Leica Hektor 13.5 cm f/4.5

Leica Hektor 13.5 cm f/4.5

Trying out a new view…

I had just picked up a Hektor 13.5 cm f/4.5 (bulit 1958). It had been mounted twice to make sure the focus was accurate on my M10P and it didn’t have any defects that I couldn’t live with.  It was about 250€ at a local camera shop so the risk was pretty low anyway; at least in the Leica scale of spending. The lens worked fine. I selected the Hektor as long lens because of its less than perfect rendering wide open. Ken Rockwell has a review that talks through the details of the lens.

The plan was to use it for whatever one uses a 135mm lens for.  Of course there is another detail.  I seldom shoot beyond 35mm, just occasionally with the 90 Macro Elmarit-M.  Experimenting with the 13.5cm focal length was completely knew. Back in the dark days of film in the 80’s I had a Vivitar 70-210mm f/2.8-4.0. It was a fine lens but I never really figured out what to do with that lens. It was monstrously large and the short end 70mm was too long. The long end at 210mm was way too long! Even in those days I preferred the Zuiko 24 or 50 on my OM4.

Using the Hektor was challenging. First off finding something “way over there” that needed photographing required an adjustment. As the days passed I starting finding compositions that made sense with the lens. I shot wide open or f/8.

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