5 frames in Barcelona with the Voigtländer VM 35mm 1.2 III on Leica M6

A huge benefit of the Leica M system is, that there are still new lenses being released for M-mount. Plenty actually. And this makes it really something special, as I am not aware of any other 35mm camera system where this is the case (except for a handful of Nikon F-mount lenses produced by Cosina).

So when I decided to shoot analogue I came to the conclusion that a Leica M6 would be the best option for me, as I already had a bunch of M-mount lenses. Unfortunately, despite buying an M6 from a dealer which has been serviced before, there were still some issues that needed to be addressed. In the meantime I gathered films in my fridge and was looking forward to finally go out and shoot.

Luckily the fixed camera arrived at my doorstep just in time for a trip to Barcelona and I was finally able to shoot some film.

When deciding what lenses to bring the most obvious one was the Voigtländer VM 35mm 1.2 III. Fast, compact and my favorite focal length of 35mm. So I wanted to share some pictures I took with that combination. Some people prefer to stick to vintage lenses when using vintage analogue cameras. I also like the idea of using lenses incorporating the latest technology like computer aided design and aspherical elements to get film pictures that were not possible to achieve back in the day.

I love the Tungsten films and this was the perfect subject. The Voiglander being an f/1.2 lens allowed me to shoot with the ISO200 film (which I shot as ISO125) at night and this one came out just as I hoped it would.

I accidentally ended up at the Mercat de la Boqueria when the stands were already closing, but this was the perfect opportunity to take some pictures, as the scene wasn’t cluttered with people anymore, allowing for a cleaner composition.

This was one of these shots where I couldn’t wait to finally see the developed image as I was really wondering if it is any good. Is the focus where I want it to be? Is the exposure good enough? Is the dynamic range of the film sufficient?

You cannot make Barcelona the topic and not show pictures of the Sagrada Familia.

I am a fan of shallow depth of field and this is actually one of the few pictures where I stopped the lens down quite a bit. Despite being optimized for artificial light I really liked the 200T in daylight shooting, too. I didn’t expect that. Being cinefilm there is a rather high amount of grain though – certainly not everyone’s cup of tea.

You can find more pictures from Barcelona in this article at phillipreeve.net
If you like my pictures and you want to see more of them you can also follow me on flickr

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