I’ve been sharing photos taken with old cameras — specifically, film cameras. But in my collection, I also have some incredible glass.

Classic glass can outrank a great camera body. This is one of those times.

While cataloging my collection, I came across a Leica 50mm Summicron-R lens from the early 1970s. A gorgeous piece of glass that leans away from today’s over-perfect, clinically sharp modern lenses. With a specific adapter I tracked down, I was able to mount it on one of my current Nikons — the Zf — working as a manual focus lens on a technically advanced digital camera. Best of both worlds.

This was my first outing with this combination, a grey morning at Echo Bridge in Newton Upper Falls. The shot above is a perfect example of what this lens can do. A dreamy mix of depth, texture, and detail that modern glass simply doesn’t hand you.

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A rainy Friday on the new flowers.

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Tonight was the Tri-County Prom, this year at Gilellte. Couples, friends, classes, teams, tons of great photos, this is the largest group I got tonight, the track team.

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I brought my Nikon F5 with me to shoot the Tri-County Boys Lacrosse team. The F5 is a pro-level film camera, this one from 1996. In its day, it would have made a great sports camera; it still works great, could use a better lens, but it did the job. The hardest part is limiting my frames and not holding the button down and snapping away, it was refreshing. I snuck a couple of track practice and softball photos onto the roll, too. Loaded with Kodak 400 TX, processed less than an hour after the game was done by hand in the darkroom, scanned and here we are. Shot to posted in a few hours. TC won the game.

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Film is an old friend, and we have reunited. It’s been a work in progress — cataloging my collection of cameras and lenses, updating the darkroom, and practicing with old, outdated film. It was time to take it up a notch.

A fresh roll of Kodak Ektar 100, my 1952 Leica IIIf Rangefinder, and a Canon 50mm f/1.4 LTM — the “Japanese Summilux” — a long way from the Pentax K1000 that photographed this same park almost 35 years ago.

I’ve been chasing this camera for a while. Robert Frank carried the same body across the US in the 1950s — the trip that inspired the Middle Ground journey I’ll be taking in a few months. He had a Nikon 50mm on his. The Canon performs just as well. These images have the feel that only film can bring. A small, inconspicuous body that will quickly earn its place alongside the Rolleiflex 3.5F and Hasselblad 500c as a film favorite.

Metered with LightMeter Pro. Developed in my studio darkroom on a Jobo CPP3.

More info in the Museum Entries:

Leica IIIf

Canon 50mm

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Leica IIIf