There.. I've said it. I love old lenses! Why is this important? Because recognising a problem is the first step in beating it. Beating it you ask? Well, when you ask your wife to take out your cameras and lenses so they can get some UV rays to kill off fungus and other nasties.. and she writes back (I was travelling you see).. to say that there were 27 bodies and double that amount in lenses... You sort of realise there's a problem. Yes, I absolutely love old lenses and cameras, and I'm not just taking of Leica and Hasselblad here, but even Nikon and Canon glass. And cameras? Anything mecchanical but not just. Even digital cameras are old! We are well into the digital revolution and it's been almost 20 years since the first viable consumer and professional digital cameras have been out. I can almost remember with giddy excitement when the Nikon D1 and then later the Canon D30 were released in and around 1999.. That is T W E N T Y years ago.. Yes... 20. So by now even those early digital cameras have now become.. old.. and for me collectible..
So how does one reconcile 1 good shooting eye and 27 bodies and 50 odd lenses? Well, quite simply I can't. I just like collecting them, shooting them, playing with them. More importantly each camera had it's own specific lenses, and each brand made some spectacular optics.. And it's really the optics I enjoy. Which is why I own so many different brands. To the uninitiated amongst you, this is all known as GAS.. or Gear Acquisition Syndrome. As the name states, this is a disorder and I am afflicted with it. As afflictions go though, it is fairly innocuous, as long as you don't let it ruin your bank account! As there are some pretty expensive pieces of glass and bodies out there. Thankfully though the modicum of scotish and neopolitan blood I have coursing through my veins mean that I'm not attracted by the impossibly rare and ludicrously expensive items out there.. at least not enough to spend money on them! No, all my objects of desire are relatively attainable.. However that I have spent a sizeable chunk of money on them is true. Please oh please don't let me die and my wife sell my camera and lens collection for what I told her I spent for it! A similar line exists for cyclists by the way, who are also afflicted with Gas.. and another maxim as well.. the correct number of bikes one should own is N+1, with N being the current number of bikes owned. Again, the same thing applies to cameras and camera collecting.. So my search continues for the very perfect camera body and lens..
Except there is no such thing. Perfection is a state always strived for, but never attained. The Japanese are infuriating because for every new camera they build, they almost always put in some flaw. Canon does this by taking out a random feature that was in the previous model.. Wabi Sabi anyone? They are though in the business of selling consumer products, and they need our patronage in a year or two's time when their new batch of products is out. I however have jumped off that bandwagon, and prefer to buy their older models. Except for mirrorless. Yes, that new buzzword mirrorless..
Why? Well, quite simply because I can then use ONE body with all of my lenses.. And remember, the only reason I have all those bodies is to mount all those wonderful lenses! And again, as I said before, no single manufacturer gets is right all the time.. Each one designs a spectacular product once in a while, so there are many great lenses out there from different manufacturers. All you have to do is look.
Now in my search for lenses, I tend more towards portrait focal lengths, and seem to have a
preponderance of lenses in the 50 to 135mm length (for 35mm film).. Obviously there are lenses that go beyond this range, but for some reason I seem to gravitate to that central bit of focal range. So
here goes, a partial list:
- Canon 50mm f0.95 rangefinder lens.. This lens, built 20 years before Leica got around to building their Noctilux, was a technical marvel made to surpass the limitations of the film of the day, which couldn't go past 400asa and was grainy as hell. It was released in the early 60's and my copy was purchased by my father while working in Japan. If you wanted to take pictures at night, without using a flash bulb, then this lens made it possible. Today it is know as the dream lens. Later in EF (electro-focus) territory Canon again tried to replicate their earlier feat by releasing a f 1.0, still today the fastest autofocus lens on the block, though sadly discontinued. Nikon has gotten on the bandwagon in mirrorless territory with their Noct 58mm f0.95.. but.. always a but.. MANUAL focus.. Remember what I said about holding something back in their designs? Truly infuriating!
- Nikon 50mm f1.8S
Pancake lens.. released only for Japanese market in 1980, in another one of those infuriating oriental traits. They did of course release the cheaper E version for the rest of the world.. Surprisingly small, sharp and nice bokeh. This unassuming lens gets used more often than my Nikon 50mm f1.2 AI-S lens, simply because it is so so small with a very easy focus ring. Some complain it's hard to focus because the focus ring is so thin, but that's not the case for me. I leave it at f1.8 and don't have too much difficulty in nailing focus. I also own the modern af version (AF-S) which is HUGE in comparison, made of plastic, and only good for 10 years according to the sticker on the bottom. Maybe the new one is sharper, but surprisingly this older design just gets it right. Sharpness isn't everything, and sometimes size matters.
- Nikon 35mm f2 pre-ai lens converted to AI. Designated O.. which means Octa, or a lens with 8 elements. No subsequent AI or AF-D lens has really managed to impress me, although more recent AF-S lenses do better in terms of absolute sharpness.. However this one has oodles of character, distortion, vignetting, and bokeh. Bokeh?! What's that?! A discussion for another time.. One other thing these older lenses have is non-circular apertures, which means if you want to get some starbursts on your points of light, these older lenses are what you want. Sometimes progress ISN'T necessarily better. Certainly tastes change, and the desire for creamy backgrounds has pushed manufacturers to trying to create the "perfect" circle.. Not to my taste though..
- Canon 50mm f1.2 EF lens. I owned this lens years ago, and recently bought it again for it's amazing shallow depth of field and more normal field of view. Great portrait lens, if you can nail focus. Can't wait to use this on a mirrorless body with eye AF.. Should be scruptuous.. This f1.2 lens is the fastest available autofocus aperture lens currently on the market. The Noctilux from Leica is manual focus. So this one is just a bit easier to use. I simply love it, although it is difficult to use properly. Especially on an antideluvian DSLR that I'm using, the 1ds Mk III, from 2007! Still when it works, it gives you sharpness where you need it and the rest of the details melt away.
- Canon 135mm f2 EF lens.. A portrait behomoth.. Actually it's not too big, although the lens hood is almost as big as the lens! Always wanted this lens, though at the time I gave into Canon marketing and bought the 70-200 f2.8 and later the IS version. Both lenses were sharp but the IS introduced horribly distracting bokeh that made me want to vomit (a bit of motion sickness..). This 135 lens is known as "creamy" and the transition from focus to out of focus is simply mesmerisingly soft.. and... creamy. Truly a joy to use and bitingly sharp wide open. Really... it is quite impressive. At this focal length, and with proper distance between subject and background you get e very strong sense of subject separation.
- Nikon 135mm f2 AI lens. I had this lens before the Canon above, and although it's manual focus, is still quite stellar. I haven't had the courage to pit them against each other.. I tend to use the Nikon with film photography on an F3 body, and the Canon for digital photography on a 1DsIII, so not directly comparable.. But one day I will.. Manual focus with such a fast aperture is bound to lead to some dissappointment, but in situations where you can focus to infinity, the foreground does a gentle dissappearing act that is quite pleasant, like in the photo above. On mirrorless of course you'll be able to nail focus, just at a slower pace than with AF. Still gorgeous, and a nice hefty piece of glass in an indistructible metal casing that recals a time past when products didn't have a 10 year expiry date. And let me reiterate, wide open it is as sharp as a surgeon's scalpel, while the background is as creamy as a Roman capuccino. Truly delightful (if infuriating) to use.
Photo on it's way - Waiting to develop my roll of film!
- Hasselblad 150mm f4 CF lens for the V system. This is a recent purchase, and I'm ashamed to say how little I paid for this lens. It is really sad (although good for my wallet) how many old lenses can be had for so very little, if you know how to shop. I guess I have to be thankful for the advent of smartphones! This lens hasn't seen much use, although meccanically speaking the Hasseblad V cameras are a true marvel of engineering and so should manage to make it into the next century without any issues. Totally manual, yet with all the controls and failsafes that you find on later electronic cameras. If you can't take a photo, it's because you made an incorrect selection!
- Nikon 85mm f1.4 AF-D The portrait monster that sucks up light and looks oh so good on my Nikon D3s. It's a hard lens to use though, as focus is paper thin and more often than not an eyebrow will be in focus, and the eye not! So frustrating, but when it does nail focus, it can render some amazing images. Got to know what you want to achieve with it, as not every shot needs total fade to background! Sadly harder to use on Mirrorless because there is no internal AF motor, but with focus peaking it is still doable.. Supposedly surpassed by more modern designs that achieve greater sharpness at the expense of a cheaper and less durable housing. Anyway.. sharpness is overrated! This is another lens that will make it into the next century. Sadly we'll all have personao AI bots taking perfect pictures with their built-in eye-imagers..
- Nikon 70-200 f2.8E lens. Only one of 2 zooms that I revere. A truly spectacular lens with amazing sharpness. Satisflying sharpness. Does not miss a beat, perform badly, totally well behaved. Only annoyance.. can only use wide open on my film bodies. Then again.. WHY exactly do I buy fast lenses?! To stop them down while shooting!? Noooooo.. So actually, this lens does NOT have any flaws, even the previously mentioned one. But does it belong in this listing? Released in November 2016.. it is only 3 years old. So though not technically old, this is a lens that I will want to own in 20 years time (if it's still working). Thankfully it is built like a tank, weather sealed and a joy to use and notwithstanding it's heft, is manageable in the weight department. Obviously Nikon will release another in 6 years which will be better than this one.. but this one is so good I may not care!
- Nikon 105mm f2.5 pre-AI lens converted to AI.. I sort of have to add this lens, just because every great photographer out there has made mention of it (Steve McCurry shot the Afghan girl with this lens). I bought the older version so it could keep company with the 35mm f2 O Nikon, which is of similar vintage.. back in the days of the original F mount without aperture feeler.. Sadly though I find that my copy has a stiff focusing ring which makes it rather laboursome to use, although it does produce quite pleasing images. It is small, which makes for a compact street shooting combination with the aforementioned 35.. Maybe I should just get out and shoot more with it! Certainly lighter than the 135mm Nikon.
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whewwwwwww..... Need to take a breath.. this is getting into a long post.. But.. What was the whole point I started with?! Oh, the afflction of GAS, and the first step in solving a problem was recognising it. However as I've gotten this far, I might as well admit that I DON'T recognise a problem here. AT ALL. I mean, what's wrong with collecting old lenses? It's not like I'm massively impacting the planet? If anything I'm sometimes saving lenses from going to the tip. Maybe those lenses though didn't quite make the grade in my list of "Best of".. In any event I'm not fuelling useless consumerism! Although the accessibility of these old (and optically quite fine) lenses is in part due to the consumer nature of our modern western societies. Which is sad. We humans are on a relentless persuit for newness and perfection, but sometimes we leave it behind. And that's why I search out for these old lenses, because perfection, or the striving of it, can be found in older things. Interlude over, back to the lenses..
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- Leica 90mm f2.8 Elmarit-M lens.. Released in 1980 and according to Ken Rockwell one of the best Leica lenses. He later goes on to state that it's the easiest focal length to design.. Bought this on a whim, and though it's small it is NOT light.. Very dense glass in there. At 2.8 subject separation requires work and correct shooting distance.. The lens is exquisitly designed and built, with integral lens hood, a nice leather pouch, and a very smooth focusing ring. The M bayonet mount is possibly the best lens mount ever, although Hasselblad comes a very very close second. Why the M mount? Because it has a very short throw to click the lens into place. Hassy gets second place because you have to contend with the shutter mecchanism which needs to be aligned with the lens (i.e. in the same state as in cocked). So good on you Leica for in 1954, before the F mount (1959) had worked out how easy it should be to mount a lens securely!
- Leica 90mm f4 Elmar-C lens released in 1973. What? 2 Leica lenses the same focal length and one stop apart. Are you crazy? Well, I do appreciate fast glass, hence the first Leica. But then I couldn't pass up a (relative) bargain, hence the second lens. At less than a quarter of the price of it's one stop faster brother, it is quite cheap, possibly Leica's cheapest M lens, although officially never meant for an M body, but rather the CL body made for Leica by Minolta. But of course it's an M mount so you can use it pretty much anywhere you want. It's chief attribute is it's lightness and it's compactness, and image quality is surprisingly good and surprisingly close to the f2.8. So why do I own both? I'll eventually sell one.. I just can't decide which one I'm keeping is all!
- Hasselblad 120mm f4 modified Petzar lens. Now this is a strange lens, and not the best optically. In fact it tries to recreate the wierd whirly effect of early Petzval portrait lenses, which were the first large aperture lenses evailable for large format cameas back in 1840. So a slavic engineer decided to convert old C Hasselblad lenses using modern optics that try to recreate an ancient optical design. The effect, when it works, is quite mesmerising. When it doesn't it just looks boring and out of focus. Just have to keep on experimenting though. Sadly no sample images, as the last roll I shot came out blank.. Maybe I loaded it backwards :-)
- Mamiya RZ67 110mm f2.8 Z lens - A massive hunk of glass, but then a fast lens should have that attribute. This lens if for a medium format 120 film and covers a 6x7 negative. The professional's camera of choice back in the day, the RZ67 is now available on Ebay for 1/10th of what it went for.. and the lenses for considerably less. These lenses work with a camera belows, so they are hard to adapt to other cameras, although there is now a very expensive adapter that includes a focusing heicoid to allow focus. This 110mm is essentially a 50mm in 35mm terms.. Too many m's! But you get what I'm saying.. The large negative gives you oodles of detail, although a big heavy bulky camera to work with that prefers tripod shooting, but will accept hand-held shooting for brief periods of time. I like the fact that you can shoot peel-apart Fujifilm and you effectively get a 7x7 image. At least you could.. until Fuji stopped making that film in 2016, and with stocks all but dried up, that option is no longer available.. Or is it?!
These people have managed to reverse engineer the pack film, and are producing it now.. Quite fantastic, human ingenuity. And shame on Fuji for stopping production of such a wonderful film! When shooting normal film the 6x7 negative will enlarge nicely to an 8x10 print (almost) which used to be the standard print format, before A4 came along. Interstingly the 35mm film format coincides almost perfectly with A4. Which shouldn't be surprising since A4 is a German standard, and Oskar Barnak spooled the film sideways for his iconic Leica portable camera, the genesis of our modern digital SLRs.
- Hasselblad 80mm f2.8 CF lens - probably my favourite of this brand, or rather my most used Hassy lens. Like the Mamiya above it is a "normal" focal length and mimics a 50mm for medium format, although comparisons with Hasselblad's 6x6 negative and 35mm film tend to understate the differences. We're talking about a square format, which until relatively recently Hasselblad touted as the "Perfect" format (until they started making digital backs with 2:3 aspect ratio). It certainly forces you to look at your image making in a different way (maybe the eye level viewfinder also helps in that regards!). I find I have to slow down and search for the perfect composition that will fit in a square box. Which makes the V bodies slower, but also more satisfying to work with. Although I called this a Hasseblad lens, the name inscribed on the lens itself is Carl Zeiss, a german optics maker. Hasselblad simply made the box and farmed out the rather more difficult task of making lenses to the Germans.
- Pentax 135mm f2.8 K mount manual lens. I've probably owned this lens the longest.. and since I started shooting Pentax in 1992, that really is a long time. I don't use it much today, but at the time it was my favourite portrait lens. All the advantages of a small lens, long focal reach, wideish aperture mean you can really make your subject stand out. Not particularly rare, but a gem of a lens that brings back some memories, and supremely competent at what I like doing best, taking portraits. the above image is a roll of Lomo 200ASA - wierd film - processed badly in Mozambique and converted to B&W. Still you can see the nice effect in the out of focus areas.
- Nikon 85mm f2.8 Tilt and shift lens - This lens is quite complicated to use, quite finnicky, but can yield some very incredible images. Scheimpflug anyone?! Optically a very sharp lens, can be used in half sized macro capacity, and for portraiture can have just the eyes in focus and everything else not. A very specialised lens, not easy to use without a tripod, and on film can be unpredictable. Well on digital too, but you have a lot more control over the digital image in a computer, and fixing brightness issues is probably the main one. But otherwise a truly unique lens, although nothing that a large format photogragrapher wouldn't know about.. The subject separation can be even more drammatic than faster lenses (i.e Nikon 85 f1.4) if you know how to manipulate the plane of focus properly. Other times you just get wierd pictures with noses and ears in focus and nothing else. Hard to use, but when you get it right, quite satisfying.
- Nikon 17-35mm f2.8 AF-S lens - A workhorse lens for me. The large aperture means that even though it is wide angle you can achieve nice subject separation with a bit of work and planning. It's optical design has probably been surpassed by newer lenses, and at 35mm the older O Nikkor lens for me does a better, or at least more interesting job. However I did say I'd mention 2 zooms in this list, and this is the second one. For autofocus work with digital it ticks the boxes, and it's an old lens to boot. The front element has a wierd aspherical nature which is truly bizzare to the touch, with a dimple in the middle. It is satisfyingly made of metal and wouldn't feel out of place in a war zone, and crucially takes 77mm filters, which means it works very well with my other zoom, the 70-200 f2.8. It too will be around well into the next century. Probably only as manual focus, as the motor will have given up the ghost by then, but everything else will work perfectly. Superceeded by newer designs, that won't last as long. Such is consumerism today.
- Nikon 24mm f2 AI-S lens - Almost forgot about this manual focus wonder... An old design, with heaps of distortion, although no moustache distortion like the 20mm Nikon that I couldn't stand.. Bokeh is average, but the wide aperture does allow for some fairly good subject separation.. It's really small, the focus throw is very short meaning focusing is fast. I really struggle between this lens and the 35mm O when I want wide angle.. In the end this does more landscapes and the 35 ends up working more with people.
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So when and how do I use all these lenses? Well as you've seen there's a mish-mash of older and newer lenses, manual focus and AF.. Basically whatever I'm trying to achieve photographically will have me reaching into different parts of my photography cabinet, grabbing different bodies and lens combinations. For street work in film I tend to have 2 kits - the F3 with the manual focus trio 35mm, 50mm and 135mm (or sometimes the35 + 105mm). If I want some autofocus then the F6 will come out with the 17-35 and 70-200. If I'm walking a lot though the F3 will get the nod as the manual lenses are lighter and a lot smaller.
If I'm shooting a wedding or an event then I'll bring along both the Nikon and Canon bodies (D3s and 1DsIII) and the primes (50 and 135) will go on the Canon and the 17-35 and 70-200 on the Nikon. That's quite a weighty combo, but with fast action covered by the Nikon, the more formal portraits will be done by the Canon. Although the stellar 70-200 will do some of those as well, especially as we reach the end of the day and the VR and higher ISO advantages of the D3s come into play. Events are fast action and so I'll probably just take the Nikon setup. Portrait sessions are a completely different story, because I'll throw just about every portrait lens I have at the subject, and see what looks best later.. When I need more compression the trusty 70-200 will be front and centre, although the two 135mm's, from Nikon and Canon also help in this regard. If I'm outdoors and can swing a nice leafy background then the Petvar Hasselbad will come out to play, and even the old Canon 50 0.95, as it too has a distinctive bokeh that works with distant foliage in the background. For clinically sharp headshots the 105 f2.5 manual focus Nikon still can't be beat. For more dreamy images wide open, the 85 f1.4 Nikon is the one I'll use, and if I need a bit wider the Canon 50 f1.2 will come out, especially if I need to nail focus and need to work faster than manual focus allows me. For situations that aren't repeatable (i.e. weddings!) you need to trust your equipment to get it right, and you need your equipment to be fast. It's unusual that I use two different camera brands, but they each have particular lenses that work for me. I could mount my Nikon lenses on the Canon (not the other way around), but the ergonomics of the Nikon bodies is just that little bit easier on the hand, whereas the Canon L lenses are superb, especially their primes.
Lens collecting is fun for me. The chase. Finally finding something. The negotiation.. When I, with bated breath, finally open the package... There's a certain thrill in the hunt. There's definitely a tactile connection between me and something that I feel has been made well, that has a certain heft, a certain volume, a certain feel. However I'm not just an idle collector, and these lenses all have work to do, and so ultimately they're here because they help me make some amazing images, or at the very least, give me pleasure while I TRY to make an amazing image.. lately it's more the latter. At least I'm still using them though..
Thanks to my boys who served as models for many of the images here. As you can see one son doesn't mind being photographed, whereas the other runs away every time I pull out the camera...
I'll add images for the remaining lenses as time goes on.
