NEW YORK NEW YORK – I took a walk along upper Fifth Avenue on this rainy day with my Leica M9 and 50mm f.95 Noctilux lens. Since I’ve calibrated the rangefinder on the camera (and switched shooting eyes from my astigmatic right to my good left eye), I’ve been getting uniformly interesting results with this lens, which has the ability to render the mundane as poetry. Some examples:
On this day last year: Trump.
NEW YORK NEW YORK – I met a friend for lunch at Cafe Centro – it’s located at 200 Park Avenue (which is the building that used to be called the Pan Am building, which is next to Grand Central Terminal which serves a railroad that used to be called the New York Central). This area is haunted by corporate ghosts. Anyway, I brought my Leica M9 and Noctilux and captured a few images. I shot more with film, which I’ll post on a later date.
On this day one year ago: Healey on steroids.
NEW YORK NEW YORK – A bit of repair and maintenance today. The rangefinder on my M9 has been slightly out of alignment for a while which has made it hard to focus in demanding situations. Horizontal alignment is easy, but vertical alignment requires peeling the Leica red dot off and using a special tool through a keyhole that the red dot hides. The special tool arrived from China today, so I peeled the red dot off (making a mess in the process) and fiddled with the tool for 10 minutes or so. Weirdly, unexpectedly, after ome trial and error I got it just right. I ordered a replacement red dot online and covered the hole with a little patch of duct tape as a temporary measure so I’m ready to roll. Most people would have sent their camera to Leica for calibration but I use mine every day and can’t really be without it for the three week round trip to Solms.
The focus issue had prevented me from using my Noctilux .95 but since I’ve fixed it I’ll be shooting a lot with the Nocti. It’s a magical lens, imparting a poetic quality to the most mundane objects. Here’s an example:
This morning I had a chance to get more use out of the Perer 35mm lens. Here’s a picture of it, mounted on my Leica M9, taken with my iPhone.
Lovely sunrise light this morning taken out my window with the Perer 35 and my M9:
On this day one year ago: Gil.
NEW YORK NEW YORK – A new lens arrived from Japan today: MS Super Triplet Perar 3.5/35 Mark II. I heard about this forum that I subscribe to and through the miracle of the internet got to the site of the Japanese company that makes them, ordered one and PayPalled some Yen to Japan, and voila the lens appeared a few weeks later via Japan post.
This is a fun lens. It’s tiny – very cool looking – I’ll post a picture tomorrow. The tiny controls and eccentric form facto take some getting used to. Rendering is very, very contrasty. Resolution is ok but pretty soft in the corners wide open. The triplet is a typical 1930s optic (the Cooke triplet is a famous large format lens) – back in the day these lenses were uncoated so the small number of elements and air-glass transitions was important. The Perar is completely free flare – the glass modern coatings.
For some reason it tends to show off spots on the sensor.
Some examples on an M9 from an urban walk about. I’ve done a great deal of lightening shadows and spot adjusting to compensate against the contrast. A little more veiling flare might not be a bad thing. All taken with my M9.
On this day last year: Still life.
NEW YORK NEW YORK – I took a walk today in Riverside Park from 116th Street to 59th Street with my medium format kit, a Phase One IQ 180 back, Alpa TC “camera” and a Rodenstock 32mm lens. Here’s a sample:
On this day one year ago: Lounge 3. Ugh . . . a travel day. This was hard work.
NEW YORK NEW YORK – Here’s one of the many construction sites for the 2nd Avenue Subway rendered with my Leica M9 and 35mm Summilux lens.
On this day one year ago: Sunrise in Lamu.
NEW YORK NEW YORK – More of Niki de Saint Phalle’s work on the Park Avenue divider betwen the Seagrams Building and the Racquet and Tennis Club. See my post of: July 26, 2012. Taken with my Leica M9 and 18mm Elmar lens. Later in the evening we trekked out to Brooklyn for dinner at Peter Lugar, the Chartres Cathedral of steak. Images taken with my Fuji X-Pro1 and 35mm lens.
On this day last year: A tree grows in Lamu.
