My Leica M story

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Spyderman

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My first RF camera was Canonet. At that time I had a Canon EOS SLR kit, so the Canonet was the perfect small camera to take everywhere. But then I felt I needed longer reach and bought a Zorki 4 and Jupiter-8 (50mm) and Jupiter-9 (85mm). The viewfinder was nothing to write home about, so I bought my first Bessa R. But my Jupiter-12 wouldn't fit, so I had to buy a CV 35/2.5. About a year later I replaced the R with an R2. The R2 has served me well for almost 2 years, and I still have it, but I still wanted a Leica.

About a month ago a fellow RFF member palec called me and asked if I could check the RF of his Leica. I've never handled a Leica before, but think I'm a good technician, so I agreed. From the first moment that I held his M6 I was caught. The RF turned out to be OK, but a week later palec offered me one of his Leicas - an M6 (another one). The price was very good (and I could actually hold it and test it before buying, which is priceless IMO), and I even had the money I got for graduation from university, so I bought it as my little present for successfully finishing the school.

Since then I had the chance to compare it with my Bessa R2. The bessa has brighter and wider field viewfinder (Leica's VF looks like tunnel compared to Bessa), but the sound of the shutter makes the biggest difference. On fast speeds (say from 1/125 up) they are about the same, but on slower speeds the Leica is so much quieter, making just a silent "thwap", whereas the Bessa makes "ckack-clack" (on slow speeds you can actually hear 2 times 2 curtains). The second biggest difference is the rangefinder patch. On Bessa I have to move my eye in the eyepiece to find the spot where I see the patch. It can disappear completely. On Leica there is no such problem, and I can focus immediately as I bring the camera to my eye. This greatly improves my speed of shooting.

The only negative thing I've noticed is that the 50mm frame is very small. Not just small, but it shows much less than the actual coverage of 50mm lens. Actually, all the frames show much less. I wonder if I could use the inside of 75 frame for 90mm lens at infinity...

In the past 5-6 weeks I've shot about 8-10 rolls of film. A lot more than in a few months before. The handling and the silent shutter makes me shoot more.

To sum it up - it took me 6 years from nothing to Leica M. I bought my first serious camera (Canon EOS SLR) when i finished high school, during the university evolved into a RF fan and after I graduated I bought a Leica. I hope that I'll be able to give it to my child one day...


PS: two weeks ago I got a bad GAS attack and bought new set of lenses for my new camera: Nokton 40/1.4 (I couldn't afford Nok 35), Canon 50/1.4 and Ultron 28/1.9. They all arrived last thursday, just one day before my 24th birthday 😛
PPS: And I got Koudelka's Invasion 68 for the birthday 😉
 
Ondrej,
at first: belated congratulations for your birthday! 🙂
I flipped through Koudelka's '68 Invasion book at a Berlin book shop when I spent a weekend there last month. Great book.

Plus I congratulate you for your M6. I myself have, as you may have read, a M4 and absolutely love it, the handling and the feel which it gives to the hand and eye (can't compare with a Bessa though).

Can't wait to see your results with it.

Do you also still use the J-12? I'll get two films back tomorrow shot with the J-12 and with some frames shot with J-9.
 
And to think... I just got drunk one night and ordered an MP - voila! I had wanted a leica RF for years and forgot I ordered it until the following night. Previously I had really only owned canon DSLR gear and had never even held a RF before this. It turned out to be the single best gear purchase I've made in the last 5 years (except maybe the 35mm summicron that followed shortly 😉)

Enjoy your new stuff, I have been since February 🙂
 
congrats on your new/used M6 and a belated birthday. there are many things I like about the Leica; including its stealthiness and sheer quality. No camera is perfect but the Leica RF has many positive attributes. Check out David Alan Harvey's work Cuba sometime -- his work with the 35mm lens is remarkable.

Regards, Paul
 
Congrats, Ondrej !

You are right about the Bessa finder being brighter, but when I used both M6 and R[23] next to each other, for low light the Leica won. I found the patch to have more contrast, so I could focus stuff with the Leica that just plain didn't work with the Bessa.

The M6 50mm frame-line is made for 0.7m minimum focus. And, yes, with an 85mm lens you can safely use the 75mm frame-lines at infinity.

Cheers,

Roland.
 
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first - happy birthday ondrej. and second congratulations on buying those lenses - i hope they will serve you well. my fastest lens is jupiter 8 so i also considered that nokton 40 or canon 1.4 or jupiter 3. i would be very happy if you share some photos with new lenses with us. i dont see jupiter 3 in your signature anymore - you stopped using it?
 
Personally I went from Canon film SLR -> D-SLR -> FM3a - > Hexar AF (loved it) and recently bought a M. Like you, holding it in my hand 'made it' for me. The feel/the connection with the tool was a lovely experience. An M is way heavier than I would have wanted my take everywhere camera but oh well, my tiny CV 35 1.4 is on it's way. ; )

Congrats and enjoy!

ps - love the pix of your camera collection - HUGE! and here i was feel guilty with my (comparatively) small set.
 
i dont see jupiter 3 in your signature anymore - you stopped using it?
Click to expand...

No, I still have it and I'm not planning to get rid of it anytime soon. It's a perfect portrait lens. If I wanted to list all my lenses in my sig, it would be much longer 😉

BTW: here (LINK) are pictures from a recent event I shot. It's a making of a student movie in the hall of an old (now barely used) railway station in Bratislava. I've used Nokton and Canon.





both shot with Canon 50/1.4
 
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My congrats, Ondrej!.. For the birthday, and for the camera, and for the bunch of lenses!..

BTW, Palec, told me some good things about you😉
Great story indeed!.. Loved to read, about another happy man...))
 
what framelines do you use for nokton 40? i like the look of photos with that lens, and its size also, but im not sure about 40mm fov - it is maybe to wide for my taste.
 
I use 35mm framelines, and compose loosely - not too close to the edges. I'll have to test it more to see how much the 40mm actually covers. But IMHO the 50mm frameline is useless. It's like using 35mm frameline with 28mm lens...
 
In my experience 40mm lens with 35mm framelines at distance is very good, at closeup just be more relaxed and give some tiny space inside framelines. I've used small piece of folded black paper stuck under the frameline lever to lock 35mm framelines when used with 40mm lens.
 
Happy birthday Ondrej and I'll go against the flow here because Koudelka's Invasion 68 is (I think) a most wonderful birthday present! 🙂 Anything Koudelka is worth looking at and another great man from the region, Josef Sudek, is finally getting the recognition he deserves. A number of Sudek's books are being republished in paperback this year (in September/October) and I'm finally beginning to realize where Koudelka got some of his ideas.

Enjoy your M6!
 
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