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Leica APO-Summicron-SL 35 f/2 ASPH
Written by Steven Posted in Lenses.
My interest in 35mm lenses has remained unfettered since I first got into ‘serious’ photography more than four decades ago. I have written elsewhere of my fondness for this focal length and it’s ability to capture slightly wider angles with little in the way of distortion. It was a long time before I purchased my first 35mm, as before this I have used zooms and often composed images on or around this angle. Seeking a lighter alternative, I soon latched onto the fact that I could have a fast prime - much faster than a zoom - minus the heft. When I first discovered Leica Camera’s it was via the X1, as it had a 35mm equivalent lens built in, albeit not particularly fast. Not many years after this I was lured into purchasing the X Typ 113, thanks to its much faster 35mm prime. I still use that camera today and the results I can get from it are sublime.
Lost and Found
Written by Steven Posted in Blogs.
Cameras have fascinated me all of my life. I do not remember a time before I loved them. Even as a small child my Dad’s Brownie was something I couldn’t keep my hands off. I struggled to correlate that this small item could record happy memories of relatives and holidays forever. Like most small boys, I was fascinated by dinosaurs, insects trapped in amber and time travel. Film became my amber, and the image contained on the negative was the insect. The camera of course became the time machine. Immortalised by the medium, our past is recalled in more detail than human memory alone permits. My Dad also had an old TLR camera which he allowed me to play with until I broke it (Hopefully it wasn’t an expensive one). Hopelessly I peered through the viewfinder wondering if I could see directly into the past and glimpse the same world from which the photographs were created. I don’t ever recall this being disappointing and it certainly didn’t cause my interest in cameras to wain, which is surprising considering the world of distractions that comes with growing up. But somewhere in those playful sessions long ago a deep rooted seed was embedded in my psyche.
First outing with the Leica Summilux-SL 50mm f1.4 ASPH
Written by Steven Posted in Blogs.
A welcome addition to our Leica lens arsenal is the Summilux-SL 50 f1.4 ASPH, which we took delivery of just a couple of weeks ago. As we only have APSC L mount camera bodies to attach it to at present, this particular choice may seem a little odd to some. Yep, it is large. Yep is has considerable ‘heft’. And yep, the APSC bodies are dwarfed by it. But it provides a very useful short telephoto perspective (75mm) with a fast aperture, giving me some of my favourite shooting parameters. It also aligns nicely with future acquisition plans to fully embrace the L mount system from a 36x24mm sensor perspective.