For quite some time now I've been collecting vintage lenses. Anything from 50 year old Minoltas, to 70 year old Exakta mounts, on up to Leica lenses from 1938 to 1946. I've used that latter group on Leica IIIa bodies on film, and they've always performed well.
In the last several years, however, I've acquired several mirrorless digitals by Sony and Fuji. I view those mirrorless bodies as the ideal platform for adapting lenses. and I've added mount adaptors for those bodies to use my entire stable of vintage glass. I am constantly surprised by just how well these old lenses perform even today. I did take care when purchasing them to make sure I had clean examples, and I've had a few serviced recently. These were top-flight lenses, in most cases, when they were new, and that shows today.
We had a bit of a surprise snowfall overnight and into the morning hours today, and I decided to take some time and get a few shots with the Leica glass. I picked a 50mm Summitar from 1946, an 90mm Elmar from a bit later, and a 135mm Hektor from around 1949.
Here's one from the 50mm Summitar, one of Leica's earlier fast lenses. I didn't record the exposure, but there are no contrast adjustments applied here, just the normal sharpening I'd apply to any digital capture. This is an 11x14 crop from the full image. There's still a fair depth of field, but I think I was shooting somewhat stopped down here.
This image is an 11x14 crop from a 90mm Elmar. I didn't record the exposure, but I do like the way the background fades out somewhat quickly, drawing your attention to the last of the roses in my Lovely-Partner-In-Crime's garden. There are no contrast adjustments here, either. The background fall-off, to me, is even more pleasing here.
Lovely photos!