First some history
1291 AD castle Bergerhausen has been the first time mentioned as the home of the knights von Bergerhausen.
1424 AD Statz von dem Bogart became the new owner of the castle after he married Nella von Bergerhausen.
1430 AD Bogaert has been installing arround the water castle strong defense walls.
1894 AD the water castle has been bought by Clemens Freiherr von Loë-Longenburg.
1984 AD after Clemens and his son died, the owner sold the castle to the Family Stollenwerk. They have fully renovated all the buildings.
Today the castle can be rented for events and has been used as a set in many German TV series and films.
My mission
I used this cloudy dark autumn day to capture some pictures of this water castle which is surrounded by a small but pretty park. The tries are changing colors and the leafs are surrounding the walk paths. I decided not to use my very loved Velvia Fujichrome but to go for Classic Negative. This film emulation is replacing dark colors by black and softer other colors. The enhanced black is producing more depth in the image. To me this is transporting best the atmosphere of the change from summer to winter, warm to cold and life to death, for which the months of autumn is standing for.
The gear
To take the pictures I used my new 7Artisans 25mm f1.8 Black lens. Such a small and light weight lens. If I would not be addicted to the 7Artisans 35mm f1.4 APSC as my always on lens, this could be a candidate for this purpose. 25mm (37.5mm FF) is wider than the classical 35mm (52.5mm FF) but still is not showing too much distortions. Distortions that would show humans un proportional and that is creating uncomfortable feelings. After this first pictures I am still looking for the magic and the 3dimensional rendering as for example the 7Artisans 35mm f1.4mm APSC is providing. For me this special aspects in the images are called character. That does not mean that the lens is perfect and believe me from what I see on the first pictures (I am not showing here) the 7Artisans 25mm f1.8 Black is far off being perfect. Today, e.g. most of the Fujinon lenses XF 32mm f1.4 WR, XF 50mm f1 and even the old XF 56mm f1.2 are very close to perfect. Perfect sharp even wide open in the center and to the outer corners of the images. I know I might get a heavy shitstorm from many Fujinon lovers but to me these lenses are very boring. They are providing highest resolution and are optical as well SW wise excellent corrected but as we all know perfect and symmetrically Models are also boring. The little bit of disharmony is creating the space for the special something we all are looking for.
Before I close my lens discussion I just want to talk about stability and declicked aperture rings. All 7Artisans lenses are made of robust metal and a robust metal mount. Focus and aperture ring are running smooth but well damped. I love to work with declicked aperture rings. Those are not only great/silent for taking videos but also to seamless adjust the field of depth. But there is one thing that makes me crazy dear folks from 7Artisans, why can’t you decide where to place those rings. At the front of the lens the aperture dial and close to the body the focus ring. Like the Fireflies or my new always on lens 7Artisans 35mm f1.4 APSC. The 7Artisans 25mm is just the other way around. Well it’s not a total disaster but it took me some shots to get used to it. Be consistent!
The pictures
Do you see the magic?
