It was a beautiful day. I stood in the park woods with my eyes closed. I felt the willow branches fluttering and the sun shining. A halo appeared above. Suddenly, I felt a light swaying and opened my eyes. I saw a little monkey playing with its owner, so I quickly took a picture. I learned that you can feel the light without opening your eyes. Don’t search for photos; let them come to you.
For a long time in the past, I thought photography was about taking pictures of scenery, friends, and family. When I saw Henri Cartier-Bresson’s street photography album in a bookstore, I had to close the book and hide my face to prevent strangers from seeing how excited I was. It turns out that street photography can amplify our sympathy and love and guide us to feel the enlightenment of life.
Since then, I often go out with a camera, sometimes a Leica, sometimes a compact. I don’t deliberately look for opportunities, but take my chances. Especially if someone is running in a hurry, I take a picture immediately. I know there must be a goal behind every person in a hurry. She and I have a common goal – to seize opportunities. It’s just that we express it in different ways, she uses running and I use shutter.
Time is like a wave that washes away all the hand-painted artwork on the beach. It will also wash away the footprints that each of us has left on the streets. And I will use my camera to record those calm and innocent expressions on film. Unbeknownst to the photographed, with the sound of the shutter, they are like falling crystal raindrops dancing on the edge of time.
Watching the flowers bloom so beautifully, it seems that life should be so beautiful too, and all your worries will dissipate. Therefore, whenever I come across a beautiful flower, I stop to take a picture.
Many seasoned photographers don’t take these photos. They think it’s too easy, that anyone can take them, that it’s not worth wasting film. But I don’t think so. The purpose of photography is not to show how good you are at it, but to have fun and keep the original love of nature alive, at least for me. I don’t create exaggerated perspectives or standard compositions, just keep it as it is. My goal is not to take photos that look like wallpaper, but to take photos that I want to take.
During the process of developing my black and white film, sometimes there are water stains left on the negative. It’s like, everyday life is calm as water, but even a small stone can make it ripple. Life is always full of dangers and even a drop of water can be magnified on film. Water stains can often be wiped away, but I’m still lazy. As long as it doesn’t ruin the picture, I don’t bother cleaning it up. Sometimes laziness is an open-mindedness. The water stains left on the film, I just regard as tattoos.
I have shot film with a summmicron 35mm f/2 asph lens and it is very sharp. But I use more of the older Leica lenses on film. About 80% of the film in my photo library was shot with non-ASPH lenses.
For a long time I have been using the Summilux 35 f/1.4 first generation. In fact, it is so sharp from f/4 to f/8 that it is indistinguishable from an asph lens. Since the maximum shutter speed of a Leica film camera is 1/1000s, on a sunny day the aperture has to be contracted to f4 or even less and you have little chance to use the f/1.4 aperture. On a cloudy day or indoors, f/1.4 produces excellent three-dimensional images, although they are less sharp. To be honest, you really don’t need the sharpness of f/1.4 for film photography.
I have also shot film with the Leica Summilux 35mm f/1.4 asph lens and like it very much as well, it is an excellent lens. It is not only sharp but has good color contrast. I used to shoot with ND filters and f1.4 aperture. I mainly use ASPH lenses on Leica m9 digital cameras. Also the Summicron 35 asph, Summicron 28 asph and Elmarit 28 asph are very sharp and have higher contrast than older lenses. However, many of Leica’s non-ASPH lenses are very sharp, such as the Summicron 35mm f/2 v1 and Summicron 50mm f/2 v4, and remain sharp when used on digital cameras.
Interestingly, while we all love sharp lenses, I find that my favorite photos seem to be less sharp, especially with film photography. Maybe that’s why Leica’s classic lenses are still viable.
“I like pictures taken with film because it carries the smell of sunshine.”
“If film becomes obsolete, will you still like film cameras?”
“Even if the film camera is history, the images it takes will always be there, and I still like it because at the end of the film is you”
“Then I like the sky today because it ends with you and me”
From film. From Leica. It’s what gave me the courage to go out on the streets.It’s what made me strong and gentle.
The slowest shutter speed is the speed at which the snow melts on my hands.
Which shutter speed should I use to capture the speed at which we grow old?
开
工
In the shadow of its mythic sibling, the Summicron-M 50mm Rigid, lies the Summicron-R 50mm f/2 E43—a lens that mirrors its cousin’s soul but dances to a different rhythm. Born in the 1960s, Leica’s first R-system 50mm f/2 dared to adapt Walter Mandler’s M-design wizardry for the single-lens reflex realm. Priced at a modest 450–450–700 (2025 USD), this brass-and-glass enigma offers Mandler-esque magic without the collector’s premium.
| Aspect | Summicron-R 50mm f/2 E43 | Summicron-M 50mm f/2 Rigid |
|---|---|---|
| Sharpness | Bamboo stalk at dawn—supple yet unyielding | Samurai sword edge—cold perfection |
| Bokeh | Wang Wei’s mountain mist | Li Bai’s moonlit wine |
| Focus | 0.5m intimacy (SLR’s whispered secret) | 0.7m street tango (rangefinder’s waltz) |
| Soul | Unpolished jade | Imperial porcelain |
✓ SLR Minimalists: Seeking Mandler’s soul in reflex form
✓ Budget Alchemists: Turning leaden prices to golden imagery
✓ Macro Curious: 0.5m focus unlocks intimate worlds
Avoid If: You demand autofocus or f/1.4’s bokeh delirium.
The Summicron-R 50mm E43 is photographic wabi-sabi—a $700 lesson in imperfect perfection. For the price of a weekend in Suzhou, you gain:
Rating:
🌞🌞🌞🌞🌗/5 (for classicalists) | 🌞🌞🌞🌑🌑/5 (for speed addicts)
“A lens that whispers: ‘The overlooked gem often outshines the crown jewel.’”
Pro Tips:
Epilogue: The Forgotten Classic
While collectors chase M-Rigids priced like Ming vases, the E43 lingers in the shadows—a lens that scoffs at mythmaking. Yet herein lies its charm: true artistry needs no temple. As the Song dynasty poets wrote, “The moon’s beauty lies not in its fame, but in its silent glow.” The E43 glows on, patient as a sage, waiting for those who see beyond the hype.
