Pembroke Street Shootin'

I can’t help myself.  I found a Voigtlander 25mm f4 M mount lens in the local classified and decided this would work well with the NEX.   It works out to 38mm equivalent on a Full Frame camera – not quite as wide as I’d want, but not bad.  Interestingly this lens is not rangefinder coupled, so the patch doesn’t move on rangefinders.  However it has 3 detents in the focus ring between minimum focus distance and infinity, at 1m, 1.5m and 3m.  If you use these as a guide, with a relatively slow speed and wide angle, accurate scale focusing isn’t too much of an issue.  The deal included the original 21mm viewfinder and an older Canon 35mm viewfinder.  The Canon viewfinder is perfect for using with the NEX with this lens, and also useful  to when using the Voigtlander 35mm f1.4 on the M3.

A few days ago I stayed overnight for business in Pembroke, which is located in the Ottawa Valley, North East of Ottawa.  To fill some time I took my camera down the main street to take a look and get some dinner.  There isn’t much happening in Pembroke, apart from some young guys playing loud, obnoxious music  from their cars as they were driving around; and the tattoo parlour was doing a roaring trade.

What surprised me was the large amount of murals painted on the side of the buildings, which made for some great photos.  There was also a large, old advertisement for chewing gum on the side of one abandoned shop which was also fascinating.

So how did the Voigtlander 25mm and NEX go?  Reasonably well.  I found that f4 is a bit dark for evening shooting and a minimum focus distance of 70cm is too far away, but other than that it works well.  I especially liked that it was really small, smaller than the 35mm f1.4, even with the shade fitted; and I also liked the resolution performance.  I think the also tiny 21mm f4 would have been better (equivalent to 32mm on Full Frame) which would have given a bit more scope for street shooting.  For now I’m happy, but I’ll still keep my eye out for a 21mm!