The Minox Submini...

There are reams of information available on the Minox subminis, so I won't bother to duplicate it here. What I want to address are the user aspects of these cameras.

Firstly, I own a Minox B. This is the earliest one with a built in meter (selenium cell). The selenium cell can wear out after a while, but mine seems to agree with my Minolta Spot Meter in most situations. I guess I got lucky. The B with the selenium cell is probably the cheapest Minox on the market. The earlier, smaller models are fairly sought after. The newer models are generally more expensive, except the C which is quite a bit bigger than other Minox cameras. You can still get a Minox brand new, but it is very expensive ($1000+).

The nice thing about the Minox is that it is the smallest useful camera I have run across. The negatives are small (8x10mm) but the Camplan lens is perhaps the sharpest put into any mass produced camera. Assuming that one loads the Minox with fine grained film, this should not be a major problem even up to 8x10 inches. I often shoot 400 speed film and just cope with the grain, though, as the f/3.5 lens can sometimes be limiting indoors or in low light conditions.

One wish of mine is that I could buy a digital camera that is every bit as small as the Minox, and has real manual controls. It wouldn't need a screen or anything - perhaps an Epson R-D1 style count down needle that lets you know how much space you have left on the memory card. The smallest useful digital P&S cameras (useful = produces raw files = Leica D-LUX 3, Ricoh GX300 / GR-D) have a total volume of about 150,000 square millimeters. The Minox B (not the smallest Minox!) has a volume of about 40,000 square millimeters, or just about 1/4th the size of the tiniest useful digital cameras made today. And none of the tiny digicams that have RAW ability have manual controls that are very friendly.

I was briefly thinking about buying the GR-D, but decided that I would wait a bit instead. The GX-300 looks better so I am glad I did. I will probably wait a few months to buy it as the price will come down a bit. But for now I am happy with the Minox. As they are really quite inexpensive I would recommend a Minox to anybody looking for the ultimate pocket camera, if you are comfortable using manual controls.

The Sigma 20 f/1.8

The Sigma 20 f/1.8 is a highly controversial lens. Many people hate it, but most folks who have actually used it love it and would not part with it. This is for a couple of reasons.



The big reason is that there's no other game in town. In a world where fast prime lenses are quickly disappearing, this unexpected lens is about your only option aside from the expensive and out of production Olympus 21 f/2. Most people think that f/2.8 is 'ultra-fast' in the wide angle arena. They are wrong!

Another reason that people may not be willing to part with it is how nice it is to manually focus. The AF clutch system is kind of weird, and you are required to throw two switches to change from AF to MF and vice versa. But once you switch to MF mode, you are taken back to a time when lenses were smooth and well damped, and you could make minutely small adjustments effortlessly.

Despite these advantages it is not a lens for everybody. First, it is a large lens. Long and heavy. Second, it is a Sigma. Many people have the Sigma Stigma. I will admit to having it too. I owned a Sigma that broke in the field after just three weeks. One of the internal lens elements came untaped. Yes, you read correctly. The damned thing's lens elements were held in place by double sided sticky tape. I returned it promptly, bought a Canon, and never looked back.

Sigma had quite an awful reputation in the late 1980s and through the 1990s as building bargain basement junk. This may still be true for their budget lenses, but I would not hesitate to recommend this lens to anybody looking for something wide and fast.

As with the vast majority of lenses out there, it is better stopped down than it is wide open. Wide open, it has really good sharpness in the center and is a bit less stunning towards the edges. As you stop it down, it rapidly improves, even beating my Canon 20-35 f/3.5-4.5, which is a better lens than both the 17-40 L and 16-35 L. This is quite a feat. By f/2.4 it is great in the center and has fair edges, and by f/4 it has even sharpness across the frame. It does flare a bit though. Notice the flare in the photograph above (a very tricky situation for that particular lens - bright lights right in front of the lens).

If it was swiped I would buy another in a second. It is invaluable in low light situations where the flash is not allowed or would kill the mood.

Fuji Natura Black

The Fuji Natura (and Natura Black) were introduced a few years back as an upscale 35mm P&S camera in a sea of P&S digitals. Fuji has a history of making high quality cameras and excellent optics and it's refreshing to see them come out with such a niche product in this day and age. The Natura is a camera in a similar class as the Nikon 28Ti / 35Ti, the Ricoh GR series, and other high quality cameras which are mostly out of production now.

It has an all metal body, a retractible lens, and the basics like exposure compensation, manual infinity focus, and flash controls. It is also built to be as compact as possible. It's not quite as large as an Olympus XA, a Minox, or a Lomo - i.e. it's one of the smallest 35mm cameras ever built.

The real appeal of this camera is the 24 f/1.9 lens. This extremely fast lens allows you to shoot in almost any lighting conditions when paired with fast film. It is also faster than most (all?) luxury P&S cameras.

After owning one for over a year, I can say that this camera has almost no downsides. If you pre-focus, shutter release is almost instantaneous. Exposure compensation is fantastic for special situations.

There are a few things that trouble me about the camera. There is no way to manually set ISO speed. There is no aperture priority automation either. I am not quite sure exactly what the program line looks like, but it seems to stop the lens down if it can, as long as the resulting shutter speed is greater than 1/30th (by my ears). There is no indication whatsoever as to what shutter speeds and aperture the camera sets. It is clearly biased toward handheld shooting which is fine by me.

For a couple hundred bucks, this is a winner. You can't buy a 24 f/2 for your SLR for less than that!

So I bought a Canon 50 f/1.2

I got the Canon 50 f/1.2 (LTM) a few weeks ago. I decided to go with this lens instead of the Noctilux or the even more exotic Canon 50 f/.95 for several reasons.

The primary motivation to go after the Canon 50 f/1.2 instead of the other options is money. I think it cost me about $250. That's a not unreasonable sum for a ultra-fast lens. By contrast, the Noctilux is $3800, and the Canon f/.95 can total up to $1200-1500 including M mount conversion.

It's a fairly hefty lens. The focus throw is 180 degrees which is nice for accuracy. It has an infinity lock. The infinity lock initially annoyed the hell out of me. Now I am used to it, and it is really not a big deal.

How are the images? This is a 40 year old ultrafast lens. To expect it to perform on the order of the Noctilux would be unrealistic. It does do a damn nice job, though. It's kind of soft wide open, and improves rapidly when stopped down. I haven't done any side by side comparisons with it yet, but it seems to be a tad sharper than my Industar 61LD at equal apertures.

All in all, it's a good addition to the camera bag and the 1/2 stop over f/1.4 actually helps more than people might say.

Cosina Voigtlander 40 f/1.4 Nokton (MC)

The Nokton 40 is a unique lens, from a couple different perspectives. It is the fastest 40mm to be offered for any 35mm camera. It also comes in a single coated version for people who enjoy flare and low contrast. It is fairly squat and fat, and the aperture ring has half stop clicks. It is anodized black with a bright chrome front, which accepts a bayonet hood. Why they made the inside of that ring chrome as well, I'll never know. A minor point, but in certain situations the lens will flare a bit. The lens has a focusing tab on the bottom, right where you'd expect. The aperture has ten blades.

Optically, the lens is of conventional double gauss design. This is a good thing - lens designers have had a long time to perfect the double gauss, and most normal (50mm or so) lenses are based on it. This lens gives excellent performance at stops, with the optimum stop being at f/4 or so. At f/1.4 it has a very slight softness, which is gone by f/2. This is completely expected and ordinary for any fast lens. It does exhibit some coma, being a double gauss. This is fine by me - if I need a fast coma free lens, I suppose I'll pony up for the Nokton 35.

This lens stays on the R-D1 about two thirds of the time. It is a bit longer than normal at an effective focal length of 60mm, but I adapted pretty quickly to the field of view. The only real down side to it is the bright chrome front ring. I bought this lens sight unseen like the rest of my CV lenses, and am very pleased with all of them, especially the Nokton. It is a pretty good match for 35mm framelines.

It might not seem very special at first glance, but the 40mm is a somewhat rare and coveted focal length. This one is a full stop faster than any other 40 that I am aware of for full frame 35mm use. Go ahead and compare this lens to the Leica 35 f/1.4 - the Leica will probably be sharper wide open, and have a bit more correction for aberrations, but for 8x the price I would expect it to give backrubs as well.

If any of you out there in bitland are thinking of getting a 35mm lens, look at this 40 before you decide. The FOV isn't really much different, and you will be pleased once you get it.