By Bonyo Bonev
Zenit-E Moskva 80 Edition
with Helios 44-2 lens
This is going to be
interesting.
Let me start with some
background. When I was a little kid I got obsessed with variety of objects-
from very well made toys to some of my father's technical tools. One of them
happened to be Zenit-E camera with Helios 44-2 lens. Do not have a clue what brought
me to it but I am glad I did notice the camera. Although it was way up in the
drawers I always managed to get to it.... persistent little fellow my mother
would say. So I started playing with it and actually using it without a film.
One thing you should know about those cameras is that they are not very
reliable. So it happened. The loading mechanism for the film that is used to
turn to the next frame jammed. Off course I was appointed to be the cause of
the issue and not simply the fact that the camera was unreliable.
So years passed my father
bought another, more sophisticated Zenit SLR camera with auto metering. I did
used that one too but actually to take pictures and some I still have. The
second one turned out to be unreliable too ... with the same issue! I was so
disappointed but moved on and found something else to improve myself into-
computers…
Sony W5
Years pass again and just
before my daughter was born I got myself a small Sony W5 camera. I thought it
will be a good moment to have a camera to take pictures and videos of the new
born. I used that one a lot and even though it was a small camera you actually
had all the controls of the big ones: ISO, Shutter speed, Aperture, White
Balance and etc. It did a great job sealing some very nice memories. I still
have it but nowadays my daughter uses it to make funny pictures with her
friends.
And here come the Canons.
We move to US in 2007 and
in 2009 I wanted to get into photography a little more, which meant I had to
get a little more technical about the camera and the technics used in
photography. At that time I worked in a big store chain that became a victim of
its own greediness and stupid CEOs. Anyway, I had the time and variety to check
quite a bit of cameras. I end up liking how Canons were made to work- easy to
control with two wheels and very good to hold. I got Canon 40D and it came with
28-135 kit lens. I started getting more and more technical and got some very
nice and some quite expensive lenses for it. I did not liked the full frame
cameras as there were no good lenses for them. The only exemption to the rule
was Leica M cameras but a this point they were just out of my price range. A
friend of mine mentioned it back in 2005 and since then one of my eyes was
always at Leica cameras. Anyway back to the Canons. All lenses performed well
on APS and almost none performed well on full frame. So I sticked to APS
sensors. This camera was quite nice and I liked it but what I did not realized
was, it was getting me away from what brought me to photography- simplicity,
ISO-Aperture-Shutter, roll the film and shoot.
Canon 70D with Leica
Summilux-R 50/1.4
After 5 years it was time
to update the old body with a new one because I got more involved into
marketing the company I worked for which sometimes included printing huge
posters and the 40D 10MP sensors was not enough. I got the Canon 70D which was
supposed to be a huge thing and actually it was a huge hype! At the same time I
got my self a little more artistic lens which was again a big disappointment.
This was the 50mm Canon USM 1.4. The 70D just could not get the focus right
bellow f2. At 1.4 you might get 3 out of 10 shots if even that much. On top of
this there was just huge color aberrations when high contrast edge was shot
(check out more here). Also the photos just came somehow flat. All in all I did
not like 50/1.4 Canon lens… SOLD!
Zenit-E Moskva 80 Edition
Wake up call
At this point the hate for
the miss focusing Canon 70D was building up. I wanted simplicity and they gave
me packed with useless gizmos junk. Instead of putting the money into making
the quality higher they waste it for LCD screen and tons of menus nobody uses-
I had all the functions sorted in favorite menu which is like 6 positions. This
is where I really started considering the Leica M camera. I read all the
articles on different websites about Leica M. Leica M was small, full frame,
and very simple to use. Still it was far beyond what I could afford but I
wanted it really badly. A good friend of mine was making a good laughing point
that with the Canon and the 24-70mm or 70-200mm lens people were noticing me
immediately and running away from me once I put it up. One of his favorite
jokes about it was that it will scare an old ugly rhino when pointed at it. It
was true, people where just giving you that strange not approving look. It just
started to not work for me.
My cousin was coming back
from Europe a month after I got the Canon 70D, so I told my mom to get to the
top drawer and give the beloved Zenit E camera to him. Yes, 25 years later I
knew exactly where the camera was. Something was telling to get it. So she did
with a little amusement why I wanted the old broken thing. Once I got it I
loved it. The old thing brought me back to my childhood. I was playing with it
like a little kid with a new toy. Not only that but I loved how it was made-
just phenomenal! The lens was moving very smooth the whole lens and camera were
metal and glass. It had the depth of field range on the lens. The knobs were
crafted in superb way too. I simply loved it and the camera fit just perfect in
my arm. I thought to myself- it would have been awesome to be able to actually
use it. So I did... partly. I bought an adapter for the lens to fit on my Canon
70D. The lens is Helios 44-2 which is a 58 mm f2 lens. Once the adapter arrived
I put it on and went out for some test shots. I have read actually that people
were looking for this lens because it had superb sharpness in the center and
very very nice bokeh which at some cases was swirly! It is worth mentioning
that this lens is like $20-$60 on online and has no color aberrations at all!
Color rendition... well check for your self below.
Swirly bokeh
Helios 44-2 on Canon 70D
That was it. This little
old broken thing from my childhood made me re-think photography and what it
meant to me. At this point I just realized how over priced all the junk from
mass manufacturers were. So I started looking around for a better 50 mm lens
and it turned out they were all very bad which the exception of Leica lenses
which were superb even when they were 40 years older. And that is how I got
myself Leica 50mm Summilux-R 1.4. This lens is something else! Nothing like the
"EL CHEAPO" junk from Canon, Nikon and Sony. The lens was 44 years
old and was outperforming absolutely everything on its way. The craftsmanship
of the lens was top quality. After 44 years the lens was performing like brand
new.
Leica Summilux-R 50/1.4
The mechanics are smooth,
the body is all metal and glass, it has depth of field scales, the hood holds
the filters, the shots were quite different and not flat, much less color
aberrations and etc. There was a little drama with the focusing on the Canon 70D
but I got an adapter that enabled the focusing inside the viewfinder of the
camera. Still the focusing on the newly introduced 70D did not work quite well
so I had to calibrate with micro adjustments which helped but did not cure the
issue. The problem is that the focusing inside the viewfinder is flat 2D. It
will blink/indicate when you are in focus but you really do not know where it
focused for sure. This was not only applying to the Leica lenses. The Canon 70D
had issues will all other including their own. There is just simply no way to
be 100% sure that what you shot was in focus so you had to constantly verify on
the LCD your last shot. This insecurity on the new body I did not like at all.
The only way to be 100% sure was to use the LCD but this was impossible without
a tripod. I even considered some range finder style focusing screens but
thought it is just not worth it. The old boy (Zenit-E) was sitting behind on my
stand and looking with amusement how lost I was.
Ants nest shot with Summilux-R 50/1.4
Leica M - a Dream to come
true
Leica Elmarit 24/2.8
At the end of 2013 I got
another Leica lens, Elmarit-R 24/2.8 lens, and sold my 24-70 f2.8 Sigma lens. I
was slowly turning into fixed lens photography because it made more sense to
me. Fixed lenses are more accurate and much smaller than zoom lenses so they
are perfect to shoot on streets and events. Fixed lenses helps you stay
incognito so If you really knew what you are going to shoot then it was the
perfect choice. Also for short distances like the 50mm and 24 mm you did not
need a zoom you can just move. I realized that zoom lenses are another
distraction from simplicity.
The last shot....
Miss-focus by a mile
One day I was walking
downtown Charleston, South Carolina and a wonderful image appeared in my head.
It was a small old car with 2 people inside and was moving slowly down King
street. Immediately focused the camera and shot.... The result was that this
was the last shot I made with Canon camera. The image was out of focus, it was
good only for small size picture. I was pissed off and then decided I have to
move to the one I was dreaming about since 2007- Leica M body camera. After a
couple of days I did ordered it. It was a dream to come true. The new M (type
240) was perfect for me as I can process photos faster than a film and will
work with my R lenses. 2 days later the M was at my door. It came in a very
stylish packaging. Immediately opened it and went through the menus, adjusted
the settings as I liked them and put the 50 mm lens on it. The settings has
presets which took me 5 min to figure out. Presets helps switching from 50 mm
to 24 mm lens preset very quickly. It is important thing as Leica has made
corrections inside the camera according to the lens. If you do not have a 6 bit
coded lens then you have to manually choose it in order to get corrections to
vignetting.
Leica M with Summilux-R
50/1.4 very first shot with no custom color balancing
The body of the Leica M is
just perfect. Simple, small, light and very well made. It fits very nice in my
arm. It is a piece of art no doubt about it. I am very particular about the
tools I use at my work. I can not work with any tools just because they will do
the job. My creativity is partly driven by the tools itself. I have a bond
between me and the tools. I feel like if the tool was made with passion, that I
can detect, it will become part of me or an extension of myself. Just like the
brush of an artist is extension of his vision. I always wanted the best and
this is by far the best full frame camera in the world. In my anticipation of
the camera to arrive I actually spend some time developing 3 camera 3D models:
Leica M, Canon 70D and Canon 5D Mark III. You can see why people look at you
strange when you point those monsters at them. The Canon 5D is almost twice as
heavy as Leica M. Size wise it is really pointless to compare them.
For my R lenses to work in
the best way I got the EVF2 viewfinder. It makes focusing like it is supposed
to be done. One drawback is that it makes the camera taller and I have to take
off the viewfinder every time I put it in a bag, but it gives me one of the
best focusing additions there is- focus peaking. Essentially it works like any
other camera today. It uses contrast to find where the edge is. The big
difference is that it is 3D so it spreads across the image and uses the
aperture reading to show you how far focusing extends. So in short I cannot
miss a shot with it and I have not! EVF has another big advantage- it has 1x,
5x, and 10x zoom magnifications so you can see closer your object when
focusing.
Leica M with 50mm
Summilux-R 50/1.4 + Expodisk
Picture quality with R
lenses is superb. Bokeh is phenomenal and really makes objects pop. Color
rendition is good but if you need perfect colors use custom WB. Black and White
conversions are very good.
The big sell
Canon 70D for sale...
Before I got the Leica M I
had 2 Canon bodies, and 3 lenses other than the Leica R ones. I thought it will
be nice to keep the 70D so I can use it for video. So I did for about a month.
I just realized I would not use it at all no matter what! First the old 40D was
sold, next the Canon 600 EX flash unit, memory cards, Tokina wide angle lens,
70D body lens and power adapters all went for sale.
Leica M with Canon 70-200
2.8 IS II
Even the big boy Canon
70-200 II IS 2.8 lens when on sale because I was able to substitute it for
LEICA VARIO-ELMAR-R 80-200MM F4, brand new with a box. The problem with
adapting a fully electronic lens to a manual body is that you cannot change
aperture, cannot use the image stabilization. So it was kind of pointless to
keep it so I sold it.
Leica Vario-Elmar-R 80-200
f4
I always try to be
philosophical about bad situations, in a sense that in every bad situation you
have to find the good side of it for yourself. There is one thing that I am
very grateful to the Canon 70D- it made me make a choice I could not make
otherwise. It annoyed me so much, at the end I hated it so much, that I could
not stand it anymore. It was to the point I will leave the camera at home instead
to take another disappointment from it. There is even more- I could never take
any of the professional assignments I took after I bought Leica in my hands.
That little voice in my head which kept doubting every single shot would not
allow me to do any kind of job for money because I cannot disappoint people.
This is how I am - if I cannot do it I better do not fool the person on the
other side that I can. I am a perfectionist and I do things that way to the
extend of my understanding. With Canon it was not possible. So in short I never
regret the decision of moving to Leica and how could I.
Leica M with Summilux-R
50/1.4, EVF2 and lens hood with ND filter.
© 2017 BONEV PHOTOGRAPHY http://www.bonevphotography.com
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I moved to Canon about the same time in 2005 and to full frame (FF) in 2009. It is not true that FF EF lenses didn't exist - there were plenty, just they were a lot more expensive than the cropped sensor lenses. The 50/1.4 EF lens is optically excellent but suffers from a poor lens body built potentially causing issues with the AF drive. I am currently using Leica M, Sony mirrorless, and Canon DSLR all in parallel - they are just tools, and depending on the shooting situation one is better than the other.
ReplyDeleteHmmm... been using canon for 20 years. Film and digital. You can't compare "prosumer" Canon bodies to Leicas and call it fair. I use their full frame bodies with L series glass and the results have been terrific. Likewise using third party glass with the Canons is not being a perfectionist. Just saying ;)
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