Well I managed to do a bit of testing last night. I got my new Leica R6 rangefinder with 60mm lens together along with a roll of HP5 35mm and did a bit of headshot and closer shooting. The camera with the lens mounted is a bit big as compared to the rangefinders and is certainly more noisy but gosh i love the close focus. I plan on taking this camera-lens with me to Thai next trip to work with along with 2 possibly 3 rangefinders and 200 rolls of film.
This 60mm along with my 28 and 35 lens and the 21mm should give me a full range to shoot with. I wish I had the $6-7000 USD to buy the 24mm F1.4 or the 21mm F1.4 but I will have to make do with the 21mm F2.8 (I can do without the 50mm and 90mm). Am getting very excited about the possibilities of making important pictures, leaving the 4x5 equipment at home is difficult but in the end I think it will help me focus and create. If 35mm is good enough for Salgado and Smith, its certainly more than enough for Yaum.
I need to becareful not to compose everything to close with this new 60, I have a tendency to not give enough space to my subject and with this new lens I can get up really really tight. It will be important to use the macro focusing possibilities to do shots of details but I also need to let the pictures breath and tell the overall stories.
Here are some of the HP5, 60mm, R6 test scans, fresh out of the developing tank:
The first is a shot of my moms eye, I was curious how close I could focus, this is done hand held at 1/60 at around F8-11 on HP% rated at 200 and developed in D-76 2/1 at 20C for 12 minutes and 30 seconds (the same development time, developer and temp I use withTri-x). I found that several of the shots made with the 60mm on the R6 SLR were blurry which was probably the result of camera movement, I will have to raise my minimum shutter speed handheld to 1/125 or mount the camera on a tripod.
I quite like this photo of my father, he looks hard working and a bit noble which is how I feel about him. This one picture makes me feel the $1100 price tag on the new (used) Leica R6 body and the 60mm F2.8 macro lens was money well spent. Hopefully in the future I can continue to make good photographs with this tool combination. I need to print this negative but I now have more faith in HP5 as a replacement film for the more expensive Tri-x.
This 60mm along with my 28 and 35 lens and the 21mm should give me a full range to shoot with. I wish I had the $6-7000 USD to buy the 24mm F1.4 or the 21mm F1.4 but I will have to make do with the 21mm F2.8 (I can do without the 50mm and 90mm). Am getting very excited about the possibilities of making important pictures, leaving the 4x5 equipment at home is difficult but in the end I think it will help me focus and create. If 35mm is good enough for Salgado and Smith, its certainly more than enough for Yaum.
I need to becareful not to compose everything to close with this new 60, I have a tendency to not give enough space to my subject and with this new lens I can get up really really tight. It will be important to use the macro focusing possibilities to do shots of details but I also need to let the pictures breath and tell the overall stories.
Here are some of the HP5, 60mm, R6 test scans, fresh out of the developing tank:
The first is a shot of my moms eye, I was curious how close I could focus, this is done hand held at 1/60 at around F8-11 on HP% rated at 200 and developed in D-76 2/1 at 20C for 12 minutes and 30 seconds (the same development time, developer and temp I use withTri-x). I found that several of the shots made with the 60mm on the R6 SLR were blurry which was probably the result of camera movement, I will have to raise my minimum shutter speed handheld to 1/125 or mount the camera on a tripod.
I quite like this photo of my father, he looks hard working and a bit noble which is how I feel about him. This one picture makes me feel the $1100 price tag on the new (used) Leica R6 body and the 60mm F2.8 macro lens was money well spent. Hopefully in the future I can continue to make good photographs with this tool combination. I need to print this negative but I now have more faith in HP5 as a replacement film for the more expensive Tri-x.
 |
| Dad at 81, Canada 2013 |
