The superfast Leica Noctilux f/1 lens ... and how I learned to dance in the dark

Wonderful photos at River of No Return, taken with a Noctilux, the superfast — ƒ/1.0 — 50mm lens from Leica. The photographer is Shig, also known as "Fast-Eddy", whose photo gallery is here.

The Noctilux. I don't have a Noctilux; I've never even seen one, except in product brochures. It costs US$3,795. Its owners rave about it. Here are Web sites which treat this legendary lens.

Available light. I like to take pictures in available light. I take pictures mostly after dark. My first Leitz lens was a ƒ/2.8 40mm Summicron. I struggled to get photos at night on dark streets and in bars and restaurants. For a long time, I regarded an ƒ/1.0 lens as a kind of holy grail for low-light photography.

Low-light technique. Right now the experienced photographer will shake her head — what I was struggling against was not a slow lens (ƒ/2.8 is not slow), but my own lack of technique. I wasn't getting the most out of a fine lens — after all, most of the best available-light photos have been made by photographers using much slower lenses and films. I don't mean that I didn't know how to brace myself, or to relax and exhale before releasing the shutter — I mean that I didn't evaluate the scene; I did not compose the photograph by discovering the best places to be in relation to the light; and most of all, I did not take advantage of the darkness. I fought the darkness, when I should have coöperated with it, and used the shadows to exploit what little light there was. Eventually, I learned how to choose my battleground — how to dance in the dark with any fast lens.

The Summilux ASPH 35. Notwithstanding, one day I got a Leica ƒ/1.4 35mm Summilux Aspherical lens. With it I have taken pictures at dusk that look like they were taken in early afternoon. With it I have taken pictures on dark country roads that were so dark I wasn't actually sure what I was photographing until I had gotten the prints, which looked like they had been taken at dusk, not in the dark dead of night. Here are Web sites which treat the Summilux series of Leica lenses.