When I first logged on again I felt like I hadn’t posted anything on the blog in weeks, only to find that it was only 8 days ago that I posted the long piece on shooting 28mm. In those eight days I’ve received the new 40mm Heliar I talked about in the last piece and gotten out to take some photos with it, as well as a bonus walk with the classic Zeiss Planar. Below is a selection of images and some rambling. Enjoy, or don’t. I’m not here to tell you what to do.
Walking with the Leica M262 and Voigtlander 40mm f2.8 Heliar:
I’ve been enjoying shooting the Heliar quite a bit. The rendering is very nice, it reminds me a little bit of my beloved Tessar design lenses like the Elmar and Industar lenses. Very sharp and transparent rendering while somehow managing to not be overly clinical. There is also a gentle contrast to the rendering which I very much appreciate. My Zeiss Planar is a fantastic lens but it can sometimes be a bit too punchy, a bit too much micro-contrast.
The 40mm focal length has been nice to shoot again as well too. Like the 50 it feels very natural and transparent but with a little more versatility by virtue of the bit of added width. But unlike a 28 or a 35 it maintains a more natural feeling compression. Shooting it on the M has been easier than I thought it might be. My copy of the Heliar is an LTM lens so paired with a 35/135 adapter it pulls up the 35mm lines, which are fairly accurate to what you end up getting with the 40.
I look forward to shooting it more and getting some more time with the lens. Maybe it’ll become a future blog post.
New trails, walking with the M262 and Zeiss Planar:
On Tuesday, the 15th, we took Ruckus for a walk in a new network of trails that we hadn’t been to, the Harrell trails in Bigfork, Montana. It was a beautiful place to walk especially with the changing leaves and fall color, none of which you’ll see of course since the photos are in monochrome. But, just use your imagination!
