Voigtländer color-skopar 28/3.5

I´ve bought this lens second hand from ebay in november 2012 and it´s been attached to my M6 since then. i switched from nikon to leica in the beginning of 2012 and journey to find best 28mm lens began. my first lens was VC nokton 35/1.4, whis is really good lens, also very small one, but 28mm framelines on my M6 reminded me that i lust for this focal length i used on my nikon FM2.

after few months of searching and looking around the internet, i found the one, VC color skopar 28/3.5. it´s tiny and solid lens with classic M39 mount with full rangefinder coupling down to 0.7 meters (2.5ft). despite the size, it´s 7 elements in 5 groups design. front element has convex surface like the one on some aspherical lenses (this one is not asperical, though).

so, while studying on scottish university for one semester, i finally found one, fortunetely located in england and won the auction (needless to say, i was ecstatic – it´s not so easy to find one nowadays)

you have to buy an adapter in order to use this lens on leica M cameras. i bought cheap one from china which was not very good, focusing was correct but i was furious about not being able to screw the lens to the correct position with white dot on the top facing upwards. so i decided to invest some money and bought original voigtlander adapter (roughly 40 euros), it´s very well built and lets me mount the lens properly.

focusing is very smooth, i think it can be comparable to real leica lenses. it´s made from brass, so it´s surprisingly heavy for its size. focusing lever is very easy to use and i can say it suits me better than the leica one.

note that it´s very slow lens and in order to take photographs in poorly lit environment you need to use either very fast film or just buy another lens with larger aperture (i use my 35 nokton). the problem is, if you load film faster than 400ASA and you shoot with film M on a bright sunny day, you are limited by it´s fastest shutter speed of 1/1000 s. that´s the reason i´m trying to get hold of ND filter with 39mm thread.

this lens is simply super sharp and very easy to use, i strongly recommend use of protective UV filter, it prevents dust from getting inside the lens and makes the front airtight and holds the slip-on lenscap better.

i´m no test geek, i use my lenses and this one is hell of a performer. i can´t think of situation where it let me down somehow. i use it in backlight situations and never had significant problems with reflections. most times i just set my aperture to f/8, focus at 3m and i´m ready to go. focus throw is very short and lets me change the distance quite fast.

in conclusion, this lens makes my M6 almost pocketable camera with perfect optical quality. you can check some of the photographs here on my tumblr or in this blog post.

wide open

wide open

wide open

wide open, notice the sharpness on these two trees

fomapan 100 in rodinal, guess it was f/8

same as the previous one

double-x rated at 250ASA and developed in LC29

one of a few color photos i took

hipshot with pre-set distance

hipshot that turned to be okay

f/8 and 3m set on distance scale

this one shows how good this lens is, f/8 and kodak plus-x at 125ASA

another directly into the sun

hotel balmoral, edinburgh

plenty of sharpness even when focused to close subjects

double-x at 250ASA, neist point, isle of skye

double-x at 250ASA, neist point, isle of skye

double-x at 250ASA, glenfinnan viaduct, scotland

double-x at 250ASA, st. andrews

double-x at 250ASA, loch cluaine, scotland

morning snow

i always have my little mju:II camera in my pocket, always.

i got up early, as i had to go to work, and saw this

took a few snaps till my film ended.

 

just some photos

i´ve taken recently and some of them not so recently :

 

one day trip to vienna, 700 km drive from prague and back,

i was pretty exhausted

 

this shot was in my mju:II for a long long time, i´ve taken this

photo in august or so

 

 

one foggy morning and charles bridge

 

people waiting for christmas tree lightening

 

there was that guy in bakground who had big truck full of bells and played

on them, pretty cool:)

 

 

we also had little calamity here, i think i´ve never seen so much snow on our

balcony

 

another early morning, we were heading to our cottage, probalby

to mow and harvest some apples

 

i also witnessed some demonstration, saw crowd psyhosis and walked back home

 

they were upset about some politicians

 

i´ve also found this frame, last day of full sunshine here.

 

he was sleeping second before i took this shot. i just don´t get it,

people just feel when someone is pointing camera at them..

 

last frame is my grandma with her cat, i love this shot, it just feels right.

backstage.

hey, it´s been long time since i updated this blog, i have some shots from last months

and i´m preparing another entry, it will be online soon.

now, i would like to post some backstage photos, i took on a fashion photoshoot

of my friend´s collection.

enjoy:)

 

this is michal, he designed the collection.

it´s a concept he created to promote himself

at saint-martins college of art and design.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

i had much fun that day, people were amazing.

check Marika´s blog for another set of photographs, also made on film,  which is great

photos by Eva Došková, fashion photographer are here

february & march

photos from last two months, not in chronological order

i just don´t get this thing, why on the earth i should throw my money

in those machines?

bookshop

another bookshop, she packs all those boxes every day.

scrabble, i had terrible letters

i need this shot on darkroom print, big print:)

funny faces

also this one will be on huge paper

that´s all

thanks for visit



january

just a few shots i´ve made in the beginning of this month.

all of them are shot on ilford P3 surveillance film.

no time for words, need some sleep…

happy new year

hey, it´s been a relly long time since i last wrote something here.

mostly because school is killing me and i don´t have so much time for pfotography…

so i´ve collected some of the shots i´ve made

it won´t be chronological.

on a walk with N

i watched them for a while and finally took this frame, small mju is sharp bitch

amazing adox 25 film, i love that, can´t wait for summer to try it again:)

took this from tram, neopan 400

twin ladies, this shot is priceless, again little mju was in pocket, always ready to take the shot

quick snap, which went absolutely great

what a pose:-D

chania, old port, nice place for photography, i love this place and hope

i´ll visit it again

rude goats, very rude, on our way to balos, nice beach there in crete

chair queue

goat, they´re fucking everywhere…

these two guys wanted us to have a drink, i hate when bartenders constantly asking me, if i want a drink,

you walk through the streets and if you say yes whenever they ask you, you´ d be drunk in

couple minutes. but those two were cool, they wanted me to shoot them, so i did,

they were pretty disappointed, because they didn´t see a flash.

what a surprise, thirty years old camera doesn´t have built-in flash like modern shitty compacts:-D

neopan again.

i think i ´m gonna make a series of photos of sleeping dogs.

yeah, definitely

parked boats

i took this one on a festival near my home, desperately need better weather now,

i miss summer so much..

“this horse bites”

and this one, feels to me really nice, i like this photo much

i was waiting for this guy to be close long time (with my 20/2.8 he needed to be damn close)

and finally almost didn´t catch him.

this lady has her flat almost on the street, looks more like garage to me…

old mosque, it´s shitty frame, but the bird makes it better

but this frame, i feel it´s not so shitty..

nice baggy pants:-D

this is shot on new film i´ve bought in a bulk roll, ilford P3 surveillance film

dog in a bag

christmas market

mju in action…again

i loaded two films in my small olympus

last month, today i finally get myself to

edit and upload some shots here.

i wanna show you some of them.

tunnel making, noisy…

i ran into this terrible rain, terrible

try to do this with other camera than small mju:II, they call it

weatherproof…

all of these people don´t seem weatherproof to me:-D

one of my favourite photos on that film. we went shopping with N

and ended up trying various hats, she definitely

needs one for our greek holiday:)

switched to foma 400. i really like this film-camera combination:)

it´s excellent for its bargain price.

some voyeur shot:-D

it´s a pity i chopped his head of…

oh no, not again..:-D

small jew guy posing for family album, this was really quick snap..

you can see also moment of love in our busy capital..

nothing to say about this just random shot

but this is funny, this guy was sad because his stupid owner left only small

gap for fresh air in car window. stupidity all around.

last shot, one roll of tri-x waiting to be finished in my nikon,

mju is waiting for another foma to be roolled onto spool:)

have a nice time;-)

adox 25 and some ilford stuff

it´s been some time since i wrote something

don´t worry, i won´t bother you with many words, i´ve

got some interesting expirience with adox 25 iso film

amazing film, i developed in rodinal 1+50 for eight mins

it´s slow bitch. nikkor 20/2.8 wide open and 1/60

ok, look at this and tell me that the smaller guy is just

miniature of his brother on the right;-)

i work here, to be frank, i do not work here, but i´m paid for it.

that´s massive

i can be damn close with that twenty:)

this is awesome

solitude

now ilford pan 400 comes, stand developed in rodinal

some train station stuff here

street cowboy

this was total boredom

nice edge effect found here

i was laughing about ten minutes, when i saw them…

june

i´ve shot some films in june and finally have some time to post it here

i´ve got busy time, because i´m have exams at school

so enjoy.

strange one, shot with zeiss biometar 80/2.8, love this lens but it´s

too long for me, i like it wider, especially for the street

another example of telephoto street shooting, i like being unnoticed but this is just too far.

he´s peeing

and this is one of the funniest portrait i´ve ever done. well, this is steve:)

these moments are rare and i´m happy to catch it with camera.

it was raining bad that day, my nikon got full shot of water,

nothing happened to him though;-)

i also went shopping and saw this stupid stuffed deer and three plastic

bears sitting on him. this made me think.

do the sellers think that this is art, or what is it?

i mean who can really buy it?

some street here, i was wathing them for a while:)

lady on the second frame was too drunk to walk straight.

and second frame is shot on foma 400 film, i bought bulk roll for a very good price

and the results are nice, developed in rodinal 1+25.

crazy dog, he barks at me when i´m shooting him.

and this is fomapan 100, i found some last meters from bulk roll.

shot with 50/1.8

nice to shoot wide, noone can really hide from you

some bird shit on the window and nice bokeh on my 50/1.4

it´s excellent when focused at close distance and wide open

and i´m going to like this film more and more, just beautiful tones,

digital can´t do this

lil´ princess:-D

this was just last frame, i like it though

last set of shots is prety special, it´s taken on colour film and stand developed

in rodinal, it came out nice after some levels in gimp

this is last shot, june is not over but i´ve managed to make five films.

one is waiting for me in the camera, so i´ll upload soon.

have a great time