After a weekend of crappy weather, Monday was a complete opposite. Kirk Lau and I couldn’t resist on the amazing weather and took our Grapflex Speed Graphics to the Shanghai Bund for some night photography. Knowing how bad the reciprocity of the Shanghai 4×5 film, we decided to give it a go away. I was armed with only two lenses, the Fujinon 65mm f5.6 SWD and a Leica Dimaron 150mm f2.8. I only took 4 slides of Shanghai 100iso 4×5 film in two film holders. Here is a shot taken with my RX100 II on my shot.
Large format photo session at the Shanghai bund.
Let’s see how the photo will do. I am stand developing them with Kodak HC110.
One day I saw an old beaten up Leitz medium format projector on sale on ebay. On closer look, I see that it has a Dimaron 150mm f2.8 lens on it. I contacted the seller about buying the lens on its own and to my surprise, they agreed and all for $25USD! The lens came and considered how beaten up the original projector was, the lens was in pristine condition. It even came with the original cap!
Using just a simple cardboard gift box that i saw lying around, I cut up a small square. I put the lens on the paper, drew a circle and cut a small hole that will fit the lens. Then I mounted it on my Speed Graphic and see how it looked in the focusing screen.
Somehow, there was no light leak and the lens is able to fit 4×5 without vignetting! I didn’t try tilt shift but I doubt it can cover that. I was really happy that it can even cover 4×5, consider it was from a medium format projector.
I quickly setup a scene to test the lens with FP3000b. Here is the first shot.
The leica sharpness and the constrast is unbeatable, not to mention the amazing bokeh.
Amazing sharpness, solid contrast and dreamy bokeh.
I was blown away with this lens, even though this is only a piece of glass and doesn’t have an aperture. I am basically stuck with f2.8. For individual portrait, I think it’s perfect, but for group shots, I don’t think this will be too functional. Nevertheless, I am super happy with the result and it’s only $25USD! What a lucky find!
