[Leica] 135mm Apo-Telyt-M on Sony a7rii

[Paul Roark]

My latest acquisition is the 135mm lens.  I must admit, I'm having to
re-learn a few things.  This lens on the 42mp Sony is reminding me that DOF
is really just differing degrees of unsharpness.  What I, in the past
(pre-135 Apo), thought was my "infinity" focus set target across a canyon
from my back yard, turns out not to be at "infinity."  This lens-camera
combo has no DOF.  Getting focus right-on is nearly impossible due to the
potential this combo has.

At any rate, since I like the appearance of things being sharp, the first
non-test shot a couple of days ago turned into a test of whether I could at
least approach the potential of the lens in a real world, relatively fast
shooting, hand held,  focus stacked shot.  Here is the answer:

OldAlamoPintadoHouse_SantaYnezValley.jpg

(After a few years of drought in So. California, the greenery this year was
something I could not resist.  So, this one is in color.)

This took 19 shots.  (Farm workers where moving into the field just to the
right, so my tripod was not an option.)  A fair amount of PS work was
required to mash the exposures together, but the bottom line is probably
within what I'd call acceptable results from a technical point of view.

It's not perfect, but by comparison, it beat the 90mm Canon Tilt-Shift,
which I used to think was a great lens.  (Not so much any more.)

So, bottom line, I think I'll be able to use this optic, but it's not
forgiving at all.

BTW, I suspect the "used" "Mint" lens I bought from a major dealer was, in
fact, "new" pre-6-bit-coding unit from inventory that they are dumping.

Paul
www.PaulRoark.com