[Review & Sample Photos] Leica M6 + NOCTILUX-M 50mm f/0.95 ASPH. | Shinjuku After the Rain, Shot on Portra 800

I mounted the Leica NOCTILUX-M 50mm f/0.95 ASPH. on a Leica M6 and photographed Shinjuku at night on KODAK PROFESSIONAL PORTRA 800.

A lens with the overwhelming brightness of f/0.95, and an ISO 800 color negative film.
The shoot took place in Shinjuku just after the rain had stopped.

Wet roads, neon, car lights, people coming and going. A night city you would usually pass through without a thought looks a little different when you peer through the viewfinder.

Leica M6 | A Film Camera That Lets You Concentrate on Shooting

The Leica M6 is a 35mm rangefinder camera released in 1984. About 175,000 units of the original model were produced from 1984 to 2002, and it was revived as a current model in 2022.

Before you press the shutter, you focus, check the exposure, and decide the aperture and shutter speed yourself. And after each shot, you advance the film with your own hand.

It is by no means a camera that pursues speed alone.

But when you use it while walking around town, that little bit of effort starts to feel pleasant.

In the few seconds between deciding "I'll shoot here" and pressing the shutter, you think about composition, wait for people to move, and watch the light. That time itself is the fun of shooting with the M6.

NOCTILUX-M 50mm f/0.95 ASPH. | A Lens for Capturing the Light of Night

The NOCTILUX-M 50mm f/0.95 ASPH. paired with it this time is a 50mm lens for the M mount, announced at photokina in 2008.

The name "Noctilux" derives from the Latin "NOCTU," meaning night, and "LUX," meaning light. True to its name, what symbolizes this lens is its maximum aperture brightness of f/0.95.

The lens construction is 8 elements in 5 groups, with aspherical lenses and a floating element. The minimum focusing distance is 1m, and the weight is about 700g. It is by no means a small, light lens.

Yet when you look through the viewfinder, turn the focusing ring, and a subject emerges from the shallow focus, there is a sensation unique to this lens.

At f/0.95 wide open, the range in focus, that is, the "depth of field," becomes extremely shallow.

So it is not an easy lens. But it is not just about shooting cleanly; where you place the focus becomes part of the photographic expression. That is the fascination of the Noctilux.

Sample Photo Review | Light Becomes the Atmosphere of the City, Not Just Points

Walking through Shinjuku at night, there is not just one light source.

Car headlights, traffic signals, shop lighting, LCD screens, neon signs. Light of various colors and brightness exists all at once.

In the sample taken inside a taxi, the light outside the in-focus area melts into large, soft shapes.

Rather than explaining everything that is in the picture, it is a shot that preserves the light and the air that were there at the time.

The appeal of f/0.95 is not just that "you can shoot in dark places."

The big difference between the place in focus and the light spreading before and behind it. Being able to use that in a photograph is a major attraction of this lens.

Portra 800 | A Film That Keeps Color Even in the Night City

The PORTRA 800 used this time is an ISO 800 color negative film.

Kodak lists the features of PORTRA 800 as fine grain despite its high sensitivity, natural skin tones, and wide exposure latitude, and it can also be pushed to ISO 1600 when needed.

ISO 800 sensitivity combined with f/0.95 brightness makes it easier to shoot in the night city using the light actually present, without relying on a flash.

In these samples too, the white light of shopfronts, red and blue neon, the evening sky, and reflections on wet asphalt coexist in a single frame.

Because film color also changes with development and scanning, you can't attribute everything to the lens or film alone.

Even so, for shooting that keeps on film the colors of a city changing from dusk into night, the sensitivity of Portra 800 is a very good match.

Photos You Find Because It Has Just Rained

What impressed me most on this day's shoot was the puddles.

When you bring the camera close to the wet road surface, another Shinjuku appears in a place that is usually just ground.

Two people walking are stretched vertically, and the real people and their reflections in the water face each other in one frame.

In another spot, the neon of a large camera store itself was reflected in the water, doubling the city top and bottom.

50mm is neither an extreme wide angle nor a telephoto.

That is exactly why, in scenes like these, you don't "search for something special" so much as look for a composition within the scenery visible from where you are standing.

Perhaps the joy of walking with an M6 lies in things like this.

A Momentary Overlap Found Through Glass

When walking around town, there are sometimes moments you can't aim for or create.

People seen through a bus window, city lights reflected in the glass, the view inside the vehicle and outside.

Several layers overlap within one photograph, making "is this inside the bus or the city?" a little ambiguous.

When you find a moment like this, you don't zoom and tidy it up; you cut out the scene in front of you at 50mm as it is. That limitation is also part of the fun of shooting snapshots with a prime lens.

Walking the Night with a Leica M6 + Noctilux + Portra 800

The Leica M6, the NOCTILUX-M 50mm f/0.95 ASPH., and PORTRA 800.

It is neither lightweight nor autofocus. Focusing accurately at f/0.95 wide open also takes concentration.

Even so, when you head out into the night city with this combination, your eyes turn to things you normally wouldn't notice.

Wet ground. Reflections in glass. The moment two people pass each other. Light spilling from signs.

They are scenes you might have simply walked past if you hadn't been carrying a camera.

The charm of the Noctilux is not only in blurring the background heavily.

"Even after it gets dark, you still want to keep taking pictures."

I feel that is exactly the great joy of pairing the Leica M6 with the NOCTILUX-M 50mm f/0.95 ASPH.

View all Leica M6 products here

View all NOCTILUX-M 50mm f/0.95 ASPH. products here

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