Pembrokeshire - Leica M9

Unfortunately due to the dust spot problem with the sensor, the M9 was used more sparingly than we would have liked, during our recent trip to the Pembrokeshire coast in West Wales. We had wonderful deep blue skies and the thought of cloning out dust spots from the images was not appealing. Due to a problem at the company that cleans our sensors, Calumet, they are unable to do this until next week, so we had to use the Leica with its current proliferation of spots.


As a coastal National Park, it has truly breathtaking scenery, much of which is only accessible by foot. Consequently we spent much of the time walking. Our decision to take only light, non-DSLR cameras and lenses proved the right decision.





The two pictures above were taken around Wooltack point, on the Marloes peninsula. The cliffs are very high and care needed to be taken as there were many sheer drops. The temptation to get just a little bit further forward to get the shot had to be resisted!





The ponies shot is one of our favourites from the whole trip. We happened upon them "posing" in this group. Couldn't have really been better if we had placed them there ourselves. They kept this grouping until we had taken the pictures we wanted & then they drifted away.





The final picture was a test shot taken with our 45 year old 135mm F4 Tele-Elmar lens. This is a lovely, though heavy, lens. It is pretty difficult to focus, because of the small size of the 135mm frame in the M9's viewfinder. If focusing on a distant landscape, which is where its very useful, it can be difficult to find something suitable for the rangefinder focusing. Consequently we tend to use the smallest aperture we can, so that we can be sure that we have our subject in focus.


Considering its age we are always amazed by the sharpness of this lens. A real bargain.

Panoramas

Vintage Ferrari

Samsung NX10 30mm F2 pancake lens.

Leica M9 Zeiss 21mm F2.8 Biogon

Leica M9 Leica Tele-Elmar 135mm F4

Leica 135mm f4 Tele-Elmar - 1965!!

Thanks to Corwin for his link https://www.leicashop.com

Great fun looking at some of the lenses, and an education for me. Nothing that I see that I want yet, but a great site for retro rangefinder lovers.

Looking at some of their Leica 135mm f4 Tele-Elmar lenses and

comparing serial numbers I believe that the one I have bought

dates from 1965!! Its performance and condition is even more

extraordinary.

Panasonic GF1 and Leica 135mm f4 Tele-Elmar

I tried this combination to see what it was like. Results were good but its not something I'll use again as its almost impossible to focus. The GF1 Electronic Viewfinder is not great for manual focusing anyway and I was trying to use the screen in bright sunlight which was useless.

Since I had lens and camera tripod mounted a lot of the shots are at f16 just to take account of possible focus errors.

Cotswolds with M9

A trip to the Cotswolds. One of those days with grey skies and occasional shafts of light. I used my Voigtlander 35mm f1.7 Ultron - Above and my "new" Leica 135mm f4 Tele-Elmar - Below.

There's a full set in the gallery section at:-

http://soundimageplusgallery.blogspot.com/2010/03/march-cotswolds-walk.html

Images - D & A

My first Leica lens

After having used Leicas, an M8 and now an M9 for around 9 months it may seem strange that I have only now bought my first Leica lens. Firstly I had a collection of Voigtlander lenses I bought and used with m4/3 and was very pleased with them. Secondly Leica lenses are VERY expensive. Or so I thought.

With the change to the M9's full frame I was struggling with my longest lens being 75mm. Last weekend I took out my GF1 to use as a teleconverter for that lens, and the results were OK, but it did seem crazy not to take advantage of the Leica's sensor. I started looking at Leica 135mm lenses and was interested in the 135mm f3.4 APO-TELYT. A snip at £1800! I'm not normally reticent about pulling out the credit cards but this was a lot of money for a lens.

I decided to try a different option. The esteemed Ken Rockwell has been banging on for years about the advantages of buying old second hand lenses. He is particularly scathing about the prices of new Leica lenses and often recommends the older versions. I had found a selection of S/H 135mm lenses at Ffordes, a dealer I have used for years and who I have always had good experiences with.

I decided to try a 135mm F4 Tele-Elmar, with the idea that if I didn't like it I would bite the bullet and buy the new model.

The lens was £300 and for that price I was prepared for something a bit battered and possibly optically disappointing. What arrived the next day was neither.

As you can see its not small. Its not light either weighing in at just over 500g. Its also not the prettiest lens / camera combination I've ever seen. However it was in pretty good condition considering its at least 20 years old. They made these from 1965-1990 apparently. I also discovered that it had been 6-bit coded.

So a quick test round the garden followed by a longer session in my local churchyard.

First picture from the garden on the screen was out of focus, grainy, hideous colour. Oh no I thought, its a disaster. Then I remembered I'd been doing some low light tests at 1000 ISO the previous evening with the WB set to Tungsten.

Next picture - hit the auto white balance in Photoshop ACR, open it up.......... Wow! Next picture.....Wow! Smile starting to appear on my face. Etc. Etc.

Yes its actually very good. When I then shot some pictures at 160 ISO with the correct white balance selected it started to seriously impress me. I've rarely done this here but this is a full-size image:-

Here's a blow up.

Same again:-

I hope that you able to see just how sharp this lens is. I was also impressed by the colour rendition from this aged lens designed for film.

I've been smiling away ever since. Spending £300 as opposed to £1800 is a good outcome. It gives me what I want. Using this lens instead of the 75mm + GF1 gives me a small saving on weight and a substantial increase in quality.

My respect for Mr. Rockwell has increased (To be fair many others have said the same thing) and I have finally seen for myself the fact that Leica have been turning out these incredible lenses for years.

Using my own brand of financial logic I now have £1500 to spend on S/H Leica lenses. So I shall be scouring the pages of my favourite dealer websites for more bargains. In the meantime I can proudly assert that I am now a fully fledged Leica photographer with both camera and lenses (OK OK - just lens) and can begin to bore the pants off anyone within earshot!!!

Words & Pictures - D (Or LeicaShooterUK as I shall henceforth be known)

(Not!)