Sharp Lens, Well-Dressed Mountain

First big snowfall on Mt. Rainier this fall

The photo above looks like many of the photos I post of Mt. Rainier. But this one was taken with an older film-era wide angle lens, a Contax 645 35mm.

One does not often find really sharp wide angle lenses from the last century; this one looks to be a real standout. The image above is a crop from a wide-angle shot, shown below.

I have used a wide-angle modern digital lens that costs twenty times as much as this used film-era lens ($12,000 versus $600), and the older lens is every bit as sharp. Amazing. It’s going to be a joy to use. Granted, it doesn’t have the technical goodies (tip and tilt, for example, and a wider image circle allowing for shifts), but it’s sharp enough to compete and a pleasure for an amateur like me to use.

This photo was shot with the Phase One digital back (IQ4150) with a Contax 645 f3.5 35mm lens.