Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2010/10/08
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/lugalrabs/chicago+wall+ST.jpg.html 135mm f4.5 Hektor I got for 99 bucks Oct/7/2001. With my first M6 classic. It was made in the early 50's just like me. 15-blade diaphragm for the sure verisimilitude of a nice circle of non confusion. I would almost always use it with a very dark green or red filter. The film was Tri X in Rodinal 1:75 It was scanned from a fiber 8x10 print made with a 63mm Nikor 2.8. A thing I don't have fond feelings about doing much of any more preferring a neg scan and re thinking it. Yes I had a bit of fun with the new raw filter cs5 doing a duotone with it. It was heavily toned as a print but not I don't think these colors. I think it was rather cold toned. But bricks are red so there you go. This is how it looks this time. The head comes off I can use it with my viso and it focuses to infinity. Also with the bellows if I recall. It sure as hell has a Leica fingerprint but at this magnification I'm not sure if we're really experiencing much of it. More of a fig Newton of our own imaginations. Do the RGB line up The smart money says no!! Ken Lincoln Rockwell has a nice layout on it. I'm not finding any thing here I'm disagreeing with. He does this just to confuse us. http://www.kenrockwell.com/leica/135mm-f45.htm He says " This is among the softest lenses I've used." Yep! But I sure don't shoot it wide open and I'd print it with as much contrast as I could squeeze out of it and now with unsharp mask it becomes less of an issue as you could just add on a little more. But its "Leica fingerprint" would be at one point its blazing non sharpness. Its not an APO ASPH. Its the best 99 bucks I ever spent. It has that certain something. je ne sais quoi Lens design not at its apex. Which just makes it more fun to use. I found the tiny frame lens like a cursor not on my monitor but on the world. The Rabs -------------------- Mark William Rabiner Photography http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/lugalrabs/ mark at rabinergroup.com