i35mm

Leica Summicron-M 90mm f2 II Black & White Film

Origin

Walter Mandler was pretty bummed when the first generation Summicron 90mm lens didn’t take off because of its size. He came up with the second-generation Summicron 90mm f/2, which was a huge hit. The optical design stayed the same from 1980 to 1998, which is pretty cool because it shows how important the E55 version lens was in history. Despite all the advances in technology, the later 90mm lenses with ASPH and APO technology just couldn’t get any smaller or lighter, so the E55 version was a popular choice.

Given how it’s used, I think the second-generation Summicron 90mm f/2 E55 or E49 version is the best fit. These lenses aren’t too old and can be found in good condition, which makes them both economical and affordable. The E55 version has a great design and is almost the same size as the 90AA, but it’s lighter. It produces sharp portraits when it’s wide open and sharp landscapes when it’s stopped down one stop. In short, the E55 version offers the same quality as the pricier 90AA, making it a great choice.

Weight of the 90mm lens

While the Summicron 90mm fi-generation lens initially met my image quality standards, its size became an issue, so I ended up selling it. As someone who uses a Leica M, I understand the importance of lens size. However, after investing more money, I got the second generation E55, which has revolutionized my view of 90mm lenses. This version is much more portable, and the F2 aperture is impressive.

90mm is a peak

When it comes to photography, there’s often a difference between what we want to capture and what we can actually do. This gap is often represented by a mountain of cameras and lenses, which can be tough to overcome. Some photographers have managed to climb over this mountain, while others have gotten lost in the valleys below.

In the world of Leica photography, it is very common for users to have multiple 50 mm and 35 mm lenses and a 21 mm or 28 mm wide-angle lens. However, only a few opt for the 90 mm lens. This shows the special place of the 90 mm lens in the world of Leica lenses. So why make it?

With the rise of high-pixel-count cameras, the 90mm lens might seem less important. After all, you can get the same field of view by cropping an image taken with a 50mm lens. But by looking at things through a 90mm lens, you can see things in a whole new way. The 90mm lens has a more focused field of view than the 50mm lens, which makes it great for getting the subject in focus. This makes it a great lens for portraits and close-up shots. But as Saul Leiter shows us, a 90mm lens can also be used for street photography. It can capture the elegant interplay of light and shadow in a way that sparks the imagination.

Even though there are some challenges to climbing the peak of the 90mm lens, the rewards are worth it. This lens offers a unique perspective that can open up a whole new world of possibilities in photography.

90mm lens focusing

It can be tricky to get the hang of focusing with a 90 mm lens without the right technique. By the time you get the focus just right, the ideal moment to shoot may have passed. I’ve put together a few useful tips for focusing with a 90 mm lens.

To speed up your focusing time, set your focus to 5 meters and estimate the distance between your subject and yourself in advance. As a general rule of thumb, you should be able to get the distance between you and your subject right around 10 meters for distant subjects and 2 meters for close ones.
Using an M3 body can be a good idea because it has a magnification of 0.91 and a super-large focusing screen. You might also want to think about getting a viewfinder magnifier to help you focus more accurately.

Code: SOOZI(screw mount, removable le lens head) SEOOF 11123(screw mount, built-in lens hood), S0OZI-M(bayonet), SEOOF-M or SEOOM 11123 (bayonet), ZOOEP 11133: lens head onl Serial#:1,119,001-n/a ly
Total production: n/a
Maximum aperture: 1: 2
Focal length(nominal): gomm
Angle: 270
Minimum distance: 100cm Weight: 685 grams Filter: E48

SEOOM

SEOOF-M

Maximum aperture: 1: 2
Angle: 270
Minimum distance: 100cm 
Filter: E48

In my world, film photography has not gone out of style.

Street Beijing

In my world, film photography has not gone out of style.

November 1, 2023

I still prefer to use film for my photographs. Images are carved out of solid material by light, just as our planet is carved out of time. The layers of grain remind me of what the human world looks like.
In today’s digital age, in the eyes of the average person, we photographers who use film are an apathetic bunch. However, indifference is not our true colors.
Tonight, in the fall rain, I am looking through old photos under the lamp, exploring time, the world, and myself.

Looking for spring in autumn

October 29, 2023

Looking for spring in autumn

October 29, 2023

I saw someone approaching with a camera and asked, “Where are you going?
The answer was, “First, I’m going to photograph the yellow leaves of the ginkgoes in front of the short wall, and then I’m going to photograph the red maple leaves in the western mountains.”
This fall is like spring, not cold, flowers and trees are full of life, and insects are roaming around.

Rolleiflex 3.5 MX-EVS: A Twin-Lens Dream in Reverse

Introduction: A Camera That Waits

They say every Leica owner keeps a Rolleiflex at home, gathering dust like an old love letter. I’m no twin-lens fanatic, but I get it—there’s something about these square-eyed boxes that lingers. My Rolleiflex 3.5 MX-EVS isn’t the fanciest of its kind. It’s the last of the non-interchangeable focus screen models, a budget relic with no meter, picked up cheap from a forgotten shelf.

Design & Build: A Mechanical Poem

The MX-EVS sits heavy in your hands, a brick of German steel and glass from the early ’50s. It’s all manual, all mechanical—no bells, no whistles—just the way I like it, echoing the Leica M3’s stubborn simplicity. Early models wore white plastic like a shy debutante, but mine’s cloaked in black paint, chipped at the edges, whispering tales of a life before me. The Tessar lens, a 75mm f/3.5, stares up from its twin perch, unassuming yet precise. Rolleiflex moved to Zeiss and Schneider glass later, but this one? It’s raw, honest, built to last—like a typewriter that still clacks in a digital age.

Features: The Art of Less

This isn’t a camera that spoon-feeds you. No built-in meter means you’re on your own, guessing exposure like a drifter reading the sky. The film counter’s automatic, though—a small marvel that clicks with every frame of 120 film, a nod to German ingenuity. The waist-level viewfinder flips open like a secret hatch, revealing a world flipped left-to-right. It’s disorienting at first, a mirror to somewhere else, but that’s the charm—you’re not just shooting; you’re dreaming in reverse.

Performance: Street Shadows and Square Frames

I took the MX-EVS to the streets, chasing echoes of Robert Doisneau and Vivian Maier—masters who saw poetry in the mundane through a Rolleiflex. There’s a story from the ’50s: Henri Cartier-Bresson praised the Leica’s agility in one paper, and the next day, Doisneau countered with the Rolleiflex’s knack for candid grace. I see why. Peering down into that glowing square, reality bends—left becomes right, and time slows. The Tessar lens paints shallow depth and creamy bokeh, turning strangers into soft-edged legends.

But 120 film threw me off. Coming from 135, my “sunny 16” guesses overexposed half my rolls—bright blurs instead of crisp tales. It’s four times the size of 35mm, a beast to scan but a gift in detail. Portraits shine here—square compositions frame faces like old photographs in a family album. Still, I’ve sidelined it lately; my impatience doesn’t match its rhythm.

Pros & Cons: A Love with Limits

Pros:

Gorgeous square shots with dreamy bokeh—perfect for portraits.
Built like a tank, a survivor from 1951.
That flipped viewfinder—it’s a portal to another world.

Cons:

No meter means exposure’s a gamble (and I’m a lousy card player).
120 film’s a learning curve—pricey and unforgiving.
Slow to shoot; it’s a thinker, not a sprinter.

Conclusion: A Letter to the Past

The Rolleiflex 3.5 MX-EVS isn’t for everyone. It’s not sleek like a Leica or loud like a Nikon. It’s a quiet companion, a twin-lens ghost that asks you to pause, to feel the weight of each click. I’ve got a Chinese Orient 120—a Tessar knockoff—that mimics it well enough, and the world’s full of Rolleiflex copies. But this one’s mine, a worn treasure I’ll keep, even if it mostly guards my shelf now.

Wenders might say every photo is a letter to someone gone. With this camera, I’m writing to the streets—Doisneau’s Paris, Maier’s Chicago—hoping the light answers back. Pick up a Doisneau book, let it sink in, and maybe you’ll see why I can’t let this Rolleiflex go.

Tech Specs:

Lens: 75mm f/3.5 Tessar (4 elements, 3 groups)
Shutter: Compur-Rapid, 1s to 1/500s
Film: 120 (12 shots per roll)
Weight: ~900g

Ilford Pan 400 35mm film

Affordable Film

My friends and I both like the Ilford PAN 400. It is affordable, the speed of iso400 is particularly suitable for daily street photography, and it has comfortable and natural tones. You can develop it yourself at home and use a scanner to get good quality images. And happily, it’s flat and easy to scan.

iso200-1600

You can also get good image quality by exposing -2 or +1 stops. You know, it is used as iso1600. It’s not grainy, but has good clarity and high contrast. The most valuable thing is that it is not afraid of the dark. Dark areas can be expanded with nice detail. Although it is not as clear and sharp as the more advanced Ilford delta, as a cheap daily use roll, it is enough to make me happy.

Popular 35mm film

Ilford PAN 400 is the film I use the most. It’s not that I don’t pursue clear image quality, but street photography requires a lot of shooting, which wastes a lot of film. Economic factors also need to be considered. After all, film photography is a relatively luxurious thing these days. Moreover, choosing 35mm film photography is not just for the pursuit of clarity. If you pursue clarity, you can use 120 film. Or, digital cameras, mobile phones. But what I like is film photography, shooting slowly and not rushing to check the results.

Ilford Pan 100 B&W Film 35mm

Ilford pan100 is a cost-effective film. Its contrast and dynamic range are very good, and ordinary people can achieve good results. Compared with films in the same price range, Fujifilm’s arcos 100 has more details, but its dynamic range is not as good as Ilford pan100. The Fomapan100’s dynamic range is good, but it’s a bit noisy.

With yellow filter

The packaging box of Ilford pan100 is black with yellow letters. I think this design is telling you that it will look better with a yellow filter. So when I use the Ilford pan 100, I pair it with a yellow filter, especially if I’m shooting portraits with a yellow filter. I’m actually pretty happy with how it worked.

Cost-effective film

Ilford is a leader in black and white film, with advanced chemistry and a proven production history. For example, Ilford’s delta400 / fp4+ and hp5+ are high-end films and have many loyal fans. Ilford pan100 is a popular film, a mature and stable film. It is said that this film was originally designed for the Asian cheap market, and later became loved by enthusiasts around the world because of its excellent cost performance.

Ilford Delta 400 Professional 35mm

Any black and white film from Ilford is good, especially high-end film like delta. The image quality is very delicate, and the ISO 400 film can actually produce such small particles. Ilford is indeed very powerful.

Generally speaking, iso400 film is suitable for street photography. Delicate image quality is not a characteristic of this type of film. But delta 400 is an exception, it provides better picture quality and higher speed. The Ilford Delta 400 is a competitor to the Kodak T-Max.

sharpness

There is a triangle on the delta 400 packaging box, which is actually a hint. It tells us that this film is sharp. In fact, ilford delta 400 uses a T-shaped crystal particle, and the image superimposed by this particle will be very sharp. The film image is composed of countless tiny particles, and the shape of the particles has a great impact on the image. This is different from the digital imaging principle.

Grayscale

Perhaps the biggest difference between delta 400 and hp5+ is grayscale. The hp5+ has richer tones from highlights to shadows, and the contrast is not as strong as the delta. This is why hp5+ is more popular than delta. When I use the hp5+ for street photography, I like to add a yellow filter to add some contrast, but with the delta, I don’t need a filter.

Summarize

The delta400 is not cheap, so it is quite luxurious for street photographers. And it has very high requirements on exposure, so you must try to expose it accurately to take advantage of it.

Have you ever seen a photography book without pictures?

Street Beijing

Have you ever seen a photography book without pictures?

Walking Around

I just heard about an awesome photographer moving to NYC. Unexpected, but it makes sense. I like his work, they are interesting and you can see an independent thinker. His favorite camera is the Fuji x100 and I love the Leica Summilux 35mm f/1.4 and take my Leica everywhere I go. And I’m not going to New York, I’m in Beijing.

Interesting photography is more than just good looking photos. The photograph is just the medium. The personality of the photographer is deeply imprinted in the work. We think about life through photography and photography through life.

Photography Book Without Pictures

In short, don’t think that street photographers only have time to take pictures and get lucky. In fact, when not taking pictures, photographers are reading and thinking. One more thing, many photographers have never read a text-only photography book. Can a photography book be without photos? Yes, a good photographer must have read picture books without words and photography books with only words. Have you ever seen a photography book without pictures?

Compact Camera

Many street photographers prefer to use Fuji x100 cameras, while I like to use Leica film cameras. Of course, whether the photos are interesting or not depends mainly on the photographer, not the equipment. But one thing we have in common is that we both use small, quiet rangefinder cameras, which are actually more conducive to street photography. Cameras that don’t disturb other people are more advantageous in street photography. Therefore, sometimes the choice of equipment is also very important for the photographer. the Leica m3 and the Leica Summilux 35 f/1.4 pre-asph are my favorites. I learned this from a photography book without pictures, which was an interview with a photographer. Many street photographers choose cameras for street photography that are compact and don’t interfere with passersby.

Billingham Hadley Pro: My Go-To Photography Bag After a Decade

A friend recently asked for a photography bag recommendation for their commute—something simple, elegant, and versatile enough to hold a camera, laptop, iPad, or phone. Without hesitation, I pointed them to the Billingham Hadley Pro. I’ve been using mine for over ten years. It’s worn at the edges, but that’s a badge of trust—I’ll keep using it.

Crafted in England, this bag boasts a three-layer waterproof canvas with a butyl rubber core, shrugging off rain like it’s nothing. At 8.75 liters, it swallows my DSLR (no grip), two lenses, a 13-inch MacBook, and phone with room to spare. The removable padded insert (foam-lined, Velcro-adjustable) keeps gear safe, while the Quick Release System—brass buckles and leather straps—lets me grab my camera in seconds. I know its quirks like an old friend.

It’s not just a bag; it’s a quiet companion for the daily grind.