U-Bahn

Posted on July 22, 2018

A while back I posted the below photo of Marienplatz, part of the Munich U-Bahn network. I promised that I would do a project on that one day. Well many moons have past, but finally I was able to go back and work a little more on the project.

Marienplatz station, Munich U-Bahn. 5D Mark III with 16-35mm 2.8L II

So what was the occasion? Well there was one, I managed to get the final piece of my new wide angle kit. I no longer use the 16-35mm 2.8L II but have changed to the Zeiss Milvus 18mm 2.8 and the Sigma 12-24mm 4.0 Art. The 12-24mm is the final piece, and it’s ideal for U-Bahn photography! I have only taken about 100 shots with it so far, but I can confirm that the Sigma 12-24 is really special. It is better than I expected, and has surprisingly low distortion, very uniform and high degree of sharpness… Its lovely to use. I can also say it’s bigger and heavier than I thought :(. When I have a few more keepers from the lens I will write a separate post on the Sigma 12-24mm 4.0 Art lens.

Sigma 12-24mm f4.0 Art lens. Photo from Digital Photography School: https://digital-photography-school.com/thoughts-field-test-sigma-12-24mm-art-lens/ Check out the review in the link!

Back to the U-Bahn! I spent an evening on the network, and took the U1, U2 and U3 around a bit. I got an all day ticket called the Munich XXL for 8.90 Euros. That allowed me to use all the U-Bahn, S-Bahn and buses. I was out from 9:30pm till 12:30am but really I could have used a lot more time. I will need to come back again. The U-Bahn was introduced in 1971, and has been added to ever since. There are 96 stations and over 100km of track. Many of the stations are wonderfully designed, and this is much of the photography appeal. Due to my time restrictions on this occasion, I was only able to photograph three stations! So here are my favorites from the evening: