I am a photography enthusiast who enjoys Street Photography, especially street portraits. I was looking for a portrait lens for my M3 and 75mm was a focal length that really interested me. My digital camera is an M8.2 and this focal length would work as a 100mm lens on the M8.2 body
I chanced upon this particular lens when it was listed with The Latent Image in Shrewsbury. The lens was range finder coupled and converted to an M- Mount (from a C Mount, I presume). There are not many, if any, of these around with an m-mount conversion
I did some search and found more information on these lenses here and here – it seems these French lens were designed for the H-16 Bolex Cine cameras in the 1950s. There wasn’t much more information or photographs on the internet. The gentleman at Latent Image, Mr Temple, was very helpful and told me that he had been using the lens himself and was partial to French lens’s. It was slightly above my budget but still cost less than all the other 75mm lens and somehow the history of the lens and the unusual origin intrigued me. I felt the lens would gel well with my well used but beloved M3
The lens is a decent size but not cumbersome to carry as an all day lens. The hood does add to the size but not the weight. It is well built but not a heavy lens since the cine cameras in the 1930s were mostly handled, I suppose. Changing the apertures is not as smooth as other lens I have but focusing is pretty straightforward since this is rangefinder coupled
I like to shoot wide open and sharpness is not usually my priority. I have hardly used this lens at f/8 or above. 90% of time I use it at f/2.5 or 2.8 and all the attached images are taken at these wide open apertures. There is a lot of vignetting but this does not bother me. The images have what I consider to be a classic look. The fact that they were designed to be used with cine cameras might have something to do with the quality of photographs they produce
All of these images are from a single roll of Fomapan 100, shot at box speed, developed at home with Ilfosol 3 and scanned using Silverfast on an Epson V600
Needless to say, this is my favourite lens and I find myself using my other M- mount lens much less frequently. All the images were taken on the same day and my favourite in this set is that of Lennon, my King Charles Cavalier, who inevitably ends up being a subject in almost all of my rolls…
Thanks for looking at the images and I hope you like them as much as I do
Rajat Srivastava
https://www.instagram.com/noir_state_of_mind
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thorsten wulff on 5 Frames with the Som Berthiot 75mm French Cine lens on my Leica M3
Comment posted: 22/06/2022
Comment posted: 22/06/2022
Molly on 5 Frames with the Som Berthiot 75mm French Cine lens on my Leica M3
Comment posted: 22/06/2022
Bill barton on 5 Frames with the Som Berthiot 75mm French Cine lens on my Leica M3
Comment posted: 22/06/2022
Comment posted: 22/06/2022
Dan Castelli on 5 Frames with the Som Berthiot 75mm French Cine lens on my Leica M3
Comment posted: 22/06/2022
I love how the lens rendered the B&W portrait of the gentleman smoking. It's got the classic feeling of a lens from mid-century.
A few months into the pandemic, I purchased a 75mm f/2.5 Voigtlander w/the aux. finder. I thought the extra 'reach' would serve me well by allowing me to keep a safe distance from my subject during these terrible times. I like the focal length, and I use it enough to keep it, but not as much as I should. It's tiny & lightweight. It's a nice fit on my (film) CL and my M2.
After reading your post, I'm going to start using it more.
Regards,
Dan [flickr.com/photos/dcastelli9574/]
Comment posted: 22/06/2022
Comment posted: 22/06/2022
khedara on 5 Frames with the Som Berthiot 75mm French Cine lens on my Leica M3
Comment posted: 22/06/2022
Comment posted: 22/06/2022
Johan on 5 Frames with the Som Berthiot 75mm French Cine lens on my Leica M3
Comment posted: 23/06/2022
Nick on 5 Frames with the Som Berthiot 75mm French Cine lens on my Leica M3
Comment posted: 23/06/2022
Comment posted: 23/06/2022
Terry B on 5 Frames with the Som Berthiot 75mm French Cine lens on my Leica M3
Comment posted: 23/06/2022
I suspect what you have is a Roger Lemasson conversion as he was known for converting 35mm format Berthiot lenses to Leica screw (although his main pre-occupation was converting lenses to Contax RF mount). From then, it would be a relatively simple matter to add an M adapter ring.
Your lens is likely to be a variation of the 75mm FF lens found here: http://www.collection-appareils.fr/objectifs/html/objectif-96-Berthiot_Télé.html
Comment posted: 23/06/2022
Comment posted: 23/06/2022
chrisomac on 5 Frames with the Som Berthiot 75mm French Cine lens on my Leica M3
Comment posted: 27/06/2022
Des McSweeney on 5 Frames with the Som Berthiot 75mm French Cine lens on my Leica M3
Comment posted: 28/06/2022