Jeju and Seoul Film Diaries: Xpan, Apoqualia 28mm, Summicron 50 APO and Foca 5cm
Jeju and Seoul Film Diaries: Xpan, Apoqualia 28mm, Summicron 50 APO and Foca 5cm
Diary
Jeju and Seoul Film Diaries: Xpan, Apoqualia 28mm, Summicron 50 APO and Foca 5cm
We took a red-eye flight from Hong Kong to Jeju, Korea. Before this trip, some of my friends mentioned that Jeju is unlike other parts of Korea; it is beautiful and great for landscapes. I didn’t have many expectations because I had no idea what to expect after my trip to Seoul in 2002. The most difficult but also the most enjoyable part of the preparation was not planning the trip, but deciding what to bring. All I knew was to bring the Xpan for the natural landscapes with a 45mm lens, since a 30mm might be too wide as there aren’t any spectacular scenes and they are often quite far to reach. I got superb results with it on my trip to New Zealand. Another choice was to test my newly purchased MS Optics 28mm f/2 Apoqualia from Fotopia. I heard it’s a funky lens, and the swirly bokeh in the mid-frame caught my attention. After reading a blog post by Japan Camera Hunter with some stunning images taken by Daniel Schaefer, I decided to try it. I also brought my Leica M10 Monochrom for some black and white photos and a Foca Opalrex 5cm f/1.9 lens. Why this lens? Because people say it is almost the same as the Angenieux S1, but even sharper and cheaper!
The whole trip lasted six days in Jeju and two full days in Seoul. The aim was to have my Leica MP 0.85x re-leathered, changing it from red leather (from the previous owner) to grey leatherette. I had a difficult time deciding which colour to choose. I considered Hermes brown, but an Instagram post by Tiffany Roubert showcasing her silver Leica MP in grey camera skin convinced me that grey was exactly what I wanted. This is my first silver Leica camera. I was also there to pick up my order with Arte Di Man via Fotopia. Stay tuned for a separate post about this.
Get Latest Update!
Stay up to date with my latest videos, photos, and news updates by following me on Instagram and YouTube. And don’t forget to subscribe to my website’s pop-up form or bottom of the page for exclusive updates and news. Head over to @tahusa on Instagram, subscribe to my YouTube channel, and stay in the loop!
Overall, Jeju is perfect for spending a week with a car. We stayed at an Airbnb in the new southeastern part of Jeju. We were welcomed by the owner Blair and her dog Harley. In the remaining time in Jeju, Harley became my key subject in the morning! Jeju has a bit of everything: volcanic landscapes, nice cafes, and cheap food. The bagels at The London Bagel Museum are really good. At night, we enjoyed Korean food with abalone, and the Jeju tangerine is really something—super citrusy, full of juice, and satisfying. Jeju is also very famous for black pork, so we had Korean barbecue with black pork, which was very tender and tasty. All the coffee places seem to be very nice and relaxed; hand-drip coffee is a must because it’s like a third of the price you can get in Hong Kong, around 4-5 USD. And of course, my wife was using her Fujifilm Klasse S.
One of the highlights was visiting a local film lab in Jeju called Still Negative Club. They serve amazing coffee and seasonal drinks. It’s clean and tidy, managed by the owner, and there are photobooks, film cameras, and film stock for sale. I bought the book Gordon Parks: The Atmosphere of Crime, 1957. I highly recommend you check out this place because it’s so close to Seogwipo Olle Market.
Still Negative Club
South Korea, Jeju-do, Seogwipo-si, 특별자치도, Donghong-dong, Donghongnam-ro 82beon-gil, 14-10 KR
Leica Summicron 50mm f/2 APO ASPH
I plan to experiment with the Leica Summicron 50mm f/2 APO for landscape photography using film, and incorporating color filters like yellow and red on the Leica M10 Monochrom. Driven by curiosity to assess the lens’s performance, I used it with a roll of Kodak Portra 400. The lens delivers high contrast and, upon stopping down to f/5.6 to f/8, achieves impressive sharpness that enhances the definition in my photos. The resulting high contrast helps delineate tones between highlights and shadows more distinctly, capturing a lot of detail and effortlessly highlighting textures. It faithfully reproduces what I see through the viewfinder, easily drawing attention to focal points such as a horse’s eye in a close-up or the layers in a landscape.
MS Optics Apoqualia 28mm f/2 II
This lens is a funky pancake lens that’s larger than the camera cap. My wife was curious about it and surprised to learn it was actually a camera lens. It’s a 28mm f/2 lens that produces some interesting swirly bokeh at f/2. At its widest aperture, it is not sharp on film and exhibits some glow in the highlights, but it becomes sharper from f/4 onwards. I find the requirement to use the lens hood to change the aperture a bit cumbersome, and it’s quite easy to exceed the minimum focus coupling distance on the Leica M. I plan to try it next for night photography or portraits to better capture its unique vibe, rather than during daytime.
Foca Oplarex 5cm f/1.9 M Converted
I am not particularly a fan of cine lenses, primarily because of the modifications required and, most importantly, the ergonomics. I’ve heard a lot about this lens from a friend. It’s a French-made lens, M-coupled with a minimum focusing distance of 0.65 meters, and is often referred to as the “poor man’s” Angenieux S1 (50mm f/1.9). My friend even claims it’s sharper than the S1. At its widest aperture, this lens truly shines, but it suffers from severe distortion and performs poorly against sunlight. Given its age and price, however, it’s a hidden gem!
Panoramic Shots with Hasselblad Xpan II and 45mm
I hope you find enjoyment in some of the photos taken with these three lenses I’ve used. I love experimenting with different lenses and cameras, so if you know of one that deserves to see some action, please let me know in the comments, shoot me an email, or DM me on Instagram.
I think Jeju is quite nice for a short trip, featuring sparse nature that is easily accessible by car. In contrast, Seoul is much more dense and crowded, making the choice of lenses and content capture quite different. It’s always fascinating to learn how to use lenses with different characteristics and to select the one that suits you best. It’s normal for our tastes to change over time—I am also experiencing this part of the process.
All images have been resized to optimize webpage loading speed. For the highest resolution images, please refer to my Flickr account.
New to Film Photography?
Support this Community
Recent Posts
Thypoch Simera 21mm f/1.4 Review — A Fast, Affordable 21mm for Environmental Portraits and Street
Read More »
