I recently stated that I would not be discussing newer gear as much going forward, but two categories would remain.
- Vintage Digital
- Scenes Seen
There is yet another category that stands alone regardless of vintage. Rangefinders. I have discussed this older variant of this camera over a few posts…
…but, with the exception of a startup, the brave souls, this is the only modern, in production rangefinder game in town.
Since I made this purchase Pixii has stepped up with a full-frame announcement and I do want one, but at their asking price I am good.
Enough of that.
Why a rangefinder in this year of our Lord 2024?
I have no rational answer to offer you. I will not set your eyes rolling mumbling about feel and “the moment” and simply say this.
I like rangefinders.
That is it. That is all I have got. If you are looking for reason and/or logic you have wandered on to the wrong web page.
For this post the lens in question is the knock-off-ti-lux.
This lens has served me well ever since I first used it with the Voigtlander Bessa R2 years ago.
Over the years I have sold copies of this lens only to repurchase them so I have decided to hold on to it now. Has been used natively on film, manually adapted to other mounts, AF adapted to other mounts, and finally on native digital. It is a flawed lens wide open IQ wise but full of pleasant surprises… to me anyway.
As fun as this has been, I have recently decided to pair the M240 with another more grownup 50mm. That has gone very well. But this I wanted to get the Knock-ti-lux out for a spin.
Scenes seen with vintage digital. Nothing Earth shattering. Just some captures while going about my day. First at a local art space where I should be showing some photography work soon and then on a quick photography therapy walk.
Next I came across a talented busker. I heard him a ways off belting out an impressive rendition of a Ribbon In The Sky, approached tipped well (deservedly so), and he obliged with a couple of pics.
Another successful scenes seen/vintage digital fit.
Some closing thoughts on this lens I betrayed by using another 50mm.
I was reminded that while this lens performs admirably wide open, considering its price point, it is a legitimately sharp lens with decent IQ stopped down a bit. F/2 shows marked improvement and it is genuinely impressive around f/5.6. After the “Would you look at that crazy bokeh.” thing wears off even I must admit the lens has other shortcomings. <Gasp.> That was me gasping at my own heresy after singing this lens’ (Still valid to me.) praises for so long. And “At this price point.” is implied throughout. All of these are easily forgiven taking that into consideration, but still valid.
- Never mentioned in this space before, but a click aperture dial would be nice.
- No copy I have owned likes to stay on f/1.1 since the slightest nudge will move it. And this thing pretty much would stay on f/1.1 99% of the time. A click aperture will solve that.
- Build.
- Not bad… but not great. Hefty, but not a hewn from a solid piece feeling thing.
- Infinity.
- Close up and for middle distances these lenses are fine. But I cannot say that I have had a copy that consistently focuses at far distances wide open.
- Now if you stop down to about to f/4 or f/5.6 or more you are good to go. But blowing the foreground to smithereens with the far distance in focus is not on the table in my experience.
- Sometimes you are not looking for character.
- A lens like the Contax G Zeiss 45mm f/2 comes to mind. While this f/1.1 7Artisans entertains by its sheer oddity the Zeiss entertains by its sheer perfection in nearly every aspect of image capturing. I do not even invoke an, “In my opinion.” This is a lens I would put up against all glass regardless of price or pedigree… And it hints at what is to come.
- Landscape.
- While not awful I did not buy this lens for accurate focus across the frame and it would be nice to have a grownup lens also.
In other words mostly nit picking… for this focal length… at this price point. I really like this lens and that will not change. It will continue to be the fun 50mm. There is nothing wrong with it when used as prescribed but, as mentioned in the last bullet, a grownup lens was in order. More to come, but until then…
Happy capturing.
-ELW
Eric L. Woods 