pentax67 105mm f2.4

Let me introduce the pentax67 105mm f2.4 — the standard lens for the Asahi Pentax 6×7, the big medium-format SLR born in 1969 that Japanese photographers lovingly nicknamed "Bakepen" (the monster Pentax). On huge 6×7 film, 105mm gives a natural, standard field of view close to the human eye — and f2.4 was an astonishingly bright number for medium format in those days. This is the hard-working lens that quietly supported magazine studios and portrait photographers all through the film era.

Its rendering, in a word, photographs the air itself. Designed for big film, it draws huge, melting bokeh even on a digital body, and subjects seem to float gently out of the frame. Point it at a flower in a back alley and the background dissolves like watercolor — this three-dimensional feel is a delicacy only medium-format glass can serve. It is a heavy lens, but somehow that weight makes it feel all the more like a travel companion.

In summer, I took it to Hita in Oita. The old merchant quarter of Mameda-machi keeps its white-walled storehouses and Showa-era shop signs, and they suit this lens's pale, gentle colors wonderfully. We crossed the stepping stones of the Mikuma River and peeked into an old shop where electric fans were slowly turning. A sweaty walk — but inside the viewfinder, everything stayed cool.

We also strolled Higashiyama in Kyoto in summer: the crowds on Sannenzaka, the willows of Ninenzaka, small shop signs deep in the alleys. Even the busiest tourist slope looks like a scene from a film through this f2.4 bokeh. Carrying the heavy lens up the hill is a bit of work, but it gives you an excuse to stop for every photograph — which is exactly this lens's charm.

In cherry-blossom season we walked under the full-bloom avenue in Kinugawa, Tochigi; in early summer along the quiet shore of Lake Inawashiro; and in autumn through a small mountain village in Sera, Hiroshima. Before I knew it, this lens and I had traveled quite a few seasons together. The Bakepen's standard lens is still fairly easy to find secondhand, and a simple adapter mounts it on any modern mirrorless camera. Why not take this "photographs-the-air" lens somewhere yourself? I hope the samples below become your signpost.