While researching the background of the great Australian cinematographer Robert Krasker I learned that he was educated in optics and photography at the same technical university in Dresden as the great American photographer Imogen Cunningham, both studying under Professor Robert Luther.
Krasker attended the university some years after Cunningham and their photographic styles were very different as they were of different outlooks, with hers pictorialism while his was based more in the Bauhaus, objectivity and realism.
I’ve always believed it’s a good idea to keep experimenting and keep learning by doing things the opposite of my customary approach every so often, so I picked up the Canon EOS 5D Mark II that my maternal uncle Sir Brian Bell gave me before he died, attached our Panagor PMC 28mm f/2.8 Auto M42-mount vintage manual focus to it and made the photograph above through a less-than-clean plate glass window.
DxO has profiled the camera’s sensor but not this 1970s vintage lens so I’ve yet to work out the best settings for processing the camera’s .CR2 raw files.
I chose the Color Positive Film/Fuji Provia 100F film simulation in DxO PhotoLab Elite with DxO FilmPack Elite as a plug-in and went for a bit of a vintage look.
The Panagor’s 28mm focal length is my favourite for documentary work and daily carry but I only have it in this vintage prime lens right now and not in primes for Micro Four Thirds (14mm) or APS-C (18mm).
I do have 28mm-equivalent focal lengths in several variable focal length lenses in those two sensor formats but there’s nothing like relying on a 28-equivalent prime for daily photography.
Let’s hope that Fujifilm releases a Fujicron-style Fujinon XF 18mm f/2.0 R WR compact prime lens soon so it can be my daily lens of choice on our X-Pro series cameras.
There’s an obsession where we live for imitating vintage architecture from other lands such as this imitation of a French château built of composite panelling and what appear to be foam mouldings.
Other homes nearby are based on 1920s Hamptons houses, Georgian townhouses, Italian hilltop villas, Andalusian villas, Cape Cod cottages or other house styles so poorly suited to the climate that their owners must often have their air-conditioning and wood fireplaces going 24/7.
This house seems to have been abandoned and its owner currently lives in the little Cape Cod-style cottage at its left.
The owner bought the land and the tiny cottage that was on it from an elderly couple who had planted a magnificent forest of protected Sydney Turpentine trees, our favourite Australian tree, around it, forming a superb environment for native plants and animals, many of them also protected species.
The new owner illegally destroyed the Turpentines, the mounds and nests of the protected species and gladly paid the $100,000 fine for having done so.
The microclimate here has become much harsher as a result.
This practice is very common now.
Links
- B&H Affiliate Link –Click here to research and purchase or pre-order your choice of cameras, lenses and accessories for stills photography and video production whatever your genre and subject matter.
- Canon Camera Museum – EOS 5D Mark II
- DxO – website – PhotoLab, FilmPack, ViewPoint, PureRAW, Nik Collection – Our #1 choice in raw image processing and editing software.
- Wikipedia – Canon EOS 5D Mark II – “The Canon EOS 5D Mark II is a 21.0 effective megapixel full-frame CMOS digital single-lens reflex camera made by Canon, the first Canon EOS camera to have video recording capabilities. It succeeds the EOS 5D and was announced on 17 September 2008…. Canon 5D Mark II was able to compete with high-end digital movie cameras available that time. Its release started the trend of “DSLR revolution”, significantly changing the world of independent filmmaking for upcoming years.”
- Unititled.Net – Taking Our Old Canon EOS 5D Mark II DSLR Out For A Walk With Our Adapted Panagor 28mm F/2.8 Attached
- Wikipedia – Imogen Cunningham
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