Csacwp Posted October 27, 2017 Share #1 Posted October 27, 2017 Advertisement (gone after registration) Anybody know what 150mm lens Saul Leiter shot with and how be got it to work on his M? Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Advertisement Posted October 27, 2017 Posted October 27, 2017 Hi Csacwp, Take a look here Saul Leiter 150mm. I'm sure you'll find what you were looking for!
jip Posted October 27, 2017 Share #2 Posted October 27, 2017 Maybe with Visoflex... Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
oldwino Posted October 27, 2017 Share #3 Posted October 27, 2017 He used a 150? I know he admitted to using a 90mm in several interviews. Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeff S Posted October 27, 2017 Share #4 Posted October 27, 2017 He used a 150? I know he admitted to using a 90mm in several interviews. Yes, in several interviews and conversations, for example... http://erickimphotography.com/blog/2013/11/04/7-lessons-saul-leiter-has-taught-me-about-street-photography/ Jeff Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
NB23 Posted October 27, 2017 Share #5 Posted October 27, 2017 Future Thambar owner? Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Csacwp Posted October 27, 2017 Author Share #6 Posted October 27, 2017 No thambar for me, but I love my other 90mm’s. I’m a huge fan of Leiter’s work, and though his style was surreal and often made great use of shallow depth of field, the infocus areas of his photos were incredibly sharp, not soft in the way the thambar renders. Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
luigi bertolotti Posted October 27, 2017 Share #7 Posted October 27, 2017 Advertisement (gone after registration) Why are you so sue that he used a 150 ON A LEICA ? I think he did use also some other gear... Anyway, 150 is an odd focal... Pentax had one, iirc (and Pentax was a very appreciated camera by professionals)... and I remember also that the Olympus 75/150 for OM cameras was considered as a little gem in the times when serious photographers had a sort of reluctance to trust/adopt zooms... could be another possibility related to Leiter's work. 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Csacwp Posted October 27, 2017 Author Share #8 Posted October 27, 2017 Because I was under the impression that all of his 1940s-80s work was done on a Leica. In the 2000s he used a Panasonic point and shoot Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeff S Posted October 28, 2017 Share #9 Posted October 28, 2017 Proof of Panasonic, at least, later in life... https://www.dpreview.com/forums/thread/3114139 Jeff Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
nikau Posted October 28, 2017 Share #10 Posted October 28, 2017 There is a self portrait, captioned as being taken in the 1950s, in which he's peering into a Graflex. Various 150mm lenses were used on the Graflex, including the 150mm f/5.6 Schneider Symmar S. Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
frame-it Posted October 28, 2017 Share #11 Posted October 28, 2017 could also be a 150mm hektor projector lens. http://forum.mflenses.com/viewtopic.php?t=13073 Welcome, dear visitor! As registered member you'd see an image here… Simply register for free here – We are always happy to welcome new members! Quote Link to post Share on other sites Simply register for free here – We are always happy to welcome new members! ' data-webShareUrl='https://www.l-camera-forum.com/topic/278181-saul-leiter-150mm/?do=findComment&comment=3383493'>More sharing options...
luigi bertolotti Posted October 28, 2017 Share #12 Posted October 28, 2017 There is a self portrait, captioned as being taken in the 1950s, in which he's peering into a Graflex. Various 150mm lenses were used on the Graflex, including the 150mm f/5.6 Schneider Symmar S. But in the interview he clearly quotes 150 as a long focal.. which it isn't when. used on a Graflex (which was probably used with 6x9 or even 9x12 formats) A lens like a 150 for large formats could be someway adapted for a Visoflex... but would be really an odd to use set, expecially in street... (anyway..you could set the central shutter to T and use the Leica shutter... ) Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Csacwp Posted October 28, 2017 Author Share #13 Posted October 28, 2017 His Graflex was an Auto Jr, so it shot smaller MF film. Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
oldwino Posted October 28, 2017 Share #14 Posted October 28, 2017 I’m really hoping his “150 lens” is just more Leiter-esque obfuscation. That would be perfect. 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
luigi bertolotti Posted October 28, 2017 Share #15 Posted October 28, 2017 His Graflex was an Auto Jr, so it shot smaller MF film. Wasn't the Auto jr a 6x9 ? Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
adan Posted October 29, 2017 Share #16 Posted October 29, 2017 (edited) Astro Berlin made a 150mm f/2.3 Portrait lens in Leica M39 (screw) mount - came with its own Visoflex-like "Identoskop" viewing system. http://collectiblend.com/Lenses/Astro-Berlin/150mm-f2.3-Portrait-(M39,-Identoskop).html About halfway down on this long web page are some book/magazine/advertising page reproductions showing the AB 150mm/Identoskop mounted on a Barnack Leica. http://www.exaklaus.de/astro.htm Jeffo Wong on flickr has some samples with one (camera type unknown). It may look massive (and probably is) and is mostly photographed attached to a tripod, but I - briefly - lugged around a similar-sized (1400g + camera weight) Zeiss Jena 180mm f/2.8 Sonnar adapted to Nikon mount back in the 1970s. It could be used for hand-held street or location snaps - by a young, healthy photographer! Note that the tripod socket/ring is removable. Edit: Astro Berlin even made a 150mm f/1.8 version (Pan-Tachar). Both lenses also made in Exakta SLR mount, minus the Identoskop. And a 150 f/2.0 in Pentacon Six/PraktiSix (6x6 MF) mount. Edited October 29, 2017 by adan 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheVanguard Posted October 29, 2017 Share #17 Posted October 29, 2017 (edited) Voigtlander did one, it was available in an M mount could be a contender? https://www.keh.com/shop/150-f4-5-voigtlander-in-cm-heliar-viso-lens-1.html Edited October 29, 2017 by TheVanguard Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
luigi bertolotti Posted October 29, 2017 Share #18 Posted October 29, 2017 Astro Berlin made a 150mm f/2.3 Portrait lens in Leica M39 (screw) mount - came with its own Visoflex-like "Identoskop" viewing system.... Interesting finding... thanks. Astro Berlin seems to have had a good reputation in USA... it's an intriguing hipotesis the Leiter had one (not exactly a light set for street photo... but who knows... ) Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
adan Posted October 30, 2017 Share #19 Posted October 30, 2017 (edited) For a photographer working in the 1940s-50s, we have to remember that SLRs for long lenses (or any lenses), were few and far between - and still kludgy. No quick-return mirrors (finder was blacked out until the shutter was recocked), few pentaprisms for eye-level or vertical pictures, no auto-stop-down of lenses (you either had to focus at shooting aperture - very dark, pre EVFs - or manually push a "preset" ring/button/lever to stop down just before pressing the shutter button). Plus, the earliest SLRs (Exakta (1930s, waist-level viewing), Contax S (1949, Pentaprism) and early Zenits (1952), were made in WW2 Germany or behind the Iron Curtain (Dresden, Jena, Krasnogorsk) during that era, and thus not readily available in the West. It was not until the very late 1950s that Asahi Pentax, Zeiss (Stuttgart - Contarex), and Nikon began providing seriously competent, "modern," general purpose SLRs with something approaching the functionality we know today. So in that era 1940-1960, if one wanted to shoot 35mm film with a lens longer than 135mm, it was perfectly normal, and made absolute sense, to just add on a reflex viewing system to your existing rangefinder camera (Visoflex, Identoskop, Nikon and Contax equivalents for their own rangefinder cameras). No less kludgy than the SLRs then available (or not-so-available). Or get and use a lens like the Zeiss Contax 180 Olympia, with the viewing periscope built right into the lens. And if that meant a heavy load to carry for perspective compression or subject isolation or other long/fast-lens tricks - it was simply how 35mm photography worked back then. Looking at Leiter's work, it's clear he enjoyed "long flat perspective" (not all the time of course) - I'd guess he'd have had no problem hauling around "whatever it took" in pursuit of the images he wanted. Such as the "red umbrella" shots or "The Postmen." https://www.google.com/search?biw=1675&bih=1251&tbm=isch&sa=1&ei=SKj2We_oB86cjwPJx6WgAQ&q=saul+leiter&oq=saul+leiter&gs_l=psy-ab.3..0l10.94727.96613.0.98571.11.11.0.0.0.0.102.904.10j1.11.0....0...1.1.64.psy-ab..0.11.902...0i67k1.0.o16uuS-4Gtg Edited October 30, 2017 by adan 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
luigi bertolotti Posted October 30, 2017 Share #20 Posted October 30, 2017 For a photographer working in the 1940s-50s, we have to remember that SLRs for long lenses (or any lenses), were few and far between - and still kludgy. So in that era 1940-1960, if one wanted to shoot 35mm film with a lens longer than 135mm, it was perfectly normal, and made absolute sense, to just add on a reflex viewing system to your existing rangefinder camera (Visoflex, Identoskop, Nikon and Contax equivalents for their own rangefinder cameras). No less kludgy than the SLRs then available (or not-so-available). Or get and use a lens like the Zeiss Contax 180 Olympia, with the viewing periscope built right into the lens... ... Yes, your reasoning is spot-on for those times : thinking well, a street photographer like Leiter probably preferred the 150 Pan Tachar to a "normal and light" Hektor 135 ...and not only for the (little) longer focal... it's heavy, true, but : - f 2,3 : on a IIIc, this means to use 1/200 instead of 1/60 on a f 4,5 lens : big difference with a long focal. - Reflex viewing : maybe rough but a SINGLE focusing/framing instead of switching from RF to focus and external VF to frame. after all, not by chance Leitz made all their well known "short mount" lenses for the Viso - Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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