Leica Leica M9 and 35/1.2 "No Flash Photography Allowed'

Brian

Product of the Fifties
The Musum at Ft Benning, Georgia is dedicated to telling the story of the Infantry soldier, opened less than two years ago. Many of the displays feature video projections as part of the displays. "No Flash Photography" allowed. I was asked to please turn off the flash on the M9- to which I responded, "This camera does not have a flash."

With the 35/1.2 Nokton. Mostly a mix of ISO 1250 and ISO640, lots wide-open at F1.2.

 
A Waco troop glider. My Father was a Glider Pilot for one of these. The program was canceled as the casualty rate was over 50%. Lucky for me, he transferred to B29 Superfortress Bombers. He was shot down several times, walked -or swam- away. Lucky for me.

 
The one time I needed a truly fast lens on my vacation, I didn't have my Nokton 50/1.1 with me. :( I had the CL with ISO 400 film and the Voigtlander 15/4.5 and the M8 with the Voigtlander Ultron 28/1.9 with me (a rather versatile duo, actually).

Rick and I discovered the city museum of Barcelona, which is over the site of the excavated Roman city of Barcina. The existing lenses I had worked fine for all but the very last thing I took a photo of: it turns out that there were some wall engravings in Hebrew. Unlike other places in the museum, these had no small spotlight. I took about 20 pictures on the M8 with the 1.9, but I'm not sure any of them turned out, not even at ISO 640.
 
I have no problem setting my M8 to 2500 when i need to. Out of the camera JPEG's work for me. I've shot Nikki at the skating rink with the lights off, and "Laser/Disco" lights as the sole lighting source.
 
I haven't uploaded my high-ISO shots on an M8 to anywhere, so let me do that later. Suffice to say: my results have not been as good as yours.
 
Brian, many thanks for these and for sharing with us the story of your father and the part he played. Thank goodness he returned home. Museums and other historic places are gems that need to be seen and experienced. It is great that you and your daughter can share these interests together.
 
very impressive. does the size of the lens interfere with the viewfinder? or make the m9 feel unbalanced in any way? it looks so much bigger than the 35/1.4 in photos i've seen.
 
The lens is about the same size as an older Nikkor 50mm F1.4. With the provided sunshade, it obstructs about the lower-right 1/8th of the 35mm framelines. This often happens with fast RF lenses, I am used to the Canon 50/0.95 obstructing about 1/3rd of the viewfinder on the Canon 7. in practice, it is not as much of a problem as it would be with an SLR.The RF shows you what is around the field of view of the lens. In the case of a lens that obstructs view, move the camera around a bit to compose. Basically build a mental image of the missing segment.
 
i have no rangefinder at present, so my reference point is my pentax k5. my largest manual lens is the zeiss 85/1.4, which is a behemoth (to me) and actually pulls the camera toward the ground if it's around my neck. makes balancing the camera for a low-light handheld shot that much more difficult. just wondering whether i could handle an m9 with the 35/1.2 on it. going to have to look up the actual weight of the 35.
 
Compared with the 35/1.4, the 35/1.2 is massive. It's practically four times as big, almost like a Canon 35/1.4L in size. It is still easy to hold, and the weight makes it balance the M9 pretty well. By taking most of the camera/lens weight with your left hand, it is quite stable. But it is in no way a convenient lens, especially if you are used to neat little RF lenses.
 
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