28 21 September 2019 I http://www.amateurphotographer.co.uk I subscribe 0330 333 1113
V I N TAG EL E N S E S
Dennis
Grailich
Instagram@dennisgrailichBornintheanalogue
ageinnorthern
Germany,Dennis
Grailichisapsychologistbyprofession
andanenthusiastphotographer‘I STARTEDtousevintagelensesabouta yearanda halfago.
I liketheretrolookandI usedtodoa lotof post-processing
withfilterstoachieveit. ButI wantedtogetoutof that–
whichis whyI decidedtogoforvintagelenses.
‘ThefirstlensI boughtwasa Helios44-2,whichis a
58mmf/2.It onlycostme$30butI quicklygotsomegood
shotswithswirlybokeh.I thengottheJupiter11:a 135mm
f/4Sovietlens,allmetalandglass.F/4isn’tthatwideif you
wantbokeh,butthesharpnessis incredible.I couldseethe
tiniesthaironmyson’scheekwhenI zoomedintotheimage.
‘I boughttheOlympusOMZuiko28mmf/3.5and,more
recently,theSuper-Takumar55mmf/1.8.If I hadtokeep
onelens,it wouldbethelatter.It doesn’thavetheswirly
bokehof theHelios44-2,butin termsof colourrendition,
sharpnessandcontrast,it’soneof thebest.
‘Vintagelenseshavethesortof characteristicsthatwere
onceseenasdefects.Modernlensesdon’thavesuchdefects- andyoucan’treproducethemwithoutpost-processing.
ButsinceI switchedtovintagelensesI rarelyusePhotoshop,
perhapsonlyforsmallcontrastadjustments.
‘Youcanfindverydecentvintagelensesforabout$20if
you’relucky,butyouhavetoknowwhattolookfor.It doesn’t
alwaysneedtobein excellentcondition;youshouldpay
attentiontofungus,althoughthisis common,andavoid
deeperscratchesontherearelement.ThelensesI’vefound
easiesthavetheM42mount;I justboughtanM42-to-EOS
adapterfor$1oneBay.
‘TheonlydownsideI’ve
foundwithvintagelenses
is thatyoucan’tsee
whichlensoraperture
you’veusedwithinthe
EXIFdata,butI can
recognisewhichis which
fromtheircharacter.’
Benjamin
Dupont
Instagram@benbdphotoBenjaminisaself-
taughtFrench
photographerbasedin
Bangkok,whoownsmorethan 20 vintage
lensesandusesthemonhisCanonEOS6DSwirlybokehaboundsCanonEOS6D,Helios44-258mmf/2,1/2500sec,ISO 400
The Jupiter 135mm
f/4 is one of many
lenses Dominik
uses on his travels
Sony A7R II, Jupiter-37A
135mm f/3.5Dennis favours the
M-E and Summicron
50mm f/2 lens
Leica M9, Summicron
50mm f/2, 1/1500sec
at f/3.4, ISO 250© DENNIS GRAILICH
© BENJAMIN DUPONT
The Leica Summicron 50mm f/2 on Dennis’s Leica M-E
The Jupiter 9
partnered with Ben’s
Canon EOS 6D DSLR‘I BOUGHT my first real camera when I was ten – a
Minolta X-300. Somewhere around 2000 I bought a
Nikon F80 and then the Nikon D1, before buying the
D2x, D3 and the D4 that I use today.
‘At the same time when I bought the D1, I found some
great deals on really good medium-format cameras and
lenses: two nearly mint Rolleiflexes for less than e10 0
each, and an East German Pentacon Six, which had a
wonderful “zebra” Carl Zeiss Jena Biometar 2.8/80 on
it. When I was longing for a macro lens for my digital
Nikon bodies, I stumbled over a Russian-made adapter
for those Pentacon lenses to the Nikon F mount. I added
some (back then) cheap distance rings to the Biometar
lens – and suddenly I had a wonderful macro lens.
‘The lens that gets most use on my Nikon D4 is the
Carl Zeiss Jena DDR Sonnar 2.8/180. At 1.1kg it’s really
heavy, and the depth of field wide open is razorblade-
thin, so focusing is an issue. But when you get it, it nails
it – even wide open at f/2.8. Shooting in black & white,
you don’t have to worry about your background – the
wonderful bokeh will take care of that. Shooting in
colour, you get a great tonality that is not flat but
pastel-like. It’s such a great lens for portraits, and
taught me that I like lenses that add some character.
‘Some people try to add that in Lightroom when
shooting with modern lenses, but I’m lazy, so I add those
effects by choosing a vintage lens. That’s why a modern
Leica Summicron-M 50mm f/2 only stayed on my Leica
M-E for a few months. I sold it and found a 1955
collapsible Summicron 50mm f/2 in mint condition in
a local camera shop for a fraction of the price of the
current-generation one and I’m much happier with
the results. This is the one lens that does it all for me
on a Leica, be it on digital or on my film M7.
‘And for those days when I want lot of character,
I use the 1939 Summar 2/50 with its swirly bokeh from
my Leica IIIf and have some fun. Most of the time I try
to avoid lens flare, which can be an issue with those
single-coated lenses. Although one day I really wanted
some flare in my pictures I found that it was harder to
provoke flare than to avoid it!’