Leica M2-R

The Pandemic Portrait, 2.

2021, Favourite, Film, Inspiration, Kodak Portra 400, Leica M2, Leica M2-R, Portrait, Scanner - Plustek 8200i, Voigtländer 50mm f/1.5 Nokton Aspherical, Within 200 feet of My House™

This shot represents the last frame from the roll of film I mentioned in yesterday’s post.  There’s some lens flare (or possibly reflections off the filter?) present, which was a bit of surprise.

I had initially attempted to photograph the same scene with the GFX 100S, but its autofocus system was fooled by the back-lighting, and it just kept locking on to the plant by the window.

Manually focusing a 50+ year old rangefinder camera solved the problem 🙂

—Peter.

P.S. I’m still enjoying the 100S.  It’s the best digital camera I’ve had since the M9.

The Pandemic Portrait, 2 -Prosophos - Leica M2-R -Voigtlander 50mm Nokton 1.5 - Kodak Portra 400

↑ Leica M2-R, Voigtländer 50mm Nokton f/1.5 ASPH, Kodak Portra 400, and Plustek 8200i.

The Pandemic Portrait.

2021, Favourite, Film, Inspiration, Kodak Portra 400, Leica M2, Leica M2-R, Portrait, Q&A, Scanner - Plustek 8200i, Teaching point, Voigtländer 50mm f/1.5 Nokton Aspherical, Within 200 feet of My House™

…or “The Forgotten Film Portrait“.

This is from a roll of film that I started back in the winter.  It’s been sitting in my camera for months, so today I decided to develop and scan it.  The chemicals were prepared back in August (it’s the same chemistry I’ve been using all along), and the lens was untested up until this point.  Given all of this, I wasn’t expecting much.

This is the first frame from the roll. 

Damn.

Honestly, I don’t know why I bother shooting with anything else.

Don’t get me wrong, I could give you plenty of reasons why not to shoot with film:

  • prices have nearly doubled over the past year
  • having the chemicals delivered is not as straightforward as it used to be
  • shooting is less spontaneous compared to digital
  • results (and errors) are not known until well after the moment has passed
  • etc, etc, etc…

And yet, let me repeat:

Damn.

First frame of the roll and I’m DONE.

—Peter.

The Pandemic Portrait - Prosophos - Leica M2-R - Voigtlander 50mm Nokton 1.5 - Kodak Portra 400

↑ Leica M2-R, Voigtländer 50mm Nokton f/1.5 ASPH, Kodak Portra 400, and Plustek 8200i.

Christmas Passed.

2020, 2021, Favourite, Film, Inspiration, Kodak Portra 400, Leica M2, Leica M2-R, Portrait, Scanner - Plustek 8200i, Voigtländer 35mm f/1.7 Ultron Aspherical, Within 200 feet of My House™

Or:

“2021 meets 2020”

As you can tell, this image was taken in December.  That’s when I started shooting this roll of film — a roll of film I just couldn’t finish off no matter how hard I tried.  Call it a lack of motivation or just a copious serving of laziness.

Anyway, I wasn’t sure how it was all going to turn out because I chanced two things here:

  1. The development chemicals.  They were mixed in August.  That’s right, they’re six months old!  I’m sure that violates the code of conduct of the C-41 Developers Guild.  In any case, it’s an affront to decency.
  2. The lens.  It’s the Voigtländer 35/1.7 Ultron.  I hadn’t used it before, so this is the first (“test”) roll with it.

I usually like to minimize the presence of variables but this time I introduced two.

Fortunately, everything looks good.

—Peter.

↑ Leica M2-R, Voigtländer 35mm Ultron f/1.7, Kodak Portra 400, and Plustek 8200i.