This image is of a fellow cast member from Man of La Mancha, taken at a recent fund-raising event. It was shot using my Leica IIIb rangefinder, and an postwar 50mm/f2 Summitar lens. It was not a very bright room, and I was shooting available light, so even though I was using Tri-X (a reasonably fast film) I had to shoot wide open, at either 1/20th or 1/40th of a second. I knew that not much would be in focus, but the face and eyes were, and I was able to capture a lovely expression. The Summitar lens has a reputation for fairly swirly out of focus areas when wide open; some people don’t like the effect, others enjoy this characteristic of the lens, and I am in the latter camp — I like what it adds to the image.

Hi John thanks for the lovely portrait, if only Canon L series lenses were this good.
http://www.andybeelfrps.co.uk
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Thanks Andy! At least I could afford the Summitar!
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