Old American cars w/ M3; comparing MM photos of same

[A miller]

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I've been having some fun shooting a lot of old dirty American cars from the early 60's. The lot is located in the parking lot of the last pier off of the FRD highway heading south before the exit for the Brooklyn Bridge.

 

Here are some shots the I took with my M3, a 50mm elmar lens (circa early 1950s) and Kodak Tri-X film

This appears to be a NYC taxi cab from the 60's

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This is the back of the taxi cab; reminds me of the Bat-mobile

 

 

This looks like a 1958 Buick Century Riviera

 

The back profile of the Buick Century

 

This is ( I think) a 1963 Mercury Monterey

 

 

This is a Studebaker from (I think) the early 60's

 

For comparison, for those interested, here are shots of other cars in the lot that I took with my Monochrom with a 35mm (I posted these earlier in the Sports and Leisure forum a couple of weeks ago)

 

1963 Dodge Polera

 

1963 Pontiac Grand Prix

 

A Checker Cab from the early 60's

 

I'm interested in thoughts as to how the film shots compare with the MM shots and vice versa. Obviously, I used a much sharper and more modern lens with the MM, so that will admittedly invalidate the "controlled experiment" as a technical matter. But I'm in any case interest in any thoughts.

Best, Adam

[Michael Hiles]

I think the M3/Elmar/Tri-X pictures compare very well to the Monochrom shots. I suspect that the Monochrom files would show much more detail and sharpness than the Tri-X negatives. Tri-X is excellent, but it is not a film to capture super-fine detail.

 

On a computer screen I think there would be no appreciable difference visible between the old Elmar and a modern lens. The resolution here would not show off the improvements of modern formulations, I don't think - to see a difference would require a big print or a detailed examination of the Monochrom file. In any event, the 3.5 Elmar continues to stand up very well, particularly when used to its optimum, i.e. about 5.6 and with an efficient lens hood and a tripod or fast shutter.

Edited March 10, 2014 by Michael Hiles

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[A miller]

Many thanks, Michael. Very interesting. Fwiw, i shot the tri-x/elmar at mostly 5.6 with a shutter of 1/250 or better. This should have given plenty of sharpness as everything as constant and i am a pretty steady hand.

 

I dont think the comparison is totally fair here given that the negatives are digitized. While the scans were a high res 4000 dpi with a nikon coolscan 9000, im sure that a manual print of these negs could do a whole lot more justice in terms of sharpness and overall clarity.

 

I found the MM to have a wider gamut of tones and more flexibility in terms of how to render the image. This obviously is a function of the fact that a specific film will have its own character. This is totally fine and i think the tri-x shots do an ok job of presenting its own contrasty character (although i tried to leave certain images soft).

 

It's just interesting to shoot with both camera every now and then and compare results...

[pauledell]

Adam,

 

A fine shot with great tones and sharpness.

 

Paul

[stuny]

Perhaps these were in town for a movie? Two years ago, when the Coen Brothers were shooting Inside Llewyn Davis the West Village was filled with late '50s early '60s cars for the street scenes (west of macDougal and north of Bleeker, with most of the shooitng on MacDougal.

[A miller]

Thanks, Stuart. I also had this thought. Unfortunately, there hasn't been anyone around to ask. One day I'll poke around the port to see who I can find to ask. It is interesting, though, that the inventory of cars changes on a daily basis. I drive by every day and there is a different mix of cars. So at some point during the day there is activity in the lot. When I come around (usually before or after the work day), the lot looks deserted. Also interesting is that the doors to the cars are open and in some cases they keys are in the ignition