One of the Noctilux’s (50mm f/0.950) rare Street Photography outings in that opener. Apart from that cafe in Toronto (2017) we seldom meet up, and to think we were so much in love. There’s a reason why we don’t get out much these days. Sure she’s heart achingly pretty, but Noctilux would let you down just when you needed her most. I’m going to give her another try over Christmas, deep down I know it won’t work out. Time to speak to my photography therapist. “John, your relationship with Noctilux is toxic. She’s utterly useless for Street and that’s what you’re in to and she really isn’t. Come to terms with it and let her go. We’ve been over this”. I stare at the floor “I know you’re right of course and I admit there are a few red flags, but she really does deliver sometimes. Could you stop saying Toxic every time we speak by the way, I’m beginning to think these sessions are toxic. Anyway, you don’t understand”. “I do John, only too well. I’m a bloody photography therapist after all. Whatever that is?”. She delivers a weary shrug “Give me some examples, when she’s actually shown that she delivers as you say”. I received an email the other day about a potential Leica Noctilux project and could I contribute. That prompted an attempt to navigate my archives, not for the fainthearted trust me. However I was able to pull up quite a few.
“Yes, yes. Very nice. Stop living in the past. We’ve discussed this John. Where’s the street content and justification for reuniting with her now?”. Let’s leave my photography therapist in her “darkroom”, she’s so “negative”. I hate to admit this, but she does make a salient point. Why bother keeping this lens? It sits on a shelf gathering dust. A photography friend commented the other day that it was his “dream lens”. Now, Dan is an accomplished, published photographer and all round nice guy (Dan Chaves), that’s a fact. I pointed out to Dan that dream has a way of turning into a nightmare at times. Focussing manually at f/0.95 using a rangefinder is tricky. You get far more misses that hits. if you’re a photographer you’ll understand that, the focal plane in this case is extremely narrow. Here’s a photo of me taken by an extremely good and competent photographer (again wonderful guy) taken a few years ago who wanted to have a go whilst we chatted at a bar. He’d only had one drink by the way. This isn’t meant to embarrass him in any way, merely an example and in fairness Rod had zero practice with this lens.
The Noctilux requires that practice, you have to work with it. To begin with it was attached permanently to my camera, months passed before I felt vaguely confident. It’s not just a huge financial commitment, it requires absolute dedication. We’re talking about lenses now, not relationships. Here’s one of Rod I took when he passed the camera back.
In 2018 I wrote a blogpost: Leica Noctilux - A One Trick Pony? You can read that if you wish. Essentially I argued that the Noctilux has just one trick, and it’s a good one, ridiculously shallow depth of field. Most of my photos using this lens are at a distance. It’s much easier, if you’re close up then things get crazy, you think you’ve focussed on that all important closest to the camera eye and when you open the image on your computer you’ll find that eye totally blurred and a great shot of an eyebrow and it’s intricate detail. Think of it like laying on the grass and taking a shot of the blades, a pencil thin line of grass from left to right will be in focus the rest a green blur. That said, it can be done. These two young lads from a client shoot for example…
Take a close look and you’ll see there’s no room for error. Both their left eyes are in focus, the right right ones not. Just a slight tilt of the head is enough. Here’s a few more from Weddings and family shoots for clients I found:
Yep, that’s all very well, but can it be used for anything else. Could it be your everyday lens? Nope. There’s the simple answer, and I’ll add not a chance. I can’t see it, to begin with it’s a lot of glass and therefore insanely heavy. If you're outside in bright daylight you’ll need to have a 3 Stop ND Filter attached, essentially a pair of very dark glasses . Wide open it sucks in a ridiculous amount of light, my Leica M Rangefinder has a maximum shutter speed of 1/4000 second, not quick enough unless you like white cats in a snowstorm. Think of it as the photographic equivalent of a black hole. Of course the light changes, you might have to go under shelter or your subject is in shadow and that ND Filter has to come off, unless you’re a fan of black cats in a coal mine. It’s very fiddly. Unless I suppose you want to use it at f/8 or f/11. You won’t need the ND Filter, but you’ll be missing the f/0.95 trick. And what do you have, a really heavy and expensive 50mm lens. I have tried closing it down to f/8 or f/5.6 in the past, here’s a few examples:
I don’t see the point. Far easier to use a 35mm or 28mm Summicron at f/8 or f/11. Everything is in focus and you don’t have to think about it. Unless you have one of those wide open at f/2 or maybe f/4 manual focus doesn’t come in to it. Set your hyperfocal or zone focus and you’re free to concentrate on the framing and content. Here’s another article to read from 2017 - Hyperfocal where I make a not very complicated method extremely confusing. Some Noctilux colour…
I’m not sure if I’m attached to this lens or the nostalgia of the photos it helped create. We have to learn to say goodbye, my dad was one who could never bring himself to say that. He’d opt for “night night” when he was leaving or “see you” or “god bless” or ‘drive carefully”, anything apart from goodbye because to him it was too final.
I really should say goodbye to the Noctilux. Over Christmas I lost yet another tooth. It’s implants time and we’re talking big bucks. So it may need to go, if any photographer or dentist (someone who can actually afford to own a Noctilux) is reading this then make me an offer. If I had clients clambering for photo shoots I’d keep it, really that is the only way to warrant owning the Noctilux. Sometimes I feel like my dad. I see him in the mirror, perhaps I can’t say goodbye either.
My nephew in that shot at Budleigh Salterton beach. I couldn’t get that shot with any other lens. Not without a huge amount of post processing. That photo is the RAW image converted to black and white. Less than a minute to develop. Great, but there is a problem with that almost abstracted rendering. I take my camera with me most days on the dog walk, Summicron 28mm attached. I took some photos on a dog walk over Christmas with the Noctilux. The one in the middle is intentionally out of focus. Of course, I would say that.
And some more on Christmas Day in Bath with my youngest daughter whilst staying with Sam (ex-wife #2). And here lays the problem, not with Sam, but this lens. Firstly it’s not spontaneous. You see a moment and it’s gone, because you’ve spent your time fiddling around focussing. Missing the focus entirely, especially in low light. There’s the paradox with this lens, designed to suck in light which is great until you look through the viewfinder and attempt to focus. There’s no light coming into that viewfinder, yes you can see the frame lines, but you can’t see the focussing patch which is how a rangefinder works. Look through and you’ll see two offset images for example of a lamppost, adjust the focus ring until they move together or line up to make one image. Bingo you can release the shutter. Yes, you do have more room for manoeuvre at f/8, it can be slightly out in the viewfinder, you’ll still get your subject in focus. Not a chance at F/0.95 in low light, which as we’ve discussed is the Noctilux’s one trick.
Amélie is out of focus in shot 1 and 2. Even standing still in the second. Now that could just be me, rangefinders are a young mans game as far as eyesight goes at least. In the last shot the light was truly beautiful, that photo is a mess because by the time I’d focused the content was a few seconds realigned and therefore totally out of sync with what I was framing . Essentially the stars aligned and I missed it. We met up with my sister in Castle Cary for lunch in “The Creamery” over Christmas. I love the train station is the first thing. I used to get the train there when I was around 11 or 12 years old with my then friends. We liked watching the express London trains hurtling through. Sad to admit I was a trainspotter for a very brief period, not in the narcotic Danny Boyle film sense. The Station Master would say “I’m watching you boys, one false move and you’re back on the next train”. No Station Master these days, no one was watching. I tried to take a shot of the sign and two people looking in different directions awaiting a train. Top of the sign missing because I was fiddling around with the focus and afterwards they all stared at me and everyone is watching. With a 28mm or 35 Summicron I would have clicked and moved on in 1/1000 of a second. Those ladies in 2 and 3 are making cheese as we sit and have lunch. It’s not an operating theatre.
Let’s wrap this up, because Christmas from a photography perspective wasn’t great that’s clearly evident. The Noctilux 50mm is a very special lens. If you like abstract portraits and have paying clients to warrant the price then order one now. Don’t wait because they’re never going to cost less, you’ll look again next year and need a lie down to recover from the increase. If you prefer Street Photography and absolutely must and should have everything in focus, you need to react quickly, get a Summicron f/2 35mm or 28mm. Noctilux is sat on the shelf. A decision ought to be made, but like many I’m assigned to will sit with that lens in abeyance. I suppose you could use it for landscape photography at a push, again a 50mm at f/0.95 shouldn’t really work for that, but some how it does.
Thank you for taking the time to read my blog. All images can be opened by clicking on the thumbnails. Not that it matters they were made using a Leica M with a Noctilux 50mm lens fitted. I used an Apple keyboard to type it all out.
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