Uncoated Elmars
I have still been testing the limits of what you can do with uncoated Elmars, shooting into the sun, but being careful to keep the lens shaded.
This first frame is from Odense, from the stream that runs through the city. This is right downtown in the center of town. It was taken with a 90/4.0 black barrel Elmar.
The next shots was taken on my walk to work. This path figures almost every week in my shoeboxes for this year. They were taken with an old 50/3.5 Elmar (uncoated). I didn’t get control of the flare in the first one.
Takes a little work to wind, reframe a IIIf (I’ve heard other photographers can do it without lowering the camera from their eyes, sliding their right hand index finger across the winder like a motor).
Then there is the question of extreme contrasts:
There’s more over at the shoebox.
so did you try the filter yet daniel ? but it looks you get the same “lightspot” that i get sometimes with my 90mm-elmar . perhaps its not coated either…but it still got some quality when no lightspots effect the image ! dietmar
Comment by dietmar — May 31, 2007 @ 2:42 pm
Thank you for providing these photos Daniel. I enjoy seeing prewar lenses still in use.
Comment by JimG — May 31, 2007 @ 5:41 pm
The pictures are beautiful. The coating on the newer lens will help in reducing the amount of flares. Using the uncoated lens to get these pictures is not bad at all. I did use my coated 50/2 summicron to shoot the water reflection at the back of the ship at sunset gave me very good result. The quality of the Leica lenses are just exceptional. Thanks for sharing all these pictures with us.
Robert Yue
Comment by Robert Yue — May 31, 2007 @ 11:23 pm
Thanks Dietmar, Jim and Robert.
I enjoy these lenses. I particularly like not losing shadow detail. I am not so sure I would with a modern multi-coated lens, but I am enjoying the low-contrast qualities of these lenses. I’ve tried a modern Summicron in the same situations this week. I haven’t processed the film yet, but it will be interesting to see if it differs all that much.
No filter Dietmar. I don’t have any that would fit on these lenses.
Daniel
Comment by daniel — June 1, 2007 @ 5:37 am