Voigtlander 90mm f3.5 APO-Lanthar LTM lens

jonmanjiro said:
Slight correction if I may, Peter. The opening scenes of Tokyo Story are all of Onomichi. There a several fan websites (albeit in Japanese) that cover this in detail.
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In this instance perhaps my terminology was too loose. There is a scene where a train passes what to me looks like Seikenji (situated above Okitsu). It was this I was thinking of. Of course I could be wrong about that as I have not been there but based on many photos I have looked at, it appears very like the way the line passes very close to that temple and the temple depicted, itself looks very much like every photo I have seen of Seikenji. But you appear to know both the movie and the area so please correct me if I am assuming too much.

You can see the scene I refer to, in near the opening of this video in which a modern film maker compares the scenes in Tokyo Story to those in Cafe Lumiere (a movie I have not yet seen). This short movie on Youtube is itself quite nicely done and worth watching if you are a film buff.

Cafe Lumiere - Modernizing Ozu's Tokyo Story.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQDOJaTdzHw
 
Yokosuka_Mike said:
Hi Peter, and thank you for the book recommendation. I’ll try to check it out. I have one book recommendation for you.

“A Historical Guide To Yokohama”
Sketches of the twice-risen Phoenix
-- Burritt Sabin (author) , Published by Yurindo Co, Ltd 2002

It’s kind of an odd book (some say it’s poorly written) but in my opinion a must read for anyone that has visited or plans to visit Yokohama.

Everyone talks about their desire to visit Tokyo, well I think that Yokohama is a much better place to visit. Of course visiting both cities is best.

In conjunction with the book you might want to watch the 1958 John Wayne movie “The Barbarian and the Geisha”. It’s based on Townsend Harris being sent by President Pierce to Japan to serve as the first U.S. Consul-General. I’m sure there are many movie critics that would say this movie sucks but I think it’s pretty good and worth watching. Maybe you’ve already seen this movie.

All the best,
Mike
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Thanks for this Mike. I will look into the above with interest. Another book by Oliver Statler I am looking for is one called Japanese Pilgrimage which documents Statler's account of walking the Shikoku Pilgrimage, a thousand-mile trek around that island following the path of an ancient Buddhist master Kukai. There are a number of those walks still available or people to undertake though I doubt many westerners would take the whole walk.

Another book that may interest you is Lost Japan by Alex Kerr. Kerr grew up in Japan (his father was an "occupationaire" (I think this is how they referred to USA occupation force members) and later the son Alex, returned to Japan to live where I think he is still resident. It is worth a read too.
 
peterm1 said:
You can see the scene I refer to, in near the opening of this video in which a modern film maker compares the scenes in Tokyo Story to those in Cafe Lumiere (a movie I have not yet seen). This short movie on Youtube is itself quite nicely done and worth watching if you are a film buff.
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That’s the scene I thought you were referring to. Seikenji is indeed similarly located near the train line, but the temple that appears on the hill in the opening scene of Tokyo Story is Jōdo-ji (pictured below then and now). This temple appears multiple times in the movie (see the In popular culture section at the wiki link). The train line passes by right below the temple.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J%C5%8Ddo-ji_(Onomichi)

e3cbd3e0d31bc2a36e646871b7abd4f4.jpg
 
jonmanjiro said:
That’s the scene I thought you were referring to. Seikenji is indeed similarly located near the train line, but the temple that appears on the hill in the opening scene of Tokyo Story is Jōdo-ji (pictured below then and now). This temple appears multiple times in the movie (see the In popular culture section at the wiki link). The train line passes by right below the temple.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J%C5%8Ddo-ji_(Onomichi)
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Thank you for that Jonmanjiro. That sets it straight.

I knew that there was a temple from Hiroshima Prefecture at the very beginning scene of the movie as this was claimed by some critics to be a deliberately ominous (but deliberately somewhat obscure) reference to Hiroshima itself by Ozu. But I had understood that the "temple with a train" was a different temple. I imagine I was just assuming that it was based on them leaving Onomichi to travel to Tokyo and therefore was intended to represent something other than their home town and drew the wrong conclusion.

best regards Peter
 
peterm1 said:
Thank you for that Jonmanjiro. That sets it straight.

I knew that there was a temple from Hiroshima Prefecture at the very beginning scene of the movie as this was claimed by some critics to be a deliberately ominous (but deliberately somewhat obscure) reference to Hiroshima itself by Ozu. But I had understood that the "temple with a train" was a different temple. I imagine I was just assuming that it was based on them leaving Onomichi to travel to Tokyo and therefore was intended to represent something other than their home town and drew the wrong conclusion.

best regards Peter
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No worries Peter. I actually mentioned Jōdo-ji in a subsequent post (here) in the recent thread here where we discussed Sumiyoshi Shrine in Onomichi City (the supposedly ominous and obscure temple "somewhere" in Hiroshima), but I guessed you must have missed it.

Anyway to stay on topic, here's a few pics snapped with a CV Apo-Lanther 90/3.5 LTM I used to own. Lovely rendering, but I found the focal length hard to use on a rangefinder so didn't keep the lens for long.


Reflecting by Jon, on Flickr


鎌倉の紅葉 by Jon, on Flickr
 
jonmanjiro said:
No worries Peter. I actually mentioned Jōdo-ji in a subsequent post (here) in the recent thread here where we discussed Sumiyoshi Shrine in Onomichi City (the supposedly ominous and obscure temple "somewhere" in Hiroshima), but I guessed you must have missed it.

Anyway to stay on topic, here's a few pics snapped with a CV Apo-Lanther 90/3.5 LTM I used to own. Lovely rendering, but I found the focal length hard to use on a rangefinder so didn't keep the lens for long.


Reflecting by Jon, on Flickr


鎌倉の紅葉 by Jon, on Flickr
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jonmanjiro Thanks for this. Yes this lens looks superb. I am like you in that I struggle to focus longer lens on rangefinder cameras. But I love longer lenses as I find them to be excellent for street photography in two respects - they are more discreet than shorter lenses and they provide good background separation. So now I use them on mirrorless cameras which helps me to some extent deal with the focusing issue. (Which means that my M8 is now something like a surrogate cat - its gets nursed and stroked when I sit by the fire but not so much use as was once the case when my eyesight was better). :)

I am however kicking myself in that I could have picked up one of these lenses recently at a good price. A camera store near me had one in its window for years where it remained unsold and eventually marked it down for a quick sale. I was not sure how good the lens is and besides I have a few lenses in this range so hardly need yet another 90mm and so put off buying it - and now it is gone. :( But seeing these images makes me wonder if I was wrong. Ah well, there is always next time.
 
I'm trying to decide on which camera/lens to take to Shikoku for a 10 day walking trip in April. My copy of this lens is one of the contenders. So is the 75 f/2.5 for just a bit more speed.
 
Just seeing this thread Mike. Looking at the images you've made throughout, this 90mm with Sony is a good combination for you. Fun also in the early images seeing the photographers struggling to maneuver their long lenses to see tulips!

Cheers,
David
 
Lovely photos aside (and they are that), I have been hoping that Voigtlander would re-release this lens or similar in M mount. They have updated lots of 35mm, 50mm, 75mm etc and I would have thought there'd be a market for a 90mm lens with a 39mm filter thread. At the moment the Leica Macro-M is the only game in town. I don't really enjoy collapsible lenses and I don't fancy spending Macro-m money on an occasional use lens. Please, make it again?!!
 
Somehow, I found that almost any lens from Mike all produce same kind of rendering. My guess is: it is due to boosting of local/micro-contrast to artificially create the 3D pop effect. Whether it is from in-camera setting or post processing, I have no idea.
(Just an observation, not intended to cause offence. Apology if offended.)
 
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