Best M portrait lens?

[Exodies]

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My post was in the context of the Tate definition 'A portrait is a representation of a particular person‘

[pgk]

My post was in the context of the Tate definition 'A portrait is a representation of a particular person‘

 

Mine wasn't !

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[paulsydaus]

Are you saying any use of 75mm has to be an up close head and shoulders?

Surely there are more uses to the focal length than that?

 

 

What is a portrait lens? What is a portrait?

 

Is a portrait's purpose to isolate the person from his environment? To compress features to head and shoulders? Formula stuff. That's what many of us have been led to think. In that case a normal focal lens plus 30%. That points to 75mm.

 

If a portrait is to include the subject within his environment, then the possible focal lengths are from 10mm to 50mm.

 

One must decide how he understands 'portrait'.

 

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[paulsydaus]

Very true.

Or adding a healthy dose of film grain can also help.

Much easier to remove detail than to add it...

 

You can easily slide the sharpening slider to the left. Specifically on Capture one with the monochrome 1 the picture sometimes greatly improves. This can be applied on import too but will affect other pictures then too ...

 

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[pico]

Are you saying any use of 75mm has to be an up close head and shoulders?

Surely there are more uses to the focal length than that.

 

Of course. I was pointing to the outdated stereotype of a portrait focal length from which most so-called portrait photos were made. If anyone has a portrait using, for example, a 75mm lens and is not stereo-typical, let us see it. It is not an intellectual issue, but one of practice.

 

Here is one of a fellow worker on our Goss printing press waiting for machine maintenance. Environment, person, portrait, 85mm lens.

Edited January 22, 2018 by pico

[Milan_S]

The 90mm f2.2 Thambar has definitely become my favorite portrait lens, shot stopped down and with the right light setup (natural or studio light) it can create wonderful portraits...

 

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[Guest Nowhereman]

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...I notice that nobody recommended the 90/4 macro!...

 

Why not?

 

M-Monochrom | Macro-Elmar-M 90mm f/4 | ISO 1250 | f/8.0 | 1/125 sec

Bangkok

 

 

And why not a 28mm lens for street portraits?

 

M10 | Summaron-M 1:5.6/28 | ISO 800 | 1/350 sec

Bangkok

 

_______________

Alone in Bangkok essay on BURN Magazine

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[Raid Amin]

One of my favorite "M lenses" for portraits is a Zeiss 5cm/1.5 Sonnar (1938) modified to ltm, and with M adapter. It is forgiving, and it produces lovely looking portraits.

[geetee1972]

One of my favorite "M lenses" for portraits is a Zeiss 5cm/1.5 Sonnar (1938) modified to ltm, and with M adapter. It is forgiving, and it produces lovely looking portraits.

 

It basically produces the same sort of effect as the Thambar but at about one tenth the price.

[pico]

One of my favorite "M lenses" for portraits is a Zeiss 5cm/1.5 Sonnar (1938) modified to ltm, and with M adapter. It is forgiving, and it produces lovely looking portraits.

 

You might enjoy the Sonnetar 50mm f1.1, if you can understand the rear lens adjustments.

Edited January 23, 2018 by pico

[colint544]

Great question, but a portrait lens can be such a hard thing to define, if you look into it.

 

I have a great fondness for the Canon 85mm F1.2L lens, which I sometimes use for work. But that's a very specialised lens. It's designed to be shot at F1.2. It's essentially the ultimate portrait lens. It does one thing really well. We all buy it, and rarely use it for anything other than portraits. It's the ultimate 'get out of jail free' card for photographers. You can produce a portrait with that lens that really leaps off the page. But you do tend to get more of an effect, an illustration (for your magazine or newspaper) than anything more personal. It can become a boring sort of look if you overuse it.

 

Here are a couple of personal shots of mine. Both shot on an M Monochrom mk1. First one on the 50mm Summilux ASPH, the second on the 28mm Summicron ASPH mk1. I prefer more personal portraits, if that makes any sort of sense.

 

https://www.instagram.com/colintempleton/

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Edited January 24, 2018 by colint544

[ru2far2c]

I am resistant to the idea of secondhand lenses because I don't feel like waiting for one to turn up in local 2ndhand markets (not that patient) nor do I trust fleabay that much. I have never bought anything this expensive from a non bricks and mortar seller before. A quick search of fleabay shows quite a few 75 Lux, some from bricks and mortar shops so I suppose it should be OK. 

 

Check with Ken Hanson NYC. He doesn't have a website. He will respond by email if you tell him what your looking for specifically. I have purchased from him several items and have been very happy. Also try the leica dealer their stock rotates very frequently. There several other dealer as well in the states like KEH (they have a fleabay site too), Pop Flash and several others. Good luck in your search.