The photographer is not only an artist but also a poet
leica summilux 35mm f1.4 pre-asph
If you have a nagging feeling when you lock the door, as if you have forgotten something, you will always find out later that you have indeed forgotten something. It could be the batteries, or the memory card.
Street photography also demands a sixth sense. When walking down the street, I often feel compelled to capture moments with my camera. Without much thought, I prepare my camera in anticipation of the perfect shot, and more often than not, the opportunity presents itself.
Perhaps like poets, photographers possess a sixth sense that allows them to capture inspiration in their work. In my view, photographers are poets in their own right, crafting prose poems through their lens that capture the essence of everyday life.
Walking music, still photography. Walking photography, still music
leica summilux 35mm f1.4 pre-asph
Sometimes, I swing to the rhythm. In fact, at this moment, we ourselves are the music. Music is the frequency of our beating hearts, and people are, in fact, the beating soul. Photography is not static; it is a series of fixed notes. When multiple photos flow together, they create a wonderful melody.
It was a beautiful day. I stood in the park woods with my eyes closed. I felt the willow branches fluttering and the sun shining. A halo appeared above. Suddenly, I felt a light swaying and opened my eyes. I saw a little monkey playing with its owner, so I quickly took a picture. I learned that you can feel the light without opening your eyes. Don’t search for photos; let them come to you.
For a long time in the past, I thought photography was about taking pictures of scenery, friends, and family. When I saw Henri Cartier-Bresson’s street photography album in a bookstore, I had to close the book and hide my face to prevent strangers from seeing how excited I was. It turns out that street photography can amplify our sympathy and love and guide us to feel the enlightenment of life.
Since then, I often go out with a camera, sometimes a Leica, sometimes a compact. I don’t deliberately look for opportunities, but take my chances. Especially if someone is running in a hurry, I take a picture immediately. I know there must be a goal behind every person in a hurry. She and I have a common goal – to seize opportunities. It’s just that we express it in different ways, she uses running and I use shutter.
Time is like a wave that washes away all the hand-painted artwork on the beach. It will also wash away the footprints that each of us has left on the streets. And I will use my camera to record those calm and innocent expressions on film. Unbeknownst to the photographed, with the sound of the shutter, they are like falling crystal raindrops dancing on the edge of time.
Watching the flowers bloom so beautifully, it seems that life should be so beautiful too, and all your worries will dissipate. Therefore, whenever I come across a beautiful flower, I stop to take a picture.
Many seasoned photographers don’t take these photos. They think it’s too easy, that anyone can take them, that it’s not worth wasting film. But I don’t think so. The purpose of photography is not to show how good you are at it, but to have fun and keep the original love of nature alive, at least for me. I don’t create exaggerated perspectives or standard compositions, just keep it as it is. My goal is not to take photos that look like wallpaper, but to take photos that I want to take.
The lens has a slightly soft focus, suffers from chromatic aberration, and vignettes at its maximum aperture of f/1.4. When shot wide open, it produces a soft, dreamy glow with shallow depth of field, and swirly bokeh, which is why it is nicknamed the ‘Leica glow.’ This type of soft and dreamy bokeh is either loved or hated by people.
Although I have many sharp lenses in my collection, I appreciate the beauty of photography beyond just technical perfection. The special dreamy glow effect cannot be reproduced with software; it can only be achieved in-camera. This lens is excellent for street portraits due to its glowing effect and becomes very sharp when stepping down the aperture, like every other Leica lens.
The three ‘Leica glow’ lenses I have used do not easily achieve the ‘Leica glow’, especially in film photography and low-light environments. The bokeh lacks the smooth and buttery total background obliteration of the Leica Summilux 35mm f/1.4 ASPH and the progressive blur bokeh of the Summicron 35mm f/2 v4 (7-elements), although it is closer to the latter.
It is important to note that this is not a flawless lens. Although the ‘Leica glow’ allows for shooting at f/1.4, it should not be used at this aperture all the time. If you desire a sharp f/1.4 lens, this old lens should not be your choice; instead, you should opt for either the Summilux 11874 or the Summilux 11663. For a legacy lens with both bokeh and sharpness, the Leica Summicron 35mm f/2 v4 is a better option. It is known as the ‘king of bokeh’ and provides both bokeh and sharpness, but it does not produce the ‘Leica glow’.
Not every photo looks good at f/1.4. The ‘Leica glow’ can be reduced by stopping down, resulting in excellent image quality. I observed that the ‘Leica glow’ is nearly on par with the ‘king of bokeh’ (Summicron 35mm f/2 v4)in terms of resolution, colors, and vignetting at every aperture from f/2.8 to f/8.
Balance
Considering the optical superiority of the Summilux 35mm ASPH lenses over this older lens, one may wonder why anyone would still want to use it. However, its current popularity is undoubtedly due to its affordability, rather than its ‘soft glow’.
However, I was seeking swirly bokeh and a dreamy glow when shooting wide open, which is exactly what this lens delivered. Smaller apertures can significantly reduce the softness and vignetting. The lens is well-balanced on a Leica M and its compact size and lightweight design make it a great choice.
Production period: 1961-1995
Code: 11869(black), 11870(black
11871 (with M3 attachment), 1 1860(titanium) Serial#:1,730,001-n/a
Total production: n/a
Maximum aperture: 1: 1.4
Focal length(nominal): 35mm
Angle: 640
Minimum distance: 100cm(M3)65cm(other Weight: 245 grams, later 195 grams,
Filter: E41. later VII
During the process of developing my black and white film, sometimes there are water stains left on the negative. It’s like, everyday life is calm as water, but even a small stone can make it ripple. Life is always full of dangers and even a drop of water can be magnified on film. Water stains can often be wiped away, but I’m still lazy. As long as it doesn’t ruin the picture, I don’t bother cleaning it up. Sometimes laziness is an open-mindedness. The water stains left on the film, I just regard as tattoos.
I have shot film with a summmicron 35mm f/2 asph lens and it is very sharp. But I use more of the older Leica lenses on film. About 80% of the film in my photo library was shot with non-ASPH lenses.
leica summilux 35mm f/1.4 pre-asph
For a long time I have been using the Summilux 35 f/1.4 first generation. In fact, it is so sharp from f/4 to f/8 that it is indistinguishable from an asph lens. Since the maximum shutter speed of a Leica film camera is 1/1000s, on a sunny day the aperture has to be contracted to f4 or even less and you have little chance to use the f/1.4 aperture. On a cloudy day or indoors, f/1.4 produces excellent three-dimensional images, although they are less sharp. To be honest, you really don’t need the sharpness of f/1.4 for film photography.
I have also shot film with the Leica Summilux 35mm f/1.4 asph lens and like it very much as well, it is an excellent lens. It is not only sharp but has good color contrast. I used to shoot with ND filters and f1.4 aperture. I mainly use ASPH lenses on Leica m9 digital cameras. Also the Summicron 35 asph, Summicron 28 asph and Elmarit 28 asph are very sharp and have higher contrast than older lenses. However, many of Leica’s non-ASPH lenses are very sharp, such as the Summicron 35mm f/2 v1 and Summicron 50mm f/2 v4, and remain sharp when used on digital cameras.
Interestingly, while we all love sharp lenses, I find that my favorite photos seem to be less sharp, especially with film photography. Maybe that’s why Leica’s classic lenses are still viable.
