Leica Showcase Nikon 8.5cm F2 Nikkor-PC LTM

[Brian]

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.

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[Brian]

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.

 

[Brian]

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.

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G1005753 by fiftyonepointsix, on Flickr

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G1005755 by fiftyonepointsix, on Flickr

You get some strange looks using a camera like this.

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G1005762 by fiftyonepointsix, on Flickr

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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.

 

[Brian]

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.

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G1005888 by fiftyonepointsix, on Flickr

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

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G1005785 by fiftyonepointsix, on Flickr

This next one is at 1/25th.

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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.