Classic Glass

With the proliferation of capable and inexpensive lens adaptors experienced photographers have been using older lenses designed for film with contemporary digital cameras.  The success of these undertakings ranges from the incurably flawed to the beautifully rendered but perhaps most important in these efforts is older lenses offering contemporary digital photographers a more expansive and expressive vocabulary. In Winesburg, Ohio Sherwood Anderson wrote of the “sweetness of the twisted apples” and classic glass with modern high resolutions sensors can indeed be sweet both in spite of and because of their designs.

I have enjoyed using an Alpa 12 SWA with three lenses (47mm, 58mm and 80mm) and 6x8 roll-film backs for the last several years and while not for every occasion it is a joy.  My casual investigations of using digital backs (e.g. Phase One, Leaf, etc.) on the Alpa suggested that the challenges of using these older wide-angle lenses with digital sensors presented an incline I did not want to scale (e.g. need for LCC exposures, massive vignetting, etc.).  Continue with film I would and with no regrets.

But a few conversations with Jeff Hirsch of New York’s Foto Care had me reevaluating this conclusion.  Hence, the purpose of this post – to report a thoroughly casually exploration of the use of classic lenses (the three afore mentioned Alpa Schneider-Kreuznach lenses) in the context of contemporary medium-format digital photography using the Alpa.

I came into this endeavor beckoned by the latest generation of Phase One IQ4 backs largely resolving many of the issues posed by previous generations of digital sensors when using older lenses.  “The IQ4 has breathed new life into these wonderful older lenses” was Jeff’s comment (largely due to its backside illumination) and so on a recent bitterly cold three-day holiday weekend I started exploring the combination.  Let me note, the IQ4 has enormous flexibility and capability most of which I left unexplored choosing instead to focus on essential functions and developing a reasonable working routine for both on and off a tripod.  Jeff and Anthony of Foto Care provided basic instruction and set-up, the Phase One manual is very nicely presented and the IQ4’s large touch screen user interface is an informative pleasure to use (Sony, Fuji, Leica, etc. learn a lesson).  

A few initial observations:

1)    In combination with the Alpa SWA the Phase One can be reasonably hand-held down to 1/60 of a second and is quite manageable to carry. By way of comparison I can’t reliably shoot my Leica M-10 Monochrome at these lower shutter speeds.

2)    The IQ4’s dynamic range is expansive!  Despite some (read “many”) flaws with some of my initial exposures I was stunned on bringing the raw files into Capture One and simply Auto Adjusting.  Blacks were transformed into nuanced and noiseless detail.  I use a Leica M-10 Monochrome and GFX 100s both of which have strength in the shadows and the IQ4 rivals if not surpasses them.

3)    The Frame Averaging, i.e. virtual neutral density, function is a delight to use, vastly simplifying long exposures.

4)    And “Breathing new life into these wonderful old lenses”?  Yes!  Perhaps the GFX 100s with Fuji lenses offers a bit more detail/resolution/etc. but these classic lenses perform wonderfully well on the IQ4.

5)    While the ergonomics of the Phase One back on the SWA are inevitably different than those with the roll-film back, they are no more demanding.

Some sample images are included showing some long-exposure capability and conversion from color to B&W using Capture One and Silver Efex Pro 3 along with a candid portrait taken in haste on a bitterly cold street corner.  I intend to undertake a somewhat more thorough evaluation of the Phase One’s capabilities with comparisons (with Fuji and Leica digital and film), etc., but for the nonce I simply wanted to write in praise of classic glass and its continuing viability in modern medium format photography.

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