Testing Contax IIIa lenses

[michaelging]

OK , Its been kind of dry here (pun Intended) for shooting exciting

photographs in exotic locations,so I decided to shoot some film

through several of my lenses on my Contax IIIa.I bought a 135mm F4,

prewar sonnar lens over the holidays on ebay, for $50.00 with caps

and a case. The 135mm focal length is not my favorite ,but I thought

I would give it a try. The 135mm lens on my Retina RF close focus is

like 12 ft, and that's not very close for portraits. This lens

focuses down to 1.5 meters or a little less than 5 ft. I shot with

the lens wide open , stopped down to 5.6 and F16.I was impressed with

the sharpness and contrast,look at the photos and you be the judge,I

will post several. I also shot some using my 50mm F2 Sonnnar at F2,

and my 35mm nikkor RF lens, that I use on the Contax. All were shot

on Tri-x developed in D76, 1 to 1.<div></div>

[michaelging]

Tosca 135mm Sonnar<div></div>

[michaelging]

Tosca, 135mm at close focus distance, 1.5 meters ,shot at F4 wide open<div></div>

[michaelging]

Tisca ,135mm close focus straight on focused on Eyes<div></div>

[michaelging]

135mm at F4, focused on eyelash on her right eye.<div></div>

[michaelging]

135mm Sonnar , focused on tree branch ,noon , shot at F22 looking for Flare.<div></div>

[michaelging]

Tosca shot infront of house using 35mm Nikkor RF lens , at F8<div></div>

[michaelging]

Tosca ,shot at night from street light with 35mm nikkor , wide open at 1 sec. Notice the flare by her head, or maybe that's a halo.<div></div>

[michaelging]

Last Photo , shot handheld of Tosca on livingroom floor , shot with 50mm f2 Sonnar , a F2 for 1/25 of a sec.<div></div>

[gene m]

That 135 Sonnar is beautiful and that's a handsome dog.

[michaelging]

Thanks Gene , she needs a bath bad...........

[Matthew Currie]

Yes, that 135 is definitely 50 bucks well spent.

[aadewar]

You must be very pleased with that purchase.

[ken_kartes]

I hope Tosca signed a model release! She looks stunning with the 135 focused on her eyes. If she is available to travel to New Hampshire I would love to do a shoot with her!

[michaelging]

Ken, Tosca works for peanuts,and popcorn and dog bones. I would send her East ,but she is a warm weather dog.She saw the photos of the eagles in the snow and got a little spooked. Thanks for the offer, and if she changes her mind , I will let you know. :)

[krawczyk]

Congratulations Michael, great pictures.

 

I loved the night picture.

 

Tell me, what is the trick for Tosca stay posing for the pictures?

[michaelging]

Alberto, There are no tricks like putting inscects in the freezer to keep them still for a few moments while you take their photo.She is a very smart dog and stays when I tell her to stay.She has me trained as well, I go have to go out aprox 5 times a day to play ball with her,so its a even trade off.

[frank_scheitrowsky1]

In the shot of the dog by the lamp post, there looks to be a halo above the dog. :) Yes I know what it really is, I jsut think it's very appropriate and fortuitious..

[jim_mcbride]

Tosca is a very beautiful and patient subject! Please let us see more.

[michaelging]

OK Jim ,this one is for you,one last one of Tosca<div></div>

[berlinhennig]

I would like to know how you keep all this data (aperture, ect.) in mind. I can imagin that you

go for a shooting with a sheet of paper and a pencil if you want to test a special camera or

lens. But a lot of photographic books long before we had digital possibilities like exif-data

have all these information. And collecting them is one thing but getting them later connected

with the developed photo just another. There must have been a reason for the Kodak

autographic series in the early 1900's.

[michaelging]

Normally I would not keep track of F-stop and shutter speed, but when I am testing a lens,against another lens, or looking for the sweet spot , I keep track for comparisons. That is the scary thing about digital files , you can see everything that camera was doing at the moment of exposure.