...
Magical & Tres Atmospheric. 😉

Yes. Me too!

 

[Davidhel]

This week, more experiments with leaves, a lightbox and the BELUN close up set...and my standard set up, Leica I/III conversion with the 50mm uncoated elmar....

Leaf, Treasury Gardens, Lightbox set (670-008 FINAL) by David Helmore, on Flickr

Leaf, Treasury Gardens 'Lightbox set' (670-003 FINAL) by David Helmore, on Flickr

Leaf, Treasury Gardens 'Lightbox set' (670-015 FINAL) by David Helmore, on Flickr

 

[Davidhel]

Back on to the shadows project for this weeks 3 pics...Leica I/III conversion with the 50mm uncoated elmar....

Shadows set (669-018 FINAL) by David Helmore, on Flickr

Shadows set (669-029 FINAL) by David Helmore, on Flickr

Shadows set (663-001 FINAL) by David Helmore, on Flickr

 

[Bingley]

Very nice work, Dave^^^^^^^.

 

[Davidhel]

Thanks Steve! I'm having a lot of fun with the 50mm Elmar right now.. Such a great lens!!

 

[je2a3]

Leica II + Summar in Nookyhesum
Kodak TX400 in Barry Thornton 2 bath

 

[Davidhel]

OK, I've cheated slightly this week!...3 new pics for my Melbourne Cityscapes project, plus 2 from a couple of years back that I have rescanned and improved on the original effort! ...Leica I/III conversion with the 50mm uncoated elmar for the top 3 and 35mm uncoated elmar on the bottom 2....I LOVE the results you can get from these 80 year old lenses!!!

Melbourne Cityscapes set (671-037 FINAL) by David Helmore, on Flickr

Melbourne Cityscapes set (669-006 FINAL) by David Helmore, on Flickr

Melbourne Cityscapes set (671-019 FINAL) by David Helmore, on Flickr

Melbourne Cityscapes set (599-014 FINAL) by David Helmore, on Flickr

Melbourne Cityscapes set (598-029 FINAL) by David Helmore, on Flickr

 

[Erik van Straten]

Leica I model A, Elmar 50mm f/3.5, Tmax400.

All from the same roll.

Erik.

 

[Davidhel]

Erik - love that one with the reeds!

Back on to the lightbox set this week - the first and last with the III with 50mm elmar and the middle with the IIIa and 50mm summar. The summar isn't that soft....tracing paper was used as well!....

Leaf, Treasury Gardens, Lightbox set (670-020 FINAL) by David Helmore, on Flickr

Leaves, Treasury Gardens - Lightbox set (668-031 FINAL) by David Helmore, on Flickr

Leaf, Treasury Gardens, Lightbox set (670-032 FINAL) by David Helmore, on Flickr

 

[Davidhel]

Erik - the light in that second one of the station is beautiful....

 

[Erik van Straten]

The summar isn't that soft....tracing paper was used as well!

Indeed, a good clear Summar isn't soft.

Your Elmar works fine too. Did you clean it from haze or was it clean by itself?

Nice, pictures again, David! A joy to see them.

Thank you for your compliments.

Erik.

 

[Erik van Straten]

My Xenon remains quite glowy.

What scanner do you use? The images do not look glowy, but a tad unsharp, like old prints that were not properly focused by the enlarger. (At least on my screen).

Erik.

 

[Mr_Flibble]

You can see it in high contrast areas like around the POW-card of the prisoner on the right and the red cross flag in the background.
Scans were done at 2400dpi in Vuescan with a HP Scanjet G4050

 

[Erik van Straten]

You can see it in high contrast areas like around the POW-card of the prisoner on the right and the red cross flag in the background.

Yes, I see that, but that is no reason for unsharpness. In those scans no grain is visible. In a sharp print from a 35mm negative you should see some grain.

Scan the negative with the emulsion side downwards on the glass of the scanner. Do not use the frames supplied with the scanner. Press the negative flat with a piece of anti-Newton glass while scanning.

Apply in Photoshop an amount of 343% Unsharp mask with a radius of 1,0 pixels.

This works for me.

Erik.

 

[Mr_Flibble]

Thanks, Erik. I'll give it a try.
I'm sure the glow also has something to do with the calibration of my monitor. I discovered it was somehow reset to 100% brightness and Contrast and low gamma correction...after finishing all my post-processing.

 

[Erik van Straten]

I'm sure the glow also has something to do with the calibration of my monitor. I discovered it was somehow reset to 100% brightness

When working on the images in Photoshop 100% brightness is good.

Make special copies for web-use (save for web) (@1200 pix) and add a tiny amount of black (levels) in those.

The contrast of your Xenon looks OK.

Erik.

 

[Mr_Flibble]

There is definitely better detail at 4800 than 2400, even after scaling down for web publication. My choice for picking 2400dpi for scanning is usually time related though.
I'll redo some more of those images in the next few days, if people want to see them.


By the way, I finally managed to snag a 5cm f2/5 Hektor today. Huzzah! 🙂

 

[johannielscom]

The Super Ikonta B nowadays is my preferred camera over Leicas, which I sold.

The only time I'm slightly sad about selling the Leica kit, is when I see those great pre-war lens shots here and realise I have no new images coming that I can post here, while I started the thread myself 😱

Rick, I own some old original portraits and a few postcards of kriegsberichter photographers, if you're interested drop me a line at contact@joh(anniels).com, without the brackets of course 😉

 

[Davidhel]

Hi Erik

Haven't had any work done on the Elmar, it's not too bad overall... Although I think there are a couple of small scratches on the front! It looks well used but is a lovely compact lens!

 

[Erik van Straten]

By the way, I finally managed to snag a 5cm f2/5 Hektor today. Huzzah! 🙂

Chrome or nickle? Not fogged? Fascinating lens.

Erik.