WARREN CONNECTICUT – I generally post to this site about a week late. I generally take 30 or more images a day – the analog equivalent of a roll of film – exploring at least four or five ideas. The one week lag between photographing and posting gives me the benefit of some distance in deciding which photos to post. Of course the lag creates a problem with holidays: If I post a Merry Christmas images a week late, it feels stale and used, like the bottom of an ashtray. This is why I avoid seasonal images.
So here I am in the second week in January writing a post about New Years Day.
Let’s focus on resolutions. First (I’ll get to “second” in a later post): I have a collection of Carl Zeiss Jena lenses dating from the early 1930s through the mid-1950s. They were made for Zeiss Ikon rangefinder cameras, which have an odd lens mount: the 50mm focusing helix is actually part of the camera body and other focal lengths have bayonet mounts that clamp onto the outside of the 50mm focusing helix. There are very few of these cameras in existence that are operable today so the lenses sell for very little on eBay. But a few years back I found a rare adapter, also from the 1950s, that adapts these lenses to a Leica screw mount, which can be attached to a Leica M mount adapter, which in turn can be attached to a Sony adapter. This Rube Goldberg arrangement permits using ancient lenses on a modern 42 megapixel full frame camera, the Sony 7Rii, which for technical reasons is turning out to to be a universal platform for old lenses.
Why would I use an old lens? They have a different (some would say more interesting) character than modern, highly correct multi coated lenses. They create images that look like they were made in the 1930s, 1940s or 1950s. There are all kinds of aberrations wide open but stopped down they are actually generally fine performers from a resolution standpoint. Contrast is much softer than modern lenses, giving the impression of transparent shadows.
So my New Years resolution: for the month of January I’m shooting only with legacy Carl Zeiss lenses.
Day 2269 of one photograph every day for the rest of my life.
On this day four years ago (day 808): Taos Mountain, a very high and very cold ski resort.
