Older lenses for B&W on M9

[horosu]

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Hello,

 

I am a lucky user of a M9 (ordered August 1st, delivered October 18th). I have three modern lenses (35/2, 50/1.4, 75/2), all aspherics. Now, some 75% of my work is in B&W (TriX before, Silver Efex Pro now).

 

My question is: does anyone have any experience using "older" lenses on the M9? By "older", I mean 1st version 35/2 or 50/2 lenses. Would the tonal range be larger if I would convert to B&W with Silver Efex Pro a file shot with these lenses?

 

Cheers, Horea

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[lars_bergquist]

With most any older lens, you would get a 'flatter', i.e. lower contrast image. This of course means that more of the subject's tonal range (which is nearly always larger than that of the sensor or film) will be captured by the sensor. It is a common beginners' mistake, which I often saw committed in the old wet darkrooms, to think that this is always an advantage. A visually interesting image is usually made by the midtones: They must have enough tonal separation. There must also be some maximum black somewhere. If that is the case, then we can as a rule accept some highlight burnout/clipping, and quite considerable detail-less deep shadows.

 

There are of course one kind of 'detail' that must always be clipped, and that is specular highlights. While a diffuse ('matte') highlight can never reflect more light than falls on it, which is about 2 1/2 f-stops above the canonical 18 percent reflectance that meters are tuned to, specular highlights are actually mirror reflections of a light source. Especially if that source is the sun, their intensity in the subject can be thousands of times that of any diffuse highlight. No chance of capturing that, even if burning in a silver print until the cows came home. Light sources had to be left at Dmin.

 

I learned to do my best exhibition grade prints after studying some original Edward Weston prints. After that, I avoided soft, long range papers, this in order to get maximum midtone separation. I also exposed to slightly fog specular highlights, and then cleared them with dilute Farmer's Reducer, a tricky procedure which still helped me to get enough overall exposure for maximum density in the deepest shadows. The tyros who think we must always keep both the deepest shadows and the brightest highlights within the confines of the histogram, will of course find this crazy. But it worked.

 

Sean Reid likes old low-contrast lenses in bright sunlight. Of course you can use them, but as long as you do not over-expose, driving even diffuse highlights over the edge, modern lenses are actually better, because their midtone separation is superior. You can of course fix some of this in post-processing, but I like getting as much as possible right from the start -- possibly a quirk acquired during decades of shooting slide films.

 

The old man from the Age of Brovira

[elgenper]

.....

My question is: does anyone have any experience using "older" lenses on the M9? By "older", I mean 1st version 35/2 or 50/2 lenses.....

 

Thorsten Overgaard, on his M9 pages, has examples, plus a discussion of the advantages/disadvantages, and the "personality" of older lenses with the M9.

 

For my own part, I own some old lenses I used with my M2 decades ago, and I´m eagerly waiting for my M9 so I can test them (I´m aware of the risk that I´ll find I have to upgrade them, but I´ll give them a good try first). I hope for some nice results; I´ve tried them with adapters on a Panasonic G1, and even my uncoated ´36 Summar 50/2 yields quite "charming" images, with lots of glow.

 

Another old man who always preferred Record Rapid....

[Overgaard]

I was just about to open my mouth and say something

 

But it's true, the old lenses will give an interesting classic look though I personally feel that I miss the razor sharp details when I blow up the images. In short, you got to have both the old and the new lenses.

 

When I shoot M9 default black and white, I shoot -1/3 EV in camera, then bring down exposure a little bit further in Lightroom, then increase lightness and contrast. That will give a rather decent result in a matter of few seconds with the old lenses.

 

Now, the big confusion is to have both old and new lenses of all the ones you like. But if you need them, you need them

 

Here's a 35mm f/2.0 Version I shot from the hip Saturday:

[Riccis]

I coupled the M9 with a 90 Elmar Collapsible during Saturday's wedding... I will post some images once I get some time this week.

 

Cheers,

[Riccis]

As promised, files look great, IMHO... M9, ISO 1600, f/4 @ 1/40s, 90 Elmar Collapsible.

[Riccis]

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Another one... M9, ISO 1600, f/4 @ 1/40s, 90 Elmar Collapsible.

 

Hope this helps.

[doug_m]

Riccis,

 

Excellent images with great OOF area on the second shot.

 

Thorsten,

 

Yours is very nice as well.