100 Strangers : Round 4 : No. 348 : Sue and Molly (70 years old vintage Leitz Lens)
I was browsing social media last night and saw some photos took with a Leitz Elmar 50mm f3.5 vintage lens (Leitz is Leica btw). So I decided it was about time I got my late fathers 70 year old lens out (yes SEVENTY) and attached it to my Sony A6000.
I was lucky enough to photograph a stranger while I was out with Elsie (our puppy whippet).
Meet Sue and Molly her Springer Spaniel, I saw Sue walking towards to old council house in the duck park and she was admiring Elsie.
“She’s a whippet” I said “Twenty four weeks old, she’s a bit nervous sometimes”
“She can say hello to my dog if she wants, she’s gentle”
So I introduced Elsie to Molly. They seemed to get on OK, a mutual sniff of each others bottom and then sniffing of their bodies”
“Is she a sheep dog” I asked ( I wasn’t concentrating much as I was keeping my eye on Elsie)
“No she’s a Springer Spaniel, She’s twelve years old”
Molly had lovely eyes
I then told Sue I was an amatuer photographer who did street photography and asked if I could take their photos.
Sue said yes, but wasn’t to sure about putting it on the internet.
“It’s OK it’s only 365 and Instagram, it will be a nice photo too”
So Sue agreed and I told her I had a modern camera with a 70 years old lens.
“It will probably be better than modern ones” Sue said.
“Well it takes good photos” I said
As it is a prime lens I had to backpedal a bit with Elsie to ensure I could get a full length photo of Sue and Molly.
I didn’t notice at the time, but Molly has a poorly back leg. I would have asked Sue about it if I’d noticed it.
It was a dull and wet afternoon with very little light (although 10 minutes later the sun temporarily broke through the clouds) so it was a challenge for this old lens.
We bumped fists and I thanked Sue for her time and gave her a card and told her to contact me if she wanted a copy of the photos.
Judge for yourself if you think the seventy years old lens stood up OK. I converted the photo to black and white as it would have shot black and white film all those years ago
Such a nice story Phil and Sue is looking fantastic on this portrait with Mollie. I really like to see your experiments with these older lenses and I am very impressed with the results. I guess the quality of the lens is hat make a great photo equipment!
You amaze me how you can use all those vintage lenses and always get fabulous images. I like this one, it came out really well and very sharp. I noticed the dog's leg as soon as I looked at the picture - very sad about that.
