Good things in Small Packages: the 25mm ƒ/4 SnapShot Skopar lens in Tacoma, Washington

Dear Readers, another confession: Once again, I suffered from GAS (Gear Acquisition Syndrome). It is hard to resist, like trying to avoid chocolate or bacon. Just before the de minimis exemptions ended in August 2025, I ordered a Voigtländer 25mm ƒ/4 SnapShot Skopar lens from a Japanese vendor. The lens arrived at my door in three days! *

Cosina in Japan makes these modern Voigtländer lenses. The company has licensed the famous name since 1999, but the current production has no tangible relationship with the venerable German company from the early 20th century. Voigtländer (Cosina) is one of the few companies that offers some of their new lenses in Leica thread mount (LTM).** 

Cosina introduced this little lens in thread mount around 2000. It is zone focus only, meaning it is not connected to the camera's rangefinder. I originally bought it to use with my Leica IIIC but am using it more often on my Leica M2 with a M-LTM adapter. The lens is tiny and convenient to toss into the camera bag. For framing, I use a 25mm Voigtländer auxiliary viewfinder that mounts on the camera's flash shoe.

* I plan to not order any more photo equipment from Japan or China until the confusion around the tariffs is cleared up. 

**  Other modern LTM lenses, all discontinued:

• Around 2022 or 2023, TTArtisan in China sold a version of their little 28mm ƒ/5.6 lens in Leica thread mount. It is discontinued, and if you can find one: $$$.
• In 1999, Leica issued their superb 50mm ƒ/2 modern Summicron lens in a thread-mount version. It is now a serious $$$ collectors' item.
• In 2000, Pentax issued their SMC Pentax-L ƒ/1.9 43mm Special in LTM. This is also now a collectors' item. 
• Ricoh remounted their 28mm ƒ/2.8 lens from their GR camera in a barrel with thread mount.
• Avenon (manufacturer unknown) offered a 28mm ƒ/3.5 lens in the 1980s. 
• MS-Optical remounted some Contax 28mm ƒ/2.8 lenses in LTM. Availability unknown. 
• Light Lens Lab made a 35mm f/2 Collapsible Eight Element lens in 2019.

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Tacoma

I first tested my SnapShot lens on my Leica IIIC in Olympia. Later, I mounted it on my M2 body using a M-LTM adapter and went to Tacoma. The light was subdued, perfect to show colors on an unused wood warehouse on East D Street.

East D Street view north

Murray Morgan (11th Street) Bridge over the Foss Waterway

 This historic warehouse was built in 1900. It suffered a fire in July of 2025. I could not find much information on the building's origins or original purpose. One comment in redditt (always of dubious authenticity) claims it was the Western Iron and Wire Works in the 1920s. It has become a canvas for graffiti artists, with some surprisingly skillful creations.

This building is an interesting canvas. I may return with my 4×5 camera and black and white film.

Steel warehouse, 701 East F Street

There are many other warehouses and industrial sites in the harbor area, but most are just modern commercial sheds. 

Geek Stuff

25mm ƒ/4 SnapShot lens mounted on my Leica IIIC camera

This is a well-engineered little optic. The markings are legible, and it feels good. Some reviewers complain of mis-alignment (decentered elements) in some samples, but mine appears to be correct. I think this lens shines with close-up and mid-distance topics. Highly recommended!

I took the photographs above on Kodak Portra 160 film. Glazer's Camera in Seattle, Washington, developed it in C-41 chemicals.

Vinny does Shelton, Washington, with Kodak Panatomic-X (Abandoned Films 05d)

Vinny at his best

Vinny, my Little Voigtländer Vito BL camera, does not get out often. Long-term readers may remember he insisted that I take him to the big city of Jackson, Mississippi, in 2021. Well, Vinny was restless and again called out, "Take me to a city."  

This Vito BL has a 50mm ƒ/3.5 Color Skopar lens, Voigtländer's superb 1950s reformulation of the classic 4-element Tessar design. This one is fully coated and unit focus, meaning, the entire lens moves rather than just the first element. And I have genuine Voigtländer 32mm color filters. The shutter speeds are reasonably correct despite the Prontor shutter having not been overhauled. The selenium light meter does respond to light but is non-linear and unusable, so I use a separate Gossen hand-held meter. 

My Buffalo, New York, friend had sent me a roll of 35mm Kodak Panatomic-X film. The last rolls I used in Mississippi and Louisiana were grainy and a bit fogged. Was this one better? Was it the last roll on earth? What could be a better use of Panatomic-X than to photograph urban decay with Vinny? I decided to expose this roll at exposure index (IE) of 20, so that required a tripod to stabilize the camera. Using a tripod makes you slow down and frame each picture carefully. 

We set off to Shelton, Washington, one April day (2025) with mixed sun and cloud. It was dry, a treat after a soggy March. Well, any day with Panatomic-X is a treat!

Coming in to town from the west, you drive along West Railroad Avenue. Years ago, the Simpson Lumber Company operated lumber trains along this route.  An old rail yard is overgrown, but you still see track. Someone has mowed the fields. 

Riverside Manor is a mobile home park at the west end of West Coda Street. The wooden bridge crosses Goldsborough Creek. 

Near the bridge, some dudes came out of a house with a dog and multiple cats. They admired my 44 year old car. One guy showed me his fixer-upper BMW M3. He said he formerly raced it. Then, some kids came across the bridge and spent some time looking at my car. They asked if they could look inside. They were friendly and even more cheerful when I showed them the engine compartment.

The old rail line crosses Goldsborough Creek at South 9th Street. A fellow from the house to the left came to talk. He thought the City planned to convert the former rail line into a rail trail. He said he could not afford to pay for water, so he went down to the creek to get water to flush the toilet. 

This handsome brick commercial building is on South 2nd Street. Some of the former glass show windows have been covered with plywood. But wait! What is that in the overgrown lot to the north?

Ah-ha! This building is protected by guard flamingoes. I will not mess with them.

Rail yard off South 1st Street (1/4 sec. ƒ/11, medium yellow filter)

Storage tank, Grove Street (light yellow filter)

Chicken to go, South 1st Street (1/4 ƒ/8, light yellow filter)

South 1st Street (1/4 ƒ/8 light yellow filter)

Alley parallel to Railroad Avenue (Fuji Presto 400 film, 50mm ƒ/2 Pentax-A lens)

Vinny did well on his outing to the big city of Shelton. I certainly cannot complain about the results from his Color-Skopar lens. It is a classic 4-element optic of Tessar design. Of course, using a tripod let me set the lens at its optimum apertures of ƒ/5.6, ƒ/8, or ƒ/11 and set the shutter speed as needed. I measured the light with a Gossen Luna Pro Digital meter, mostly on incident mode. This tends to be foolproof on days with soft light.  

This roll of Panatomic-X looked good, with no obvious fog but more grain than when it was fresh. Northeast Photographic in Bath, Maine, developed the film in Xtol. I scanned the negatives with a Nikon CoolScan 5000ED film scanner. The last picture of the alley was on Fuji Presto 400 film.

That you all for reading along.

Olympia with Kodak Panatomic-X film (Oly 21)

My good friend from Buffalo, New York, sent me a roll of Kodak Panatomic-X film! Where did he find this treasure? Was this the last roll on earth? 

Panatomic-X was Eastman Kodak's great achievement from the middle of the 20th century, film-making excellence from the golden age of film photography. I have written about Panatomic-X before and concluded that because of the age, it is not worth seeing out unexposed rolls. But here was a great gift, so I headed out with nostalgia and anticipation. Thirty years ago, I typically exposed it at EI=20 or 25. This film has a reputation of aging well (as long as it was stored cool), so I decided to use it again at EI=20. This required a tripod for most frames. I used my 1950s Voigtländer Vito BL, a precise little camera with a superb 4-element coated 50mm ƒ/3.5 Color Skopar lens. This was a 1950s recompilation of the Tessar type of lens. And I had genuine Voigtländer color filters. A classic film in a classic camera, what could be better? 

Olympia

Here are some frames from my April 2025 walk around Olympia, Washington. It was a hazy spring day with no sky texture.

Tracks near Jefferson Street, view north (1/4 ƒ/11, light yellow filter)

Homeless people, Jefferson Street

Handsome traditional wood architecture on 9th Avenue (1/4 ƒ/11, light yellow filter)

This house is a few blocks from South Capitol, a neighborhood of beautiful traditional early 20th century homes. 

Burned out black house, now demolished (1/4 ƒ/11, light yellow filter)

7th Avenue railroad tunnel east entrance (1/4 ƒ/11, medium yellow filter)

When I first moved to town, the 7th Avenue tunnel puzzled me. I asked a homeless fellow where the tunnel emerged, and he replied "Near the black house." I wondered what he meant, what black house?  Walking on 7th Avenue, we saw a grungy house painted in black paint. Later, we found other black houses in the city. A few months later, the house burned. The mess remained on the lot for several months before someone cleaned the debris.

215 Thurston Avenue

This is an interesting door, and the markings change occasionally. I have photographed it before. (Update October 10, 2025: the building has been painted and this doorway is now boring)

Union, Washington

The Hunter Farm, on Washington Rte. 106, has a big barn and numerous out buildings. 

I love these kinds of complicated scenes. I will ask the owners sometime if I can return with my large format camera.

This ends our short tour with the famous Panatomic-X film. Standby for examples from Shelton, Washington.

Technical Stuff

The camera on the left is my Vito BL. I posed it with my 1949 Leica IIIC camera as a size comparison. I must be honest, the photos from the Vito are higher resolution than the ones from my old IIIC. The latter has some error with its lens mount. 

 

Back to the West: Aberdeen, Hoquiam, and Grays Harbor, Washington (2024)

Aberdeen and Hoquiam are interesting old cities near Grays Harbor, Washington. They offer some of the topics that I like to photograph. Here are some more summer 2024 examples.

Aberdeen

No more free WiFi here, West Wishkah Street (Hasselblad 501CM camera, 100mm ƒ/3.5 Planar lens)

Fixer-upper motel, West Wishkah Street

Rental cottages, Sumner Avenue

Northern Pacific Railroad swing bridge over the Wishkah River 

View of South F Street under the Northern Pacific Railroad swing bridge (100mm ƒ/3.5 Planar lens)

Hoquiam

Tug, Hoquiam River (50mm Distagon lens, yellow filter)

Lift bridge, Hoquiam River (100mm ƒ/3.5 Planar lens, yellow filter)

Grayland

Pump house at cranberry farm, Cranberry Road, Grayland (80mm ƒ/2.8 Planar-CB, 1/8 sec. ƒ/11.5, yellow filter)

Patrol chicken, Evergreen Park Road, Grayland (40mm ƒ/4 Distagon lens)

This ends this short trip to towns near Grays Harbor. There is more to see - time to return and explore some more.

I took these photographs on Kodak Panatomic-X film (expired 1989) using my Hasselblad 501CM camera and various lenses. All were tripod-mounted. Praus Productions in Rochester, NY, developed the film. I scanned the negatives with a Minolta ScanMulti film scanner.

The Mississippi Delta 40: Crenshaw

Dear Readers, I plan to review some of my older negatives from Mississippi as I have time. The Delta offered a wealth of photographic subject matter. In the future, you will see occasional articles based on early 2000s road trips around the state.

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Crenshaw is a small town (population 210?) in Panola and Quitman counties. It is typical of many Delta agricultural towns that once had a thriving commercial strip but has fallen on hard (very hard) times. It looks depopulated, and most of the stores are empty or collapsing. These photographs are from April, 2018. The town probably does not look too different today (2025).

MS Hwy 3 comes right through town. This is the main road along which the commerce was once concentrated

The commercial strip is rather sad. Most (all?) of the stores are closed. The soul food restaurant looked like it did not operate.

There was once a public drinking fountain on the sidewalk in front of one of the stores. I wonder if it was once restricted for white or black users?

The police station was in a modest modern building. They were well-equipped with the big old Crown Victoria police cruisers.

William Stokes Street

This ends our quick pass on Hwy 3 through Crenshaw. It was a glarey day with harsh light. I wish I had made more time to explore the Delta, a unique cultural and architectural part of the USA. To see more towns, please type "Mississippi Delta" in the search box.

I took these photographs on Kodak TMax 100 film with a Pentax Spotmatic camera and various lenses. The TMax is very fine grain, but I think I prefer traditional cubic grain films.