Leica LTM camera techniques?

[atelier7]

how about sharing how you use your barnack cameras to capture photos?

we've had extensive discussions on how to load them in another thread.

but how do you go about taking photos?

i was already quite slow in using my bessa r and cv35...

but with a handheld meter and the IIIC and summitar... an entire species has already gone extinct by the time i press the shutter!

 

[Rich Silfver]

I think my own answer to your question is that I simply accept that when I pick up the Leica III I take a decision that I won't be doing any macro or sports photography.
I also know that I will miss many photo oportunities due to the slower nature of this camera - but as long as the joy that I get from using my camera outweighs that I'm fine.

 

[OldNick]

Shooting basketball, football or soccer with a Barnack can be frustrating. Baseball or softball can be timed to get rewarding shots. More rewarding for me are planned images that can be checked for exposure and composition, such as landscapes, flowers, and sunsets. Setting the exposure ahead of time based on the general lighting available, and then using the hyperfocal setting to substitute for focusing, will allow one to make grab shots that would otherwise be missed. In other words, set the camera up as a "smart" fixed focus device.

 

[furcafe]

It's just like any other fully manual camera. You have to keep practicing (same as getting to Carnegie Hall).

Pre-setting exposure based on a handheld meter or using a variation of "sunny 16" isn't difficult. Most of the time, the ambient light isn't changing rapidly, anyway, so you only have to take a meter reading when the light changes. Set your preferred aperture & then you're only left w/the easy stuff: focusing, framing, & shooting.

 

[SteveM(PA)]

In regards to what Rich said, I do in fact get so much pleasure from the iiif rd/st that it's been the only camera I've been using. Apart from zone focusing, I've indeed changed my expectations of what kind of shots I'm going to be coming away with. Instead of chronicling the action of a sporting event, for instance, I've decided that I'm instead going to be chronicling the impression of the event, the results of which, I think, are much more interesting.

 

[FPjohn]

P&S

P&S

Hello:

The basic approach has already been presented-preset exposure, set distance and then P&S. This is especially easy with a CV 25mm SKopar and lenses of that ilk.

yours
Frank

 

[Stanton]

I like your photos. I am in a bowling alley restaurant for breakfast with some friends about twice a week. I never thought about photos there. That's the difference between just looking and really seeing. My compliments. Dave

 

[SteveM(PA)]

Oh, gosh, thanks Dave...I am a total novice, the other dudes here do it with so much more aplomb...I'm just snapshooting while my kids are gnawing at my ankles, mostly

 

[Kin Lau]

With a Barnack, you forget about framing precisely and shoot negative film. That'll give you the latitude you need.

Hyperfocal works well with the Elmar 50 & 35, and then I just worry about framing.

If I'm using the 90, then I'll frame _1st_, noting what's in the center of the frame, and then focus on that with the RF window.

 

[reagan]

I'll echo Kin's comments. My framing with the Barnack consists of concentrating on getting what I want positioned in the center or thirds of the VF and not worrying so much about the edges. On occasion, I'll even pre-set the distance and put the camera to my cheek looking across the top for quick grab-shot. But the "slow-pace" of the Leica III seems to fit me fine; I'm pretty slow-paced myself nowadays (and getting slower!)

 

[GeneW]

we've had extensive discussions on how to load them in another thread.

but how do you go about taking photos?

Dunno. Still trying to load the thing

Gene

 

[johne]

For street, sports, etc, use 400 ASA film and set at f16. Move distance marker so that the infinity indicator is on the right side f16. Depending on light, set shutter; e.g., if bright, set at 250 to be certain. Give it a try. If not satisfied, fiddle around with it a bit. That is part of the fun of this machine.

BTW, a 35mm is the best here.
johne

 

[Gordon Coale]

I developed a techinque for speed knob winding. (I know of one other that has figured this out, too.) I put the knob in the space between my thumb and finger. (See first picture.) Pressing the knob with the side of my finger I pull the finger back. It completes the wind before it reaches the end of the finger. (See second picture.) Reach over, press the shutter, and go back to step 1. I can get off 10 exposures in about 15 seconds. This might not work with short fingers. Try it.

 

[reagan]

Okay, Gordon, how much for a strap AND the "rapidwinder?" You're killin' me. Now I've got to go try that...

 

[SteveM(PA)]

Upon first looking at the thumbnail image, I thought your finger was all bloody. I think you presented this before, and I decided then that I must be too delicate,
but maybe I'd build up a callous

I would definitely like to see a little Quicktime movie of your burst mode

 

[Gordon Coale]

langdon auger -- Once the scabs heal it's not too bad.

It varies from camera to camera. Once my IIIc came back from Oleg with new shutter curtains it was very smooth and the the wind effort was very low. Lower than when it left. Lower than on my FED 2. I suspect that when my FED 2 comes back from Oleg with new shutter curtains it's wind effort will be greatly reduced.

 

[Graybeard]

With my Barback Leicas, I most often use an Elmar or a f2 Nikkor.

A light meter in the camera encourages the habit of metering each shot; this is rarely necessary. Outdoors, the meter isn't really needed once you're comfortable with Sunny-16 (I actually use Sunny-11-and-a-tad).

If you do use a meter, all that is necessary is to get a couple of general readings; sunny and shady side of the street, indoors near and away from the light sources for example. The light intensity in artifically illuminated commercial indoor space can be astonishingly consistent almost always f2.8 at 1/60th with ASA400.

I have shot night basketall games (indoors) with a IIIc many times using a 135mm f3.5 Serenar. Choose your shot (and your shooting position) with some thought and the lack of a lever wind isn't important. Catch the man shooting the basket from the top of his jump.

 

[jkelly]

Well, of course, the ideal situation is to shoot outside in bright sunshine, and just use zone focusing. You can then shoot as fast as you can turn the film advance knob. But inside in dim lighting is also not too difficult with practice. Both of these shots were made with my 1935 Leica IIIa and 1935 uncoated Summar 50/f2.

 

[payasam]

Frank has this way of getting it right. Set shutter speed and aperture. Set lens to expected distance. When the time comes, bring camera to eye, fine tune focus, frame, fire. In the early 1960s, working mostly without meters, we had to learn the correct exposure settings for different situations. As the black and white films we used then had less latitude even than today's C-41 stuff, there's little danger now of going too far wrong. Here's the ancient trick. With a hand-held meter (or, now, a camera with a meter built in), take readings outdoors in bright light, in the shade, in a porch, indoors near a window, at night in a well lit shopping area, etc., and jot them all down. Look at your scribbling and follow it often enough in your work, you'll soon not need to consult it or even to think.

 

[John Shriver]

Kodak's current color negative film datasheets call for a Sunny-11 rule, not Sunny-16. The current films are a lot more tolerant of overexposure than underexposure.

But, I took my Leica IIIa on my last vacation, and the separate windows are not fast working. At times, I just used the RF window, and centered the subject in it!