Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2010/10/08

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Subject: [Leica] Chicago alley wall peeling paint 135mm f4.5 Hektor
From: mark at rabinergroup.com (Mark Rabiner)
Date: Fri, 08 Oct 2010 20:03:48 -0400

http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/lugalrabs/chicago+wall+ST.jpg.html

135mm f4.5 Hektor I got for 99 bucks Oct/7/2001.
With my first M6 classic.
It was made in the early 50's just like me.
15-blade diaphragm for the sure verisimilitude of a nice circle of non
confusion.

I would almost always use it with a very dark green or red filter.
The film was Tri X in Rodinal 1:75
It was scanned from a fiber 8x10 print made with a 63mm Nikor 2.8. A thing I
don't have fond feelings about doing much of any more preferring a neg scan
and re thinking it.

Yes I had a bit of fun with the new raw filter cs5 doing a duotone with it.
It was heavily toned as a print but not I don't think these colors. I think
it was rather cold toned. But bricks are red so there you go. This is how it
looks this time.

The head comes off I can use it with my viso and it focuses to infinity.
Also with the bellows if I recall.

It sure as hell has a Leica fingerprint but at this magnification I'm not
sure if we're really experiencing much of it. More of a fig Newton of our
own imaginations. Do the RGB line up The smart money says no!!

Ken Lincoln Rockwell has a nice layout on it. I'm not finding any thing here
I'm disagreeing with. He does this just to confuse us.
http://www.kenrockwell.com/leica/135mm-f45.htm

He says " This is among the softest lenses I've used."
Yep! But I sure don't shoot it wide open and I'd print it with as much
contrast as I could squeeze out of it and now with unsharp mask it becomes
less of an issue as you could just add on a little more.
But its "Leica fingerprint" would be at one point its blazing non sharpness.
Its not an APO ASPH.
Its the best 99 bucks I ever spent.

It has that certain something.
je ne sais quoi
Lens design not at its apex. Which just makes it more fun to use.

I found the tiny frame lens like a cursor not on my monitor but on the
world.

The Rabs

--------------------
Mark William Rabiner
Photography
http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/lugalrabs/
mark at rabinergroup.com




Replies: Reply from jhnichols at lighttube.net (Jim Nichols) ([Leica] Chicago alley wall peeling paint 135mm f4.5 Hektor)
Reply from lluisripollquerol at gmail.com (Lluis Ripoll) ([Leica] Chicago alley wall peeling paint 135mm f4.5 Hektor)
Reply from mark at rabinergroup.com (Mark Rabiner) ([Leica] Chicago alley wall peeling paint 135mm f4.5 Hektor)