Plimoth Patuxet
Another field trip by the Duxbury Camera Club, this time to the preserved community and museum at Patuxet in Plymouth Ma. It was a warm early spring day with harsh sunlight, so not the best conditions for a photo shoot. But we did our best. Here are some of mine.
Vintage Lens - Modern Optics
There’s been a lot of lens news this year, especially for Leica M users. When I bought my M9 back in 2011 the only lenses available for that mount were from Leica, Voigtländer and Zeiss. The higher quality Leica lenses were expensive and the cheaper lenses from the other companies were, with some rare exceptions, not very good. If you didn’t go for the expensive Leica glass, you could expect to compromise on quality.
These days there are more choices from more manufacturers. It seems that new M lenses are being announced every week. Optical design technology is advancing rapidly. A lot of the new stuff is gimmicky but some of the new cheap lenses out there today are actually pretty good.
I looked at one from a Chinese company called Mandler (named in an homage to the famous Leica lens designer, Walter Mandler). It’s a 35mm f2, modeled on the classic Leica 7-element Summicron.
There’s some hype around this lens and it’s often sold out. It’s part of a new trend among Chinese lens-makers to reproduce a classic vintage lens, but with modern touches, such as better coatings and optics, to provide a ‘best of both worlds’ design.
And the Mandler costs under $400, less than a tenth of what the original would cost (if you could even find one). Sounds like a good deal.
I picked one up to see what all the hype was about. I’ve been shooting it for a couple of weeks and I have some thoughts.
First of all, I’m not a huge fan of the ‘vintage look’ that everyone seems to be seeking. I actually like clinical sharpness and clarity in a lens. A fast lens that provides a super sharp subject and nice bokeh falloff is my Holy Grail. For landscapes, I like it sharp corner to corner. I don’t get the ‘blurry-on-purpose’ thing.
The Mandler does seem to be pretty sharp in the center. But what about overall performance?
I took some shots to compare it to my 35 Leica Summilux (the latest version). It might seem like an unfair test but my goal was not to do a scientific comparison but just to see how wide the quality gap was between them and which one I should take when I go out to shoot.
Center-frame Crop @f8 - Distant Subject
Leica @ f8.
Mandler @ f8
The Mandler does pretty well here, but the Leica is just slightly sharper, with more micro-contrast.
Mid-frame Crop @ f8 - Mid-ground Subject
Leica @ f8
Mandler @ f8
Mid-frame, the gap widens. The Mandler is not as sharp. There’s a muddiness in the details.
Edge of Frame Crop @ f8 - Distant Subject
Leica @ f8
Mandler @ f8
Here’s where things go bad for the Mandler. At the edge of the frame it’s quite blurry, while the Leica is still razor-sharp.
Center-frame Crop @ f2 - Close Subject
Leica @ f2
Mandler @ f2
At f2, and at close distance, I was surprised to see how sharp the Mandler was. (I did reproduce this result since my manual focus skills could be a factor) In this circumstances the $400 Mandler seems to be at least as sharp as the $4000 Leica. Possibly sharper?
Conclusion:
The Mandler is ok. Not a great lens, but ok. What it has going for it is that center sharpness wide open. But outside of that it’s not so great. Not a good choice for landscapes or street work, even stopped down.
But there is another thing it has going for it and that’s aesthetics. It’s a small and good-looking lens on the camera, which is important—but not more important than performance, unfortunately.
So, again, not a scientific comparison, but just a way to decide which 35mm to grab when heading out to shoot. And the answer for me in most cases will be: take the Leica, leave the Mandler.
Bogged
Southeastern Massachusetts is cranberry central. There are dozens of working bogs in the area and I spend a lot of time walking the dog on the paths around them. More often than not I bring a camera.
Here’s a small collection of bog shots taken over the course of this year, including some this week. I always enjoy the colors and how they change across the seasons, and even the time of day.
Under the Golden Dome
Our latest foray with the Duxbury Camera Club was to shoot up on Beacon Hill. We spent an afternoon in the Massachusetts State House. Here’s a gallery of some of my shots.
Staff were very open to our group shooting away and one of the security folks even opened up the House Chamber for us. I used the Leica SL3 with a Sigma 35 f1.2, as well as the Viltrox 16mm f1.8. The Sigma is a little big and heavy but both lenses performed well with the interior shots.
Snow, snow and more snow.
It’s been quite a winter here in coastal Massachusetts. Very cold and lots and lots of snow. Shoveling was tough and it was no fun going days without power. But all that snow was perfect for black & white photography.
It seemed like a new fresh coat would arrive each week, keeping the ground cover clean and camera-ready. And then, as February ended, it was all gone in a single week of warm days and now all we have left to remind us of the snow are the photos.
Museum of Industry
I haven’t posted anything. for a while. But now I have a few photos to post. This group of images is from a Duxbury Camera Club field trip to the Charles River Museum of Industry and Innovation in Waltham, MA.
It’s a cool little place. I tried out my new Viltrox 16mm F1.8 on the SL3. (It’s a really sharp and fast wide-angle, with very little distortion. It performs well with the big sensor on the SL3 and gives the Leica lenses a run for their money on image quality.)
Shine On
I had not planned to shoot the Harvest Moon, but I was out walking the dog near the North River and just before heading home I remembered that the Harvest moonrise would be tonight — and in only a few minutes. I had the SL3 with me and a Sigma 20-200mm that I had been testing, so I decided, on the fly, to head up to the North River bridge and see if I could see the moon come up. And there it was.
As mentioned, it wasn’t a planned shoot and I was barely able to check my settings as I rushed around to catch the moon near the horizon from a number of different perspectives. I caught it over the lobster shack and out over the spit. A big thanks to the woman who pointed out the Great Blue Heron on the post behind the marina.
Also to Uma, who waited patiently for me in the car.
Westworld
Just back from a long road trip from Phoenix to Rapid City, via the Grand Canyon, Bryce, Jackson Hole, the Tetons, Yellowstone, the Bighorn Mountains and the Black Hills of South Dakota.
Beautiful scenery, varying along the way, from desert to canyon to plains to rich forests.
I took a limited photo kit, centered around the Leica SL3. Most of the time I had the good old 24-90 Vario-Elmarit attached but I also leaned on the 21mm APO. As I get older I find myself optimizing for lighter weight over having all the tools. It would have been nice to have a long lens in the bag for the bald eagle shots but it would have been too heavy for my old bones on those long hot hikes.
So anyway, here are some images from the trip.
Down East
Last week we took a quick trip up to Bar Harbor and Arcadia National Park, via Portland and Camden. It wasn’t really a photography trip but I did manage to get a few minutes to climb out on the rocks with the M11 for a shot of the iconic Bass Harbor Lighthouse. And we also stopped at Fort Knox on the Penobscot River. Here are a few other shots from along the way.
Blue Hour Workshop
As part of Duxbury Camera Club programming, I recently joined a photography workshop put on by Dave Long. Dave is a local photographer known for his vibrant landscapes. This workshop was a sunset and blue hour exercise set on Cape Cod, at the Nobska Lighthouse and The Knob, a peninsula on Buzzard’s Bay.
I hadn’t shot at either location so it was a good opportunity to get out with the group from the camera club and to get a little shutter therapy. Dave was a pleasure to work with, providing a good blend of guidance and tips, appreciated especially by some of the less experienced photographers in the group.
For gear, I brought the SL3 with a 24-90 and 90-280, but I particularly leaned on the Sigma 14-24 for the wide shots. I had the Travel Tripod too, but used it only on one long shot of the lighthouse. I also brought ND filters but didn’t use them at all.
The post-sunset sky was kind of a dud but the Canadian wildfire smoke did give a little warmth to the setting sun, so there was some color, at least. Here are some of the shots I managed.