Leica Showcase Nikon 8.5cm F2 Nikkor-PC LTM

[BrianS]

The lens that caught the attention of DDD.

This is my favorite portrait lens for the M8, M9, and M Monochrom.

Wide-Open, shot of my Daughter is with the M9- one of the first pictures taken with it over 2 years ago.

Monochrom- at the Marine Museum at Quantico, Korean War Diarama.

 

[BrianS]

This lens is sharp even wide-open. It is a Sonnar formula lens, and is relatively short compared with the Canon 85/2, 85/1.9, and Leica Summicron. The chrome version is much more common than the later Black version- runs in the $300~$400 range. Available in Leica Mount, Nikon S-Mount, and Contax RF mount.

 

[BrianS]

This lens is amazing. Took it to the skating rink today, on the M Monochrom.

All shots at ISO 10,000 and wide-open at F2. No noise reduction, no sharpening, converted to 16-bit using my Gamma curve software.

G1005753 by fiftyonepointsix, on Flickr

G1005755 by fiftyonepointsix, on Flickr

You get some strange looks using a camera like this.



G1005762 by fiftyonepointsix, on Flickr

G1005875 by fiftyonepointsix, on Flickr

I use a 1.25x magnifier with Telephoto lenses on the Leica. No problems focusing, when the subject is moving this quickly it takes some practice. I find the long-throw lenses much easier to use in a manual "follow-focus" mode.

 

[BrianS]

The main lights go out and the rink is lit only by Disco lights- ISO 10,000, F2, and shutter speeds from 1/25th to 1/90th. It's very dark, you need to find something with some contrast to focus on.

G1005888 by fiftyonepointsix, on Flickr

And the Skaters Speed up to the Music played with the lights out-

G1005785 by fiftyonepointsix, on Flickr

This next one is at 1/25th.

G1005780 by fiftyonepointsix, on Flickr

I do better with the rangefinder for these kind of shots. Seeing outside of the frame makes it easier to pan, the split image focus lets you pick out a feature to follow-focus. I keep focusing the release.

Also- for Monochrom users: I only had one "Hang-Up" of the shutter advance in ~170 shots taken. There are windows that it works fine, a rather long window when it is in the write cycke that it can glitch.