Heading West in Jackson: Woodrow Wilson Ave. and Medgar Evers Blvd. (B&W film)

Construction at Children's Hospital, Jackson, from Woodrow Wilson Ave.
(Leica IIIC, 5cm ƒ/2.0 Summitar lens)

1968 aerial photograph of the original University Medical Center building
(from Preservation Mississippi). Woodrow Wilson Ave. is on the right. 

Woodrow Wilson Avenue is another major east-west arterial that crosses Jackson. Near North State Street, it passes by a cluster of hospitals and medical facilities, part of the University of Mississippi Medical Center. Preservation Mississippi recently wrote about the 1960s construction of the first part of this huge hospital complex.

Canadian National rail yard, 2018, Leica IIIC camera

CN rail yard, 2017, Fuji GW690, Kodak Tri-X 400 film

A long overpass crosses the Canadian National railroad yard. There is always activity there. Jackson has been an important rail junction since before the civil war.

Peace Street runs south from the viaduct. It did not look camera-friendly, so I did not venture down there.

This bayou, just west of the CN rail yard, is one of the many creeks and drainage ditches that have been channelized in the past. I wonder when they will start un-channelizing them to allow plants and riparian habitat to be reestablished?

Medgar Evers Boulevard diverges from Woodrow Wilson and runs northwest-southeast, eventually becoming US 49 after it passes I-220 in northwest Jackson. Much of the infrastructure and commercial activity along Medgar Evers in west Jackson looks beat-up and dilapidated. The Delta Mart at 3133 Medgar Evers is an example. Many of the stores were closed. The sign had a 1960s vibe to it.

Continuing northwest, I came across some closed stores and empty brick house at the junction of US 49 and Forest Avenue Extension. A gent came to talk. He was Mr. Stevie Rose, as he showed me on his hospital identification wrist band. I could not tell if he was homeless or traveling somewhere, but he had a big bag of ramen noodles and other items.

This ends our short tour. A future article will have some pictures from Flora, which is a short distance north on US 49.

Most of these photographs are from Kodak BW400CN film, exposed in my dad's 1949 Leica IIIC rangefinder camera and a 5cm ƒ/2.0 Summitar lens. I scanned the negatives with a Plustek 7600i film scanner.

Wandering around east Jackson, Mississippi (B&W film)

South Commerce Street, Jackson, view south. The tracks are no longer in service

When in Jackson, I often go to Jackson Ice, at the corner of South Jefferson and East South Streets, to fill up with 100% ethanol-free gasoline. The area near South Jefferson is semi-industrial, with warehouses and various businesses. I have never been able to do much photographically there, but one early morning in December, the weather was suitably gloomy to lend a certain air to the scenery.

Several ice companies were clustered near or along South Commerce Street because they had access to the railroad. Jackson Ice, where I buy the 100% gasoline, is still in business. The Morris Ice Company on South Commerce closed in 1988.

High Street runs east-west from the Pearl River levee past the fairgrounds and then ascends a hill to State Street and downtown Jackson proper. A modern but unused building sits at the very east end of High Street, just below the levee and just beyond the driveway that leads into the Herrin-Gear automobile dealer complex. I had never paid any attention to the empty building and drove in one morning. It was the abandoned Junior Achievement of Mississippi building. According to the Mississippi Business Journal, Achievement closed in November of 2009:

JACKSON — The recession has claimed one of Mississippi’s most respected charities. After nearly a half-century of bringing work readiness, entrepreneurship and financial literacy programs to the state’s school children, Junior Achievement of Mississippi Inc. is shutting the doors. 

“This decision is not one with which anyone associated with Junior Achievement of Mississippi was happy to make,” said David Barrentine, chairman of the board of directors, Junior Achievement of Mississippi. “This organization has a 40-year history of educating young people about economics and the marketplace. Accordingly, it is with sincere regret, but with a prudent view of its financial condition and prospects, that this decision was made.”

This was a nice-looking modern building. No one could use it? This inability to recycle a structure always baffles me.

The 1927-vintage Hinds County Armory sits unused and only minimally repaired at the State Fairgrounds. In 2009, I took pictures inside, but now there is plywood over the door. In 2013, I photographed workers doing some stabilization and repair. This time, I was able to place my Leica on a small opening on a side door and take a 1-second exposure of the interior.

I have never been able to do much of interest photographically with South State Street. But this time, the old fire trucks caught my eye.

East Rankin Street is pretty dumpy, too (OK, it is horrifying). But at least there is a car shop that repairs old Volvos! What nice and practical cars compared to the lookalike bloated SUVs that pollute our highways now. Blaine's Upholstery Shop does excellent work. (These sepia frames are from a Moto G5 mobile phone.) Please see my 2020 article on East Rankin Street.

We will continue our exploration of Jackson in future articles.

Most of these photographs are from Kodak BW400CN film exposed with my dad's 1949 Leica IIIC camera and a 5cm ƒ/2.0 Summitar lens. This is a C-41 film (sadly, now discontinued), meaning it can be processed with the same chemicals as any color print film. I scanned the negatives with a Plustek 7600i film scanner using Silverfast Ai software.

UPDATE July 2022:  The tracks running in the center strip of South Commerce Street have been removed and it looks like the City will install sewer pipes under  the right-of-way. 

Test of the Leica Monochrom versus the 69-year-old Leica IIIC film camera

Leica IIIC rangefinder body and 5 cm ƒ/2.0 Leitz Summitar thread-mount lens

Dear Readers, a business trip brought me to Washington, DC, in late October (2018). I arrived early on a Saturday and decided to check out the Leica Store on 977 F Street NW. The store is in a strategic location: the Imperial Capital, seat of power and unbridled (and corrupt) spending, half way between the White House and the US Capital, and near tourist sites like the Mall. The staff at the Leica Store are very nice and were glad to see me using my dad's 1949-vintage Leica IIIC with its 5 cm ƒ/2.0 Summitar lens. I have written about this IIIC before and used it for a month in Nepal during my 2017 trip. Similar to the Leica Store in Hong Kong that I visited in 2014, this one had shelves covered with fantastic camera bodies and lenses, and superb photographs were on the walls.

Leica Monochrom Type 246 with 50mm f/2.0 Summicron-M lens (from US.Leica-Camera.com)

I had always wanted to try the Leica Monochrom, a digital rangefinder camera with a monochrome sensor. It has a body about the same size and shape as my 1967-vintage M2, but has a 24MP 24×36mm B&W CMOS sensor with no color array or low pass filter. Pseudo-photographers on popular photo web sites like Dpreview bash the idea of a monochrome camera, but serious workers around the world do some amazing work with it. Unfortunately, the Monochrom body alone costs about $8000. Hmmm.....

Regardless, Mr. Paul at the store let me do a quick test. We went outside to F street to find a suitable subject. A restaurant next door had white plates and cups that were glowing in the sun.

Leica Monochrom with 50mm ƒ/2.0 ASPH lens, DNG file opened with Photoshop Elements 11 and contrast reduced. Resized with ACDSee Pro to 1600 pixels wide. Click to enlarge.

Fujifilm Acros film, exposed at EI=80, developed in Xtol, Leica IIIC camera with 5 cm ƒ/2.0 Summitar lens.

The Monochrom DNG file has a tremendous tonal range. In the example above, I reduced the contrast to show details under the table, while not allowing the white dishes to become featureless glowing white blobs. But surprise: the Acros film also recorded all the data. I could probably increase the contrast to reasonably match the Monochrom scene. I scanned the 35mm negative at 3600 dpi with a Plustek 7600i scanner using Silverfast Ai's Tri-X 400 profile.

Full-size crop of the sugar packets in the Monochrom DNG file. Note the almost complete lack of grain. 

Full-size crop from Acros film negative.

With a crop of the file to look at the lettering on the sugar packets, you can see that the Monochrom file is essentially grainless. The resolution is amazing. The Acros film file is clearly grainier and has lower resolution. But remember, this is the "primitive" and "obsolete" chemical recording media exposed via a 69-year-old optical instrument. If I mounted the newest version of the 50 mm Summicron lens on my M2 camera, the resolution would be better, and an exposure on the now-discontinued Panatomic-X film might reduce the grain. Regardless, I am happy at how much detail film can record. It is not obsolete by any means (but the prejudice on the part of film-haters certainly is).

Leica SL (from US.Leica-Camera.com)

I also examined the Leica SL. It is a gorgeous piece of Teutonic engineering and solidity, like the film  Leicaflex SL of the 1970s. The viewfinder is superlative. But this thing is a monster and feels as heavy as my Nikon F3 with motor many years ago (and that was a big machine).

Comparison of Leica SL and 1960s M2 (from Camerasize.com)

Sorry SL, I just will not carry you around when I travel, and if I am going somewhere by car, I may as well take my medium format cameras. Also, the minor issue of the cost - $11,300 for body and 50mm lens - is problematic.

In summary, I really like the Monochrom but do not need it now. It is a bit (OK, very) expensive. Black and white film suits my needs presently, and I prefer the way it depicts the scenes that I typically photograph. The Leica SL is just too big and heavy to interest me now. Its lenses are as big as Hasselblad lenses. I want to thank the gents at the Leica Store in Washington for the test run.

Here are a few touristy film photographs from the venerable Leica IIIC.

Room with a view: 17th Street NW. Fuji Acros film, Leica IIIC

Sunset at the WWII Memorial, Washington, DC

Checking the scene at the Mall, Washington, DC

Pennsylvania Avenue at the FBI building. I used a Leitz GGr (yellow/green) filter over the Summitar lens

Venerable tree on 17th Street, late afternoon

1950s Excellence: the Leitz 50mm ƒ/2.0 Type 2 Summicron-DR lens

Leitz 50mm ƒ/2.0 dual range Summicron lens in original box. 

Introduction 

Leica's 50mm Summicron lenses have been famous for optical and mechanical excellence for over 60 years. Leica's term Summicron means a lens with maximum aperture of ƒ/2.0. They have been improved over the decades and are still in production - how many other consumer products have lasted over a half century? Even more amazing, a new lens will fit on a 50-year-old Leica M body, or a 60-year-old lens will work on a brand new film or digital body. When you consider the longevity, Leica lenses are reasonable price, despite the hatred (= envy) from many modern digital users.

A convenient summary with photographs of the different versions is on Ken Rockwell's site.

5cm ƒ/2.0 Summitar lens in extended (ready to photograph) position

Summitar

Ernst Leitz produced the predecessor lens, the 5cm Summitar, from 1939 to 1953, with 170,761 units total. War-time lenses were uncoated, but from 1946 on, they were anti-reflection coated. Eastman Kodak and Zeiss had coated optics for military use during World War II, but coating all air-glass surfaces on general civilian optics became widespread only after the war. The Summitar had a complicated design of 7 elements in 4 groups. Human computers using mechanical calculators and trigonometry tables must have made a heroic effort to compute the ray paths. The Summitar's central sharpness is superb, but the edges fall off and there is field curvature. This can be used creatively, and regardless, "sharpness" is not normally the factor that makes a photograph successful. For examples, please look at some of my 2017 Nepal articles. In 1953, the Summitar lens cost $158 in USA.

Summicron Type 1

E. Leitz introduced the first Summicron, the Type 1, in 1952. It was an update of the Summitar, also mounted in a collapsible barrel. This lens was also manually computed, although surely the workers used electrical tabulating machines. The first electronic computers after World War II were used for ballistics analysis, atomic weapons research, rocket trajectories, and military optics. The 1953 USA cost for the Summicron was $183.

A note on collapsible lenses: When the E. Leitz company introduced its first camera in 1923, it used perforated cine film but doubled the frame size to 24×36 mm. All other cameras then used much larger roll film or individual sheet film. So the new small image surface became known as miniature format. The cameras were intended for travel or adventures like mountain climbing. Therefore, the manufacturers wanted to make the cameras compact and portable. One way to do that was to build a lens in a barrel that could collapse into the body. As the years went by, cameras grew larger and heavier (like automobiles or, most grotesquely, American SUVs). The Zeiss Contarex of 1960 had grown to 910 grams for just the body. The Nikon F with its metering head was a big package, as well. And today, the digital single lens reflex (DSLR) in "full frame" size is a bulbous thing graced with a protruding penile lens that points at its subject like a cannon. Just tell DSLR users that they really have the miniature format.

1963 Type 2 Summicron lens with single focus range.

Summicron Type 2

E. Leitz introduced their Type 2 Summicron in 1956. It was in production until 1968. To improve the precision of the glass alignment, Leitz mounted Type 2 optics in a rigid barrel. It was a masterpiece of mechanical precision and elegance, but the construction of brushed chrome over brass made it heavy. This lens was also hand computed.

Leitz began computer-aided lens computations after about 1960 at their factory in Midland, Ontario, Canada, under the guidance of Dr. Walter Mandler (from Erwin Puts). It is an interesting history of international competition about this time. Japanese optical companies such as Canon, Nikon, and Topcon were also exploring new lens designs with the aide of early computers. They were able to market lenses with almost as refined optical characteristics as Leica but at lower price. The brilliance of the Japanese companies was to bring superb optics to a wide audience at reasonable price.

Leitz made two versions of the Type 2 lens. One had a single focus range covering 1m to infinity. The photograph above shows a 1963 lens that I bought from a friend in town. It was available in M-mount  (63,055 units) as well as the 39mm thread mount (1160 units; now a rare collector item).

1967 Dual range Summicron without goggles.

Dual range Summicron with goggles attached on the flat plate. The lens has been extended to its closest focus distance.

The second version had a dual focus range and is known as the DR. The normal range was 1.0 m to infinity. But if you wanted to focus on a closer object, you slid a spectacle viewfinder attachment onto a flat plate on the top of the lens. The goggles depressed a button, which let the lens focus from 0.48 to 0.88 m. The goggles correct the parallax of the rangefinder view. It was a clever way to let a rangefinder camera focus more closely than the normal 0.8 or 1.0 meter. A reflex camera does not have these limitations, but in the 1950s, most miniature camera photographers were still using rangefinders. Total production was 55,145 units.

Note: the goggle units varied slightly in design over the production period. You must have the correct unit for your lens for it to mount and focus correctly.

My stepdad bought the DR in the pictures above in 1966 or 1967. This lens and M2 camera took family pictures in Greece and traveled to Asia, Africa, the Indian Ocean, and North America. Now it photographs urban decay in Mississippi and Louisiana. This one has pristine coating.

I could not find a complete Leica price booklet from the 1960s, but I found a few prices in US $ for M2 body and lenses:

• M2 w/50mm ƒ/2 rigid Summicron 423.00
• M2 w/50mm ƒ/2 DR Summicron 465.00

Optical unit and focus mount of Summicon-DR lens. Serial numbers must match.

Special note: the optical unit can be unscrewed from the focus unit. If you buy a used DR lens, the serial numbers must match. Do not accept an unmatched lens. 

I also have a Type 4 50mm Summicron from 1984 or 1985 production. I will write about it in a future article. It is mounted in a lighter weight black alloy barrel as opposed to the gorgeous brushed chrome of my DR unit.

Examples with Kodak BW400CN film

On a recent day trip through rural Mississippi south of I-20, I grabbed a roll of Kodak BW400CN. I have had mixed results with this film in the past. Sometimes it looks muddy, but sometimes I like the tonality. Could there be differences in the C-41 chemistry? Regardless, here are a few samples from my Leica M2 and the 50mm Summicron-DR. I was surprised how the film renders green as quite light, but only for long exposures in settings such as dense underbrush. I do not recall seeing this before. The BW is pretty grainy, but I like the effect. (Click any picture to enlarge it.)

Abandoned farm house, Rte 18 in Brandon, Mississippi.

Remains of a gasoline station, Raleigh (with polarizer filter).

Big Smittys, MS Hwy 149, Mendenhall. This is a former Pan-Am filling station. 

Main Street, Mendenhall. Polarizer used to darken sky.

Shop on MS 28 east of Georgetown.

Historic Crossroads Store on Old Port Gibson Road, Reganton.

References

Laney, D. 1994. Leica Camera and Lens Pocket Book, 6th Edition revised and updated, Hove Collectors' Books, East Sussux, UK, 142 p.

Other

An interesting 2007 article about Leica cameras is in The New Yorker, September 24, 2007 issue, Candid Camera, The cult of Leica.

Update Dec. 2020: Here are silos in Delta, Louisiana, taken with long-expired GAF Versapan film. Click to enlarge.

Silos, Levee Road, Delta, Louisiana (GAF Versapan film, Summicron-DR lens, orange filter)

A River Flows through Kathmandu: the Bishnumati (Nepal 2017-13)

Two rivers flow through the Kathmandu Valley of Nepal. The main one is the Bagmati, which separates Kathmandu from Patan. It is considered holy by both Hindus and Buddhists. It rises in the Himalaya north of the Kathmandu valley and, after a major right and left turn in the city, flows generally south towards India through the Lesser Himalaya. The Bishnumati River also originates north of Kathmandu and flows through the western part of old Kathmandu. It joins the Bagmati in the southern part of the city about 3/4 mile south of Kathmandu Durbar Square. Both rivers are a mess. They have received  untreated sewage for decades, trash, old car bodies, and general detritus of a city without pollution controls.

Bishnumati River, view N from Swayambhu Marg Bridge

The view north from the Swayanbhu Marg bridge is rather discouraging. The river smells (OK, stinks), and there is trash and sludge in the water. The gravel berm or levee on the right in the water is perplexing. Is it to prevent flooding of some feature on the banks? A stream comes in from the left near the bridge in the distance. Possibly the berm is designed to prevent the flow from striking the bank on the right and causing erosion. Also note the broad gravel/sand bank on the left. The city maintenance workers should remove this gravel to allow the river greater flow capacity during flood.

Bishnumati River, view S from Swayambhu Marg Bridge

The view to the south is also discouraging. But there was a tractor digging in the gravel bank. I hope they intended to truck the material away. There are major brick works south of Kathmandu, and almost surely there are clay pits and excavations that could accept this excess riverine sediment.

About 1 mile west of the Bishnumati River is the Swoyambhunath Stupa. From the east, you ascend several thousand steps to the temple complex on a hilltop. It is a crowded scene with vendors, tourists, and Buddhists from many countries. The woods and general grounds are pretty trashy. Monkeys live in the woods and thrive picking food scraps.

I will only show two pictures from the main temple grounds of the Swoyambhunath Stupa. The site has shoulder-to-shoulder people. Many of the old buildings were terribly damaged by the 2015 earthquake. Most were made of unreinforced bricks, and the walls tumbled down in the earthquake. We saw construction crews laboriously rebuilding structures by hand.

I took the first three photographs on Kodak Tmax 100 film with my Leica IIIC rangefinder camera with 5cm ƒ/2.0 Summitar lens and a medium yellow filter. The scenes at the Swoyambhunath Stupa were from a Nexus 4 phone.