All about Leica
While cleaning up my Lightroom catalogue I came across these two lovely shots and wondered why I never included them in my review of the Summilux-TL 35/1.4. And while looking at the images I also wondered why I never bought the lens. It’s such a nice piece of glass. If the Leica CL were my only camera, I’d definitely get one.
I thought you might be interested in my experiences with the Panasonic 24-105/4 OIS for the L-mount. I didn’t buy it to replace any of my lenses. It serves its purpose on assignments where I don’t want to swap lenses because I don’t have the time to do so, or because the environment is not very swap-friendly. When image quality or the speed of lenses is less important than my speed of working, this lens does exactly what I need it to do.
But not everybody has the collection of lenses that I have and might be interested in buying the 24-105 as only lens, although people that can afford the SL will probably also be able to afford a couple of lenses. I wouldn’t buy the 24-105 as ‘one lens only’. If I could pick just one lens, it would either be a faster zoom, or a fixed 50mm.
While my review of the lens is still in progress, I thought I’d show a couple of shots from a studio setting. All shot at 105mm, wide open. It’s really not too bad. There’s not a lot of separation, but enough to get creative. Wide open it’s sharp enough, though for a paid portrait shoot, I’d stop it down a bit. The OIS is a bonus and the fact that the lens doesn’t stop down until you hit the shutter is a good thing for a mirrorless camera (with M lenses you get less light through the lens when you stop it down, which makes focusing harder. With most AF lenses, it only actuates the aperture when you take the shot. A thing that works on every SLR camera that was produced in the 70s or later).
Anyway, here they are:
Today I received this email:
Thanks for mailing! First of all: the Leica M8, coupled with a lightweight lens like the CV35/2.5 is more or less the same weight as the Leica Q. Size wise there’s not much difference, though the lens on the Q is substantially bigger than a small lens as the CV I mentioned.
I you want a smaller and lighter camera compared to the Q, I think your best bet is the Leica CL, which is a superb camera. It is quite a bit more expensive than the Leica M8 though. And it’s not a rangefinder.
If your going for the Leica M8, I’d recommend to find a used 35 lens from Cosina Voigtländer (CV). The 35/2.5 is nice to start with. It’s very small and light. Later you could buy a used 50mm lens. There’s enough affordable lenses to choose from.
Take into account that the M8 is a 14-year old design, with 14 year old (and older) technology. It’s a great camera, if you know its limitations.
Hope this helps a bit.
I reviewed this lens a couple of years ago and I really liked it. Last week I had the chance to buy it from The Analog Camera Store and I decided it was too good to let go. It’s not an everyday lens, but on the other hand, I might just leave it on my camera for a couple of weeks and see how that turns out.
Needless to say this is a lens that works best for the Leica SL, although with the right adapter it will also work on the M240 and M10. On the M240, you will have to take into account that there’s a bit of lag in the live view mode.
PS: I’ve become a little lazy lately. I’ve started to shoot in both Jpeg en RAW on two separate SD cards and I find myself more often using the regular jpegs with a bit of fine tuning in (I almost dare not to say it) Apple’s ‘Photo’s’ app. The differences between professional photo editing software and ‘consumer grade’ apps are getting smaller these days. If it’s just a quick pic for a non-paid thing, easy is great.
Sometimes you have to let go of things you thought you’d never part with. However dramatic that sounds, I once had a Leica M8 that I used as a backup for my Leica M9. I sold it, after I bought a second M9-P (which I still have). After that, I started to miss the M8 and I bought it again. I found a nice orange leather strap during a trip around the world in Hong Kong and a few years later I found a matching piece of camera leather in Japan. A good (and skilled) friend of mine applied the leather to the camera and I continued using it.
My ‘faux Hermes Leica M8’ was used during a few workshops, but I never used it for paid assignments. Also, I didn’t do many workshops where the student wanted to test drive my M8.
A few years later I decided somebody else would be happier with it, so I sold it to my friend Maarten for The Analog Camera Store. It will be up for sale in a few days, but if you’re fast, you can send him an email to ‘make a reservation’. The camera is in very good condition. Less than 30.000 shutter actuations and I always took good care of it. Maarten is also a great guy.
For now, just a few pictures that I took with this superb little camera.
A few weeks ago I received an interesting email from Ed and I decided to post it on my website. Enjoy!
In 2009 I found myself on a chartered plane headed to Kuwait. I was on a one year tour as a U.S. Soldier in Iraq. The mission was to train and assist specific units within the Iraqi Army. It was the most surreal thing I had ever done. Mid-way through the tour I began documenting the trip photojournalism style using the camera function on my Ipod. We were attacked one day maybe two weeks prior to the end of the tour and in haste to seek cover and concealment I dropped that Ipod. Never to be seen again. Returning home in 2010 I told myself that as long as I traveled the world doing assignments I would never again be without a camera.
After returning home I tried all the CANIKONS of the year in 2010 and all of them felt a bit too cumbersome to lug around every day. I had amassed a few thousand dollars during my first deployment which I committed to the purchase of a used Leica M9 and 35mm Summilux lens which I bought from a friend in 2010.
To date, it is the most expensive set of things that I ever bought. Any reluctancy I had prior to buying the set was quickly removed upon feeling the weight of the camera and seeing the images without any editing. The colors of the CCD sensor in my opinion to this day are better than any camera available and second only to Kodachrome slide film. In the last 9 years I can remember taking probably 1000 frames in color using this camera. The black and white images coming from the M9 are the closest thing to Tri-X I have ever seen. There was for me no need to pursue an M9 Monochrome. I have been shooting with my Leica M9 ever since then save about 90 days in 2014 in which I bought and used a Leica M240. The M240 was a terrible machine to use immediately for me. The sensor is by no means comparable to the M9s Kodak CCD sensor. It was much bigger, and the battery life was very quickly consumed when in use. I sold it as soon as I could at a discount. With that I didn’t want to make the same mistake with the M10 so I didn’t buy it. Instead I opted to get my sensor replaced on my M9. Now it will last another 100 years.
In 2011 I received notice that my next duty station would be Frankfurt, Germany, where I currently still live. The job consisted of me planning training exercises between the American and French Armies. It would require me to spend weeks at a time in Paris planning logistics. Since then I’ve been back and forth for the last eight years travelling to Paris from Frankfurt with only a three-day bag, laptop, and my Leica M9 and 35mm Summilux. In the mornings I would do my normal work business and, in the evenings, and during lunch I would literally get lost in the city photographing whatever was intriguing to me and then finding my way back to the hotel. This was the beginning of an ongoing project I call Perdu et retrouvé à Paris. In the mornings I would do my normal work business and, in the evenings, and during lunch I would literally get lost in the city photographing whatever was intriguing to me and then finding my way back to the hotel.
Small, unobtrusive, and quiet are three things that my Leica set-up is not. Its true that its smaller than most DSLRs but larger than the street cameras out there today such as Ricoh and Fujifilm. It is my personal belief that no camera larger than a smart phone is small and unobtrusive. Anytime you put a black or silver box up to your face you are going to draw attention, nevertheless, I do it. When I photograph on the streets of Paris (or anywhere for that matter) I simply raise my camera to my eye, properly frame and snap the image. I don’t worry about people hearing me or seeing me. I don’t understand the appeal of “shooting from the hip”. To me I don’t do justice to the project by not getting my framing perfect. The whiz of the shutter is also not a big deal. Paris is a “hustle and bustle” town in a good way. There is so much going on people aren’t paying attention to the shutter noise. Honestly, they don’t even give much attention to the photographer. This is the reason why I have been able to make some very good candid street images for many years.
Thanks very much for reading!
Last week I received this email:
Hello Joeri,
My name is R. and I’m a photographer in New Orleans, USA. I stumbled upon your blog and wanted to ask a question.
Thank you for writing about the 50mm Summicron lens and posting great photos! I got one of these lenses V5 (the current one) and noticed that when I shoot it at f2.0, my focusing is accurate, but once I go to 2.8 and 4.0, and so on, the lens starts to back-focus. I get people’s ears in focus instead of eyes. Is this normal behavior of this lens? If so, how do you deal with it? I’ve been shooting with Leica film gear for years, but never had a lens do this much back focusing, and if just came back from service.
Thank you and hope you and your family are ok during these strange times!
R
Thanks for mailing R and I’m still fine, although a lot of my assignments have been canceled.
The phenomenon you describe is called focus shift and it comes in all sorts of variations. In the M9 days I have literally spend days and weeks to ‘check’ my camera and lens calibrations on license plates of cars in the street where I live. It sometimes made me go insane. Here’s a thread on the LFI forum where the problem is described.
Remember that digital is far more critical than film is. You can zoom in on the pixels with one click of your mouse. With film, it’s all much more forgiving.
Lenses and rangefinder can be calibrated to (near) perfection, but focus shift is a ‘natural’ phenomenon that you’ll never completely get rid of. If you can’t live with it, but still want to shoot Leica rangefinders, you can learn how to compensate for focus shift, or use a camera with live view.
For me, critical focus has always been paramount for headshots (I often shoot at 2.8) and I can say the Leica SL has made my life a lot easier.
Don’t give up though. You can make it work with an M9 too.
Last week I received this mail:
Hi Joeri,
Considering switching to the M system I have bought your “Working your Leica M” book and have started exercising with a used Leica body and an old 50mm Summicron without a tab.
From you experience would you recommend a lens with a lens tab for developing a better muscle memory? Also I am asking myself if a Summilux 50mm would be already too obtrusive for street and documentary work compared to the cron if one of my reasons to switch to M would be the smaller and less intimidating system.
Would be great to hear the opinion of an experienced shooter.
Thanks and stay safe!
Thorsten
Good question Thorsten! And thanks for buying my book.
Let’s get to this obtrusive issue first: While the Lux is slightly bigger than the Cron, I’d say the difference in the level of obtrusiveness shouldn’t be too big. It’s not Noctilux-like big. So don’t worry too much about that.
Some people love a focussing tab, some don’t. When it comes to guesstimating your focus on the basis of the position of the tab, a tabbed lens sure has something a non-tabbed lens doesn’t. It’s easier to guess distance, when you have let go of the lens for a moment. However, for me, my guessing is most accurate when I keep the lens in my fingers, tabbed or non-tabbed.
The tab works best, in my opinion, on wide angle lenses (up to 35mm). For me, I prefer a non-tabbed 50mm, because this is also my go-to portrait lens, where I use it in the 90cm-150 cm range, where the tab feels in the wrong position.
Since you already have an old Cron, I’d give that old lens a try first and move forward from that. As far as 50mm lenses are concerned, the 50 cron is my all time favorite.
PS: this right lens in this photo is a Lux, but a very old one: the V2.
An interesting question today:
Hi,
However, being out of focus, there will be a slight deterioration of contrast edges, thus of sharpness. Certainly not enough to really spoil a photograph, but still I can see a more crisp image when I use an IR filter.
Add to that that shadow density can be manipulated in Photoshop, I feel there is a case to be made for using IR filters on the M8 even for Black and White..”
So if you need the best possible IQ (and you already have the filters), best use them.
I came across the work of Andreas Jorns and I was impressed with his studio work. He was kind enough to share his photo’s and story with us.
1) Can you tell a bit about your background (as a photographer)
‘Photography has been a hobby for many years as I had a job as banker and consultant for more than 20 years. 10 yeras ago I decided to take the risk. I became a professional photographer over night – no risk, no fun. And truly, it was fun all these years and I never regretted this step. Today I live from the books I published within the last years and some workshops. No more clients, no more weddings or stuff like that. I do what I like and I appreciate that very much.’
2) How did you get into the leica system?
‘I was always fascinated from the Leica M System back in the film days and it took me a while to get my first M6 — the camera I still love although I switched to digital many years ago (from time to time I shoot film „just for fun“ but most of my latest work is digital). When Leica presented the first M Monochrom (CCD) I was convinced „this is the one I’ve been waiting for a long time“ – I sold all my other gear and bougt the Monochrom with two lenses.’
3) Which camera and lenses do you have?
‘I still have the M6 and a M2 from the year I was born. My digital Leicas are the M Monochrom CCD, the SL and finally the M10 Monochrom – truly the best digital camera I’ve ever used (from my point of view). I have some old and some new lenses – on the SL I prefer the Noctilux 50 and 75, on the M I like the old Summitar 50/2,0 and the Summaron 28/5,6. And there are a lot more – especially 50mm lenses – my favorite focal length.’
4) What kind of pictures do you take and why?
‘I’m a black and white photographer my whole life but in the beginning of my career as a professional photographer I had to make some concessions. And I didn’t like that. Today I’m focused on people – portrait, nude and everything around that. Natural and authentic on the one hand and artistic an the other one. I like dealing with people. It’s always interesting and it’s fascinating and emotional quite often. That’s what it is all about in my photography: emotions and feelings.’
More work: www.ajorns.com
