afternoon light

When I was looking for a fast lens, I had several options to choose from and I wasn’t quite sure which one to take. There are many fast lenses for the Leica and most of them have some quality that makes them special and different from all the others. There are fast 35mm lenses and 50mm lenses and for a while I was quite torn between the Zeiss ZM Sonnar 50mm f/1.5, Canon 50mm f/1.4 LTM, the Voigtländer Nokton 35mm f/1.2 and the Voigtländer Nokton 50mm f/1.1. I’m still smitten with the special qualities of the Zeiss Sonnar, but I found all the talk about focus shift rather daunting. Also the Canon was an interesting option, but since it was only available used from Japan I didn’t want to face all the hassle of importing it. Left over were the two Voigtländers which both had positive and negative reviews, the negative ones mostly coming from people who had tried lenses far far outside any sane person’s price range, like the Noctilux f/0.95. The matter was finally decided by the focal length. I already had a rather fantastic 35mm lens and was hesitant to buy another. A 50mm seemed like a better choice to push myself out of my comfort zone. After developing another roll taken with it – without developer death this time, Pan F+ 50 developed in HC-110 dil H – I’m sure I made the right choice. The lens is not easy to focus wide open, but when it works, the results are quite lovely. And with this lens in my arsenal I have even found a use for ISO 100 and ISO 50 films.

Totally unrelated but quite overdue: Another bunch of pictures taken in Argentina last year. And there are still many more to come!

All pictures taken with: Rolleicord V, Schneider-Kreuznach Xenar 75mm f/3.5.
Kodak Portra 400 developed in Fuji Hunt C41 Kit, Jobo CPE-2.

© Lilly Schwartz 2015

© Lilly Schwartz 2015

© Lilly Schwartz 2015

© Lilly Schwartz 2015

© Lilly Schwartz 2015

© Lilly Schwartz 2015

© Lilly Schwartz 2015

© Lilly Schwartz 2015

© Lilly Schwartz 2015

© Lilly Schwartz 2015

 

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