Zhao Zhenguo, Author at i35mm

Leica Tele-Elmarit-M 90mm f/2.8 “Thin Nine” Review: The Compact Contradiction

Prologue: The Featherweight Maverick

In a world where “bigger is better” reigns, the 1974–1989 Leica Tele-Elmarit-M 90mm f/2.8 (aka Thin Nine) swoops in like a hummingbird at a hawk convention. Weighing just 330g and priced between 250–250–500 (2025 USD), this aluminum-and-glass paradox is the Mini Cooper of telephoto lenses—nimble, quirky, and unapologetically flawed. Born to defy Leica’s “heft equals quality” dogma, it’s a cult classic for wanderers and rebels.

Design: Minimalist Sorcery

Pocket Rocket
- Body: Anodized aluminum (black) or chrome (silver)—slimmer than a James Bond paperback, lighter than a barista’s cappuccino. Collapses into M bodies like a pocketknife.
- Generational Wars: The original “Fat Nine” (1964–1974) was a brass-clad bruiser; the Thin Nine traded muscle for marathon-runner agility.
The Foggy Quirk
- Prone to internal haze (think vintage spectacles in a sauna), its “breathing issues” divide collectors. Some call it cursed; others, character.

Optical Poetry: Sharpness Over Spectacle

Aspect	Thin Nine	Summicron-M 90mm f/2
Sharpness	Scalpel slicing moonlight	Chainsaw through oak
Bokeh	Soft-focus watercolor	Velvet sledgehammer
Weight	Featherweight boxer	UFC heavyweight
Drama	🎭🎭🎭🤍🤍	🎭🎭🎭🎭🎭

f/2.8 Wide Open: Center sharpness rivals modern APO glass; edges fade like a jazz saxophonist’s final note.
Flare Note: Unhooded, it paints golden halos like a Renaissance angel—perfect for accidental Kubrick moments.

The “Three Charms”

Traveler’s Muse: Fits in a coat pocket—ideal for hikes, street jaunts, or pretending you’re Cartier-Bresson on a caffeine bender.
Film Noir Vibes: On Tri-X @800, it renders shadows like Chinatown stills—gritty, moody, and full of secrets.
Chinese Proverb Footnote:“瑕不掩瑜”
(“Flaws cannot obscure the jade’s brilliance”)
A nod to how its haze and quirks add mystique, not misery.

Who Needs This Lens?

✓ Nomadic Shooters: Who measure life in miles, not megapixels
✓ Flaw Collectors: Believing “character” > clinical perfection
✓ Leica Hipsters: Craving underdog bragging rights (“Mine’s rarer than your APO!”)

Avoid If: You shoot weddings, fear haze, or think “vintage” means “eBay resale value.”

Final Verdict: The Beautiful Misfit

The Thin Nine is photography’s cult vinyl—a flawed gem for those who savor the hunt. For the price of a weekend in Lisbon, you gain:

A lightweight passport to 1970s optical rebellion
Proof that “imperfect” often means “unforgettable”
Permission to laugh at lens charts

Rating:
🎞️🎞️🎞️🎞️🤍 (film romantics) | 📱📱🤍🤍🤍 (pixel peepers)

“A lens that whispers: ‘Lightness comes at a price—but what a delightful one.’”

Pro Tips:

Haze Hack: Store with silica gel—it’s fussier than a Parisian sommelier.
Film Pairing: Kodak Double-X @800—grain dances with its glow.
Zen Mantra: Embrace the haze—call it “free Orton effect.”

Epilogue: The Wanderer’s Lens
Leica’s Thin Nine whispers: “Adventure isn’t found in perfection—it’s hiding in the flaws.” Like a well-loved passport stamped with questionable decisions, this lens rewards those who dare to wander. Now go chase light, haze and all. 🌄

Leica Elmar 90mm f/4 Review: The Unsung Poet of Vintage Glass

Prologue: The Bargain Balladeer

In a world obsessed with f/1.4 giants and ASPH wizardry, the 1954–1968 Leica Elmar 90mm f/4 sits like a forgotten first-edition Hemingway—timeless, undervalued, and quietly brilliant. Priced between 300–300–800 (2025 USD), this 180g aluminum-and-glass relic proves Leica magic doesn’t require a second mortgage. Think of it as the Volkswagen Beetle of lenses: humble, reliable, and endlessly charming.

Design: Minimalist Haiku

Pocket-Sized Titan
- Body: Anodized aluminum (black) or chrome (silver)—slimmer than a paperback, lighter than a barista’s latte. Collapses into Barnack bodies like a pocketknife.
- A36 Filters: Tiny as a thimble, retro as a rotary phone.
Generational Charm
- Early “gourd-shaped” models (quirky collectors’ items) vs sleek later versions—like comparing a vintage typewriter to an iPad.

Optical Zen: Sharpness with Soul

Aspect	Elmar 90mm f/4	Modern APO-Summicron 90mm
Sharpness	Hemingway’s prose—lean, mean	AI-generated perfection
Bokeh	Van Gogh’s wheat fields	CAD-rendered gradients
Weight	Featherweight boxer	UFC heavyweight
Joy Factor	🌞🌞🌞🌞🌞	🌞🌞

f/4 Wide Open: Razor-sharp at the center, edges softened like a 1970s Polaroid—flaws turned features.
Stopped Down: At f/8, it out-resolves modern zooms, rendering eyelashes like piano wires.

Street Photography: The Slow Waltz

Forces you to pause, observe, and frame—anti-Instagram therapy for the shutter-happy.
On film (Tri-X @400), it’s Cartier-Bresson’s ghost nodding approval.

The “Three Delights”

Stealth Mode: Tiny enough to vanish in your palm—street photography’s ultimate ninja tool.
Bokeh Surprise: At 1.5m, f/4 mimics 50mm f/2’s depth—backgrounds melt into watercolor washes.
Film Love: On Kodak Portra, skin tones glow like honey under Tuscan sun.

Who Needs This Lens?

✓ Analog Purists: Who think autofocus is cheating
✓ Budget Alchemists: Turning leaden prices into golden imagery
✓ Contrarians: Who’d choose a typewriter over ChatGPT

Avoid If: You shoot sports, crave bokeh orgies, or fear manual focus.

Final Verdict: The Joyful Rebel

The Elmar 90mm f/4 is photography’s slow food movement—a brass-knuckled rebuttal to megapixel gluttony. For the price of a weekend in Prague, you gain:

A masterclass in Leica’s optical heritage
Proof that “slow photography” beats spray-and-pray
Bragging rights over gear snobs (“Mine cost less than your filter!”)

Rating:
🎞️🎞️🎞️🎞️🎞️ (film poets) | 📱📱🤍🤍🤍 (zoombies)

“A lens that whispers: ‘Greatness often hides in quiet corners.’”

Pro Tips:

Focus Hack: Pre-set to 5m—zone focus like a 1950s press photographer.
Film Pairing: Ilford FP4+ @125—film noir gravitas on a budget.
Digital Love: On a Leica M11, add +10 grain—flaws become art.

Epilogue: The Poet’s Lens
In an age of f/1.2 monsters and computational hype, the Elmar 90mm f/4 stands like a bamboo grove—bending but unbroken. It whispers: “Photography isn’t about capturing light—it’s about catching your breath.” Now go shoot something slow.

The Leica M8 With Elmarit 21mm f/2.8 Pre-ASPH E60

The Leica M8’s Love Affair with the CCD Camera.

When you decide to give up the ccd camera, perhaps unexpectedly, the ccd camera will also quietly leave you. I, on the other hand, am deeply grateful to be able to use the Leica M8 with the Elmarit 21mm f2.8 E60 to take tons of wonderful ccd photos. I can’t wait to tell you that this lens is without a doubt the perfect partner for the Leica M8.

The excellence of the Leica m8.

I firmly believe that the Leica m8 is an exceptional camera. In these challenging times of full-frame ccd technology, Leica’s aps-h format for the m8 shows significant advantages over the aps-c format of common DSLRs. Admittedly, not being full-frame, the camera loses some of the lens’s field of view in use, but the APS-H’s 1.33 equivalent conversion makes a 21 mm lens equivalent to 28 mm and manages to capture the best image quality areas of a 21 mm lens. As a result, film shot with the Leica M8 has a very high degree of sharpness.

The lens is a wonderful match for the m8.

When this lens is combined with the m8, the results are extremely impressive. Not only are the colors vibrant, but the sharpness is excellent. I am in love with its colors, which in my opinion are even more captivating than the Leica Elmarit 21mm asph version .

How the lens performs on the M8 vs. M9.

Half of the time this lens was mounted and used on the m9, the other half of the time it was mounted on the m8. I was actually more impressed with the color performance on the M8. Although it’s hard for me to say exactly why, it always seemed to me that the m8’s ccd was able to show its color appeal more fully.

Street photography is like a solo trip, in this field some people recognize the 35mm lens, while others prefer the 28mm lens. I, on the other hand, don’t get hung up on which lens to use. I have always believed that photographers should be willing to experiment. In fact, this 21mm lens with the Leica M8 is my favorite combination. I love it even more than the 28mm lens on the m9, even though they have the same field of view.

What is the angle of view of the Leica M8 with the Voigtlander 15mm

The Voigtlander 15mm lens has an angle of view of approximately 110° on a full frame camera, but the Leica M8 is an APS-H format (sensor size approximately 27.0 x 18.0mm), in which case the angle of view of the 15mm lens will be slightly less than the full frame 110°.

The Leica M8 sensor has a diagonal length of approx. 32.5 mm, which corresponds to an angle of view of approx. 83°.

Formula for calculating the angle of view.

The formula for calculating the angle of view is: θ = 2 arctan(d / (2f))
In this formula:
θ represents the angle of view.
d stands for the diagonal length of the sensor.
f is the focal length of the lens.

A Beautiful Day With Voigtlander 15mm

Nowadays, it seems that what people lack is not photographic equipment but the comfort of walking alone. I want nothing more than to carry my camera under the sun and enjoy the mere sound of the shutter. With the Leica M8 in my hands and the Voigtlander 15mm F4.5 Super Wide – Heliar lens, it was a beautiful day.

Sony A7 Review: The Alchemist’s Canvas—Where Leica’s Optical Soul Meets Mirrorless Ambition

The Universal Translator

In the realm of digital imaging, the Sony A7 (2013) emerges not as mere camera, but as a Rosetta Stone for optical heritage. This 474g full-frame chameleon—armed with a 24.3MP sensor and revolutionary E-mount—transcends its era by becoming the ultimate lens adapter platform. For those who speak the sacred tongue of Leica M glass, it’s a passport to optical nirvana.

sony a7 with leica noctilux 50mm f/1.2 asph

Technical Precision

Adaptation Anatomy
- Flange Distance: 18mm—shorter than a Leica M’s 27.8mm, enabling infinite optical permutations
- Focus Peaking: RGB color-coded witchcraft for manual focus disciples
- IBIS: None (original sin later redeemed in A7 II)
Sensor Sorcery
- Dynamic Range: 14.2 stops—Bresson’s ghost nods approvingly
- Low Light: ISO 6400 usable, ISO 25600…existential crisis
Lens Alchemy
- Native E-Mount: Competent but soulless
- Adapted M-Mount: Where magic happens

Leica Lens Symbiosis

Lens	A7 Performance	Soul Quotient
Noctilux 50mm f/1.2	f/1.2 coma? Who cares—bokeh melts reality	★★★★★ (Bokeh Shaman)
Summicron 35mm f/2	Edge smearing? Call it “character”	★★★★ (Street Poet)
Elmarit 28mm f/2.8	Corner vignette? Lightroom fixes all	★★★ (Precision Monk)

The Adapter’s Bible

Metabones M→E: The gold standard (literally—$399 gold-plated contacts)
Voigtländer VM-E: Budget-friendly heretic ($149)
Novoflex LEM/NEX: Teutonic overengineering ($289)

Pro Tip: Shim kits from $25 fix M-mount infinity focus—worth the existential crisis

VI. Optical Paradoxes

Vignetting: Not a flaw—it’s “Leica’s signature embrace”
Color Shift: Magenta edges? Convert to B&W, call it “artistic choice”
Resolution: 24MP resolves more than 1950s lens designers ever imagined

VII. Who Should Walk This Path?

✓ Optical Archivists: Breathing new life into legacy glass
✓ Bokeh Hedonists: Chasing the Noctilux dragon
✓ Manual Focus Zen Masters: Who measure life in focus throws

Avoid If: You need eye-AF or think IBIS is non-negotiable.

Final Verdict: The Bridge Across Time

The original A7 remains the ultimate adapter’s canvas—a $500 (used) portal to optical reincarnation. For the price of a mid-tier zoom, you gain:

Access to 70 years of Leica’s optical gospel
Manual focus skills sharp enough for Black Widow’s precision.
Proof that megapixels matter less than optical soul

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐/5 (for alchemists) | ⭐⭐/5 (for AF addicts)
“A camera that whispers: ‘The best lens is the one they said couldn’t work.’”

The rest is down to luck

Some people see street photography as a series of decisive moments. But when I’m out shooting, I realise I have no control over when and where my images will appear. I can’t predict which corner is going to pop up, and I can’t arrange for a moment to happen just right. In such a situation, I just have to choose the right camera, lens and exposure. The rest is down to luck.

Grain is my old friends

I really like the look of grain in photos, especially in black and white. I like coffee in water, too. From analog film to digital, they’re my old friends.

Warm Moments on the Motor Tricycle

When it comes to photography, it’s not just about the images we see. It’s the way it can capture the deeper meanings behind the photos that makes it so special. When I look at this photo, I feel a warm glow in my heart.

Take a look at the motor tricycle. It’s not just a heavy load; it’s like a messenger of warmth, full of intimacy and priceless emotions. I thought about whether I could use my camera to capture this warmth and make it last forever.

But who knows, maybe one day when they get a flashier car, the warmth from the motor tricycle may not be so direct and strong. I mean, that kind of warmth from the motor tricycle is pretty special. It really gets people’s hearts going when they see it.