Photo Gear (2) - 35mm for 35mm

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While I was preparing my first post on Photo Gear, photographing the Flektogon, I came to realize that over the years I had assembled and used a variety of 35mm lenses. I am talking about 35mm lenses for the 35mm film format, that is.
I still use, at least, one more 35mm lens, a Rodenstock Apo-Grandagon 35mm f. 4.5, wich is designed to be used on a 6x9 camera with shift movements, or even on a 6x12 without movements. But that is another story, that I will leave for another occasion. That 35mm in a 6x9 camera becomes a super-wide, and that is not the subject here.

Has a matter of fact, I consider 35mm, as my "normal" focal length, instead of the traditional 50mm. I think that it better suits my normal vision, the 50mm is already "croping" too much the way I look into a scene, the way I perceive reality around.

So let's think of it as a kind of normal-wide, or wide-normal, as you wish. It really doesn't matter!

To each optic, I tried to match the right body, meaning from the same or a similar age. At least more or less... I didn't exactly go check the serial numbers in some tables...

Let me just have my fun!

(All equipment photographs were shot using a Canon EF f5.6/400mm L+Canon 30D. Light was, as usual, supplied by Hensel Studiotechnik).

f 2.8/35mm Schneider Curtagon+Exakta Varex IIb

Coming from the early-sixties, a camera already shown in the previous post about Photo Gear. The rather strange Exakta, this time equiped with a Schneider Curtagon.
This is decidedly a camera not for everyone! It needs to grow on you. It took me some years, but I like it now. As you could see in the post before, I even got a "new" optic for it. Yes, you can find nice lenses for the Exakta. You just need to also find the time, because you better not use it in a rush. For myself I prefer to use it on a tripod. That's also the best way of getting true advantage of the fine optics.

f 2.8/35mm Carl Zeiss Jena Flektogon+f 2.8/35mm Schneider Curtagon

Same focal distance and same aperture, both fine german optical quality (east and west), but a big difference in size! Probably due to the fact that the Flektogon can almost focus to half the distance of the Curtagon...
As far as I can say, both lenses have six elements. The Schneider must be from the (late?) sixties, and the Zeiss, in this version, comes from the seventies.
If you wish to see some other versions, please take a look on Captain Jack's Exakta Pages. Lots of interesting stuff there.

I use a variety of Zeiss and Schneider lenses on other cameras and other formats. Together with Rodenstock, they are my lenses of choice for many applications. You can find them in my Rollei's, Hasselblad's, Corfield, Horseman, etc., etc.
I also use Schneider and Rodenstock lenses in Large Format Photography, and they also equip my enlargers, together with a Leitz Focotar. More about that on a later time...

Now in closest focusing distance... Notice the long way of the Flektogon.

f 2.8/35mm Nikkor-S+Nikon F+ Photomic FTn

The camera that revolutionized the market in the sixties, robing the german's industry leading post. The real pro camera system! The working-horse par excellence...

I must confess, that I have mixed feelings about Nikon: I treasure some optics that I find outstanding, this 35mm belongs to that group, but there were some lenses that never knew how to please me... I also could never understand why Nikon made their optical-glass without half-clickstops...
I never tried the new auto-focus lenses from Nikon. When I decided to go auto-focus, I changed to Canon.

This outfit is from around 1968, and the original owner must have bought it while on duty as a pilot in Vietnam. So at least I was told by the american person who sold it to me in Germany. Each camera has it's own story. If cameras could talk...

f 2.5/35mm W-Nikkor+Calypso/Nikkor II

Another very good 35mm lens, this one connected to an amphibian armoured-tank, also from around 1968! Another strange beast, developed for diving purposes, but that I rarely used on the ocean.
Yes, sometimes I used it on the beach or in the pool, but I mainly acquired it for stormy-weather and rainy-days photography, so I won't have to sing stormy-monday by looking at my Leicas beeing soaked in the rain...

I find sharpness on this lens to be very good. I like to use it, although it is also that kind of camera that needs to get used to. I miss a light-meter on this one, as the situations when I choose to use it, are not the best to be fumbling around pointing your incident light-dome at something...

I actualy don't use it that much...

f 2.0/35mm Summicron-M+Leica M4-2+Leicameter MR

Here is my "queen of the 35's"!!! Ready to go!

I just love (almost) everything about this jewel: the compact size, the optical character, the feeling it delivers in my hands, the photographs it produces...

I show it here, paired with my first Leica-M. My first and my "youngest" Leica-M, I must add. The camera is from 1978, and I never felt need to buy a newer Leica. In fact, all other models that I later bought, are "still a little bit less young"...

I got this 35mm Summicron in 1980, and I also never was attracted to trade it for a newer aspherical design. I guess this one is really good enough for me.

I would bring it to that proverbial island...

(Along with that beautiful Joni Mitchell record, "Blue"...)

Allow me one more photograph: "naked" to be better seen..

f 2.8/35mm Distagon HFT+Rolleiflex SL 2000 F

The SL 2000 F was a revolutionary design for a 35mm camera: interchangeable film magazines, dual viewfinder system, integral motor drive, left and right hand release buttons, interchangeable screens...

It was introduced on the european market in 1981, and lenses from the SL35 series could be used on this camera. That means, that besides the cheaper (Mamiya made?) Rolleinars, you had access to the fine Carl Zeiss line of lenses offered for the Rollei 35mm cameras. The fine Planars, Distagons and Sonnars, were at your disposal by acquiring this model, that looked and fellt more like a smaller 6x6 camera than a 35mm...

Certainly developed thinking about the professional or advanced amateur market, it eventually was too much a departure from the typical design of a 35mm camera, too unusual to share wide recognition and success. It just could not win against the fierce japanese competition.

In my opinion, it is not a very reliable camera (mine is again"kaputt"!), but it surely is a pity that Rollei soon had to abandon the idea of having a 35mm camera in the market. It was their and our loss!

While I try to decide if I should, once again, repair this one, I keep on using the fine optics with the much simpler, but effective, SL35 body. You can see some images photographed by that combo on a former post about the castle of Montemor-o-Novo, made in black and white, some months ago.

The Distagon 35mm in a more frontal view, showing the Rollei - HFT logo, a similar coating-technic used by Zeiss in the T* optics. Notice the matching design of this version, using a similar pattern to the body covering. Just very nice!

Please, notice the waist-level finder in opened position.
Look at the diopter adjustment capability in the eye-level finder in the back of the camera.
Did you notice the left-hand shutter release?
The 72 frame-counter in the film magazine?
The flash synchronization socket?

Can you imagine this beauty with the possibility of an interchangeable digital back?

"Oh Lord, won't you give us nice cameras again? All my friends are driving DSLR's..."

And the winner is...

(After all said and done)

Enjoy!

P.S.: I dedicate this post to a photographer, Rui Lebreiro, who is looking for a prime 35mm. I wish him luck and a good time!

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Photo gear

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Canon EF 400mm f/5.6 L USM

Every now and then, I will post some thoughts about photo gear. Nothing fancy or too much technical, I am not that kind of guy, just feelings about old and new equipment. Maybe even only some photographs of cameras and lenses. I might sometimes write from a professional point-of-view, other times just about the pleasure of creating images.

We, photographers, tend to be very gear-oriented people, we have a very physical relationship with our cameras, we touch them, we carry them, we smell them, we put them to our faces and noses.
I dare to say, that very often I find myself caressing my Leicas for instance, for I do love to grip that round shape with my fingers. It senses a little bit like "home". Am I silly? Well, I guess... But if you imagine that I am already doing it for over thirty years now... Kind of good old friends, me and my Leicas...


I start by posting my three last acquisitions (I choose to leave my Leicas for a later date).

The lens depicted above, I bought used in Leica Shop in Wien, Austria. They have a phantastic catalogue on line, and I was very pleased with their service. If I had some more money, I would certainly order a couple of things more from them. If you also love or need photo gear, take a look a their site. I think that you won't find it a waste of time.
I haven't tried yet this lens very seriously, but it surely focus fast, at least for a 5.6! It is relatively compact and light (for a 400mm, that is...), and is, in terms of L optics, still affordable. If you should need a long lens, and like me, don't need or can't afford f/2.8, take this one in consideration. Very good optical quality!

(By the way: the images of the two other cameras, were shot with the 400mm and a 30D).

Yashica IC Lynx 5000E

This camera actually belonged to my father. A couple of months ago, my mother asked me if I wanted to keep it. At first I showed no interest, but then I thought that it might be a good souvenir.
I must admit that I was wrong: the camera seems to be better than I thought. The lens is a six-element (Planar type?), and the Copal leaf-shutter is very quiet. Furthermore, it is mechanical, the batteries are only needed for the light-meter. No Leica, but solidly built anyway!
I think that I will keep it behind the seat of my Land Rover pick-up. Just need to find a lens-shade and a yellow-filter...

(IC should mean Integrated Circuit. Must have been the world's first camera to use such a thing. So he says: I mean the Yashica Guy! He surely knows better than me!).

Carl Zeiss Flektogon 2.8 / 35mm

I think that I am giving up beeing a snob... I started to enjoy using my Varex IIb!
After many years of staying in the cupboard, I decided to give it a try. I must say that it keeps me awaken, it makes me think even more than shooting a 4x5 inches... The finder is dark, the shape is certainly odd to say the least, the slow shutter-speeds are hard to set, the shutter-release is maybe good for left-handers...
But where else do you get a twelve-second mechanicaly-timed exposure? So cheap?

So I decided that I should start looking for a nice selection of lenses for this "freak"...

I already had a 2.8/35mm Schneider Curtagon from the sixties, but I wanted to compare it with a 2.8/35mm Flektogon (Zeiss east german equivalent to Zeiss west german Distagon).
Outstanding in this optic, is the short-focusing distance of only 18cm (less than 8 inches!), for sure unusual for this focal length. Some people call it the Macro-Flektogon!

I haven't tried the beast yet, the postman brought it a couple of days ago, but I bet that I won't have the need to use a post-processing program to correct the optical quality...

(I ordered this specimen from Foto Krüger in Dresden, Germany. Looks nice and feels nice, with a nice leather case. It left the VEB Carl Zeiss Jena in 1976. I love classic stuff!).

Nice close-focusing distance, but not that small...

(If you like Exaktas, or got interested, take a look here on Captain Jack's. You won't regrett it!).

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