EXIF IFD0
Camera Make {0x010F} Leica Camera AG
Camera Model {0x0110} M9 Digital Camera
Last Modified Date/Time {0x0132} 2013:07:13 22:32:37
EXIF Sub IFD
Exposure Time (1 / Shutter Speed) {0x829A} 1/180 second ===> 0.00556 second
Lens F-Number / F-Stop {0x829D} 12/10 ===> ƒ/1.2
ISO Speed Ratings {0x8827} 640
Original Date/Time {0x9003} 2013:07:13 19:59:34
Shutter Speed Value (APEX) {0x9201} 7491853/1000000
Shutter Speed (Exposure Time) 1/180 second
Aperture Value (APEX) {0x9202} 526069/1000000
Aperture ƒ/1.2
Exposure Bias (EV) {0x9204} 0/65536 ===> 0
Flash {0x9209} Flash did not fire
Not soft at all to my eye. Colors and tones are fantastic in my opinion. Seperation in #3 is an area a lens like this really shines. Nice work Mike, putting that M9 to good use.
Nice to see a post from you. They did appear a bit soft for me, too. It didn't really bother me though, except for #5, just because the flowers appear sharp, instead of her. And I *really* like that one, so it was kinda a bummer you missed on that one. The only one I didn't like was 8, because the lens did some weird stuff to the grass behind her and rock beneath her, that kinda wig my eyes out.
mikethevilla wrote:
Thanks Ben! It's a Canon 50 1.2 LTM, really old school lens. Definitely a different/softer look than I'm used to.
On 2 and 5 I missed focus a bit, but the rest I think are in focus. Too soft for everyone's liking?
Long ago I had a screw mount Canon 50mm f/1.2 that came on a Canon 7s. I used it a bit on the Canon and my Leica M3 (with proper screw mount adapter, of course). I found it to be rather soft but no worse than the Leica 50mm f/1.4 (I don't remember its name) that I had at the time and the Leica lens had very poor contrast at large apertures.
I found your pictures to be a little soft for my taste but that is just me.
I'm in the soft crowd, I guess. When I see a shot that soft I start to look for in focus areas just to see if it was a back or front focus issue, and miss the composition. Other viewers are probably different.
I also agree about the bokeh comment. Looks "nervous" to me. Beautiful girls, though.
Poses and expressions are great! You did good at getting the naturalness of the girl. Colours look great.
I too detect a higher degree amount of softness. For portraits, I don't think it needs to be super sharp to the point it cuts the very LCD panel of your monitor. But it is important to have the right sharpness and focus to ensure viewer is not distracted.
I used to play around with some Leica fast primes and I know how tricky it is to nail focus at wide open apertures. When it is incorrectly focused, it can look soft at the wrong places.
I usually just lurk here, but I have to pitch in as find these shots fantastic and a refreshing change from the sterile look that you see so often these days.
Love the composition and the models are gorgeous.
As I have some experience fast canon 55 f1.2 manual focus SLR lenses I am actually surprised how well you managed to nail focus with rangefinder focusing.
You may also want to post these in the Alt Gear section of this forum.
These image are great. The Canon 1.2 LTM certainly dos a good job on these shots with the M9. I love the creamy image quality of the 1950/60's series rangefinder lenses. Who cares if the precise point of focus is achieved. The quality of the image is not predicated on only technical attributes. Those that think so have their minds only on technology, not photography.
Shooting an M9 with a lens in the F1 range is an art all by itself. I had a friend that shot with the Canon 7 and 0.95 lens - he figured out how to make the combination sing artistically when shooting wide open.
Thanks folks. After a bit more testing, I'm finding that the lens is front focusing ever so slightly in the 1-3 meter range. So if I decide to keep it, I'll bring it on up to Steve to get it calibrated to the camera.
Depending on the degree of front-focus, that is not necessarily bad if you usually focus and recompose in which the point of focus is off centre. Sometimes the recompose rotation magically makes the "front focus" dead on
I know what you mean Tony. That's definitely possible, but I don't think that's the case here.
For one, I'm very familiar (and if I can drop all sense of humility) relatively skilled with fast glass. I've never had any focus/recompose issues with my 35 1.2, 85 1.4, 135 2, etc... Also, after some more testing, I'm still getting front focusing even when keeping the subject in the middle. Again, I've gotten pretty good at the whole rangefinder thing, so I'm pretty sure it's not my technique here.
