Jump to content

90mm / 135mm for portrait


tony740607

Recommended Posts

Vintage longer-focal length lenses are much better than their wide-angle counterparts. It's hard to find a bad one; most are center-sharp and good enough edge-to-edge. Spherical aberration and field-curvature  are easier to correct  for long focal lengths. "for whatever reason" Telephoto lenses are not as popular for RF's, and prices are low compared with fast-normals and wides. As a result, I've picked up a number of them...

 

Personal favorites:

Nikkor 10.5cm F2.5 (Sonnar formula, The Classic Portrait lens)

https://www.flickr.com/photos/90768661@N02/sets/72157649628167035

 

Canon 100/2 (Double Gauss design, 58mm filter size, great lens)

https://www.flickr.com/photos/90768661@N02/sets/72157647345676389

 

Nikkor 8.5cm F2

https://www.flickr.com/photos/90768661@N02/sets/72157648457066008

 

9cm F4 collapsible Elmar, same optics as post-war coated Rigid.

Summicron 90/2, first version (lower contrast, softer)

Minolta 85/2.8 (almost unknown, uses 40mm filters, hard to find use ebay search "WALZ" and "Canon") This lens is smaller, heavy Brass.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/90768661@N02/sets/72157650434385155

 

The uncoated 9cm F4 Elmar, contrast too low for the M Monochrom- too much veiling flare.

Canon 85/2- BIG and HEAVY- optically good, lower contrast.

Canon 85/1.8: great optics, but very-very hard to get the RF calibration correct.

Zeiss 8.5cm F2 Sonnar: great lens, very hard to get RF calibration correct with adapter. I "hacked" an inexed-cam into a custom adapter.

 

135- The late Canon 135/3.5 and Nikkor 13.5cm F3.5, and Tele-Colinar 135/3.8. (The latter was $10! very sharp and great contrast, almost unheard of)

 

I have a lot of others, including the 135/2.8 Elmarit. The latter is big, heavy, hard to focus- not for everyone, I love it.

 

 

These were between $100 and $400.

Link to post
Share on other sites

The Nikkor 10.5cm F2.5, Wide-open on the M Monochrom. Y52 filter, straight export to Jpeg with LR6.

Lenshacker,

 

Your picture reminds me of a train in a siding; the caterpillar being the train and the short branch being the siding facing onto the main line. (Yes I'll keep taking the pills. :D)

 

Pete.

Link to post
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...