On Mothers’ Day there was an arts and
crafts show on Prescott town square. Appropriate for the day, most kiosks displayed
Native American jewelry of silver and turquoise stone. Others had sculpture,
photography and paintings.
For a street photographer, such
gatherings offer the perfect setting to capture a few moments and also try
lenses given the high desert bright sun and shades by trees and structures.
I decided to try a 1949 Canon
rangefinder lens that I had added to my collection decades ago but never used.
It is a Canon Serenar 35mm f2.8 lens that was produced only for a few years,
hence it is highly collectible but did not gain popularity given its reputation
for being “soft”. But the main reason I had not used it is that a 50mm lens
captures the world more like I see it – whenever I used a 35mm lens I ended up
cropping what I projected under my 1950s enlarger.
But, curiosity lead me to mount the 1949
design Serenar on my 1957 Canon L3 rangefinder camera and head to the town
square.
Here is the Serenar on the L3
And a shade to minimise the
softness of the photos given the desert sun
… I did not have a specific “topic” in
mind for this photo session, but after few minutes of walking around I decided
to capture the celebration with dogs being a central theme. Indeed, there were
as many dogs as people at the town center, given the lovely spring day.
The photo at the top of the page was the
first test of the lens. Given the transition of shade grades, I opted for an
aperture of 5.6 and a shutter speed of 1/125th second since I was
using ASA 100 ARISTA film. I did have to crop some of the crowd out when
printing since I was still “thinking in 50mm” when framing the man with the
stroller in front of the statue. I was hoping to get a shallower depth of field
with an f5.6 opening but the detail of building is capture with surprising
definition.
My following shots were of a dog that
advertised hats for dogs in front of a kiosk selling that product. I first used
f5.6 with 1/60th shutter speed, then f4 and 1/125th
speed. The first combination yielded a more contrasty photo although the
sharpness and detail seemed unchanged.
After a few shots of experimenting with
shutter and aperture combinations, I ended up with my favorite type of street
photography – a man and his dog waiting for a portable toilet to become vacant.
I like these natural photo frames when light, structures and behavior come
together. Plus, my dog theme was perfectly realised!
I had tried most of the shutter and
speed combinations (even tried an f2.8 with 1/500th second just for
the fun of it since 500 is the fastest speed on the L3) for shots within 15
meters. I now wanted to see how the lens does with longer distance shots.
I saw a group surrounding a dog that
seemed to appreciate all the attention. I was about 30 meters away and did a
zone focusing by setting the focus at infinity.
When I printed the photo, I realized that
a better on the dog would have yielded a better story. But even with an extreme
enlargement, the definition/sharpness of the happy canine is surprisingly good,
although his eyes are blurred while his nails do stand out nicely.
Finally, I tried to contextualize the
photos by taking a contre jour shot where the banner specified the day of the
celebration.
So, how did the 1949 design Canon serener
lens, which was only marketed in 1951 (my model) and 1952, do?
Better than I expected given the review
it had gotten from users. It is a small, beautifully crafted lens that in my
first attempt showed great sharpness and especially character. It does have
that vintage lens rendition feel as well, which I like since I do not use
digital cameras and modern lenses (a Nikkor lens from 1970 is as “modern” as my
lenses go…) I will try it again now that I have a better understanding of its
sweet spots regarding aperture/speed combinations.
As for using a 35mm lens for telling a
story in street photography, the jury is still out. I think my favorite vintage
rangefinder lens remains the Canon 50mm 1.8, which I have used for decades on
the L3.
May 16, 2023
© Vahé A. Kazandjian, 2023
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