First time with a Barnack

[rickp]

very useful tip, thank you.

rick

(IIIc on the way, elmar 50 just won 🙂)

Juan, congrats on your Barnack!

Small tip: I bought a Helios finder. It's small and round like a 50mm Leitz finder but black paint and it has 35, 85 and 135 frames in it. (Make sure, there's also one with only the 50 frame). Sticking this one finder on your camera makes it usable with 4 focal lengths at once!

Happy shooting!

 

[helen.HH]

uh Oh....Just DID IT 😱
a 1953 IIIf RD (NO ST) will be making its way to Moi by the end of the WEEK

and will have a Summar on Loan to try with It
(besides a 1.5 nokton my only SM lens)

i realize the nokton will be quite BIG on the little Barnack
but I thoght the Difference in LOOK might be Quite Cool between a tres Sharp Nokton and a Dreamy Summar

I may be a Fast Convert ...who knows

 

[Nando]

Congrats Juan and Helen! Barnacks are awesome.

 

[Juan Valdenebro]

uh Oh....Just DID IT 😱
a 1953 IIIf RD (NO ST) will be making its way to Moi by the end of the WEEK

and will have a Summar on Loan to try with It
(besides a 1.5 nokton my only SM lens)

i realize the nokton will be quite BIG on the little Barnack
but I thoght the Difference in LOOK might be Quite Cool between a tres Sharp Nokton and a Dreamy Summar

I may be a Fast Convert ...who knows

Cool, Helen!

Cheers,

Juan

 

[Juan Valdenebro]

Juan, congrats on your Barnack!

Small tip: I bought a Helios finder. It's small and round like a 50mm Leitz finder but black paint and it has 35, 85 and 135 frames in it. (Make sure, there's also one with only the 50 frame). Sticking this one finder on your camera makes it usable with 4 focal lengths at once!

Happy shooting!

Hi Johan,

I use two of those on my Ts... As you say, they're versatile... The image (seeing through them) is not great, but I frame and shoot quickly after eye work, and I prefer using just one kind of external finder for all cameras and lenses... I even use it with my 28 and sometimes with my 15... (To control verticals)...

Cheers,

Juan

 

[Keith]

The little Barnacks are a brilliant platform for the 15mm Heliar IMO ... before I got an R4A it was all I used the Heliar on.

 

[coelacanth]

I love my IIIf RD. 50/3.5 for extreme compactness, CV28/3.5 for a fun walkabout. Barnack can shapeshift from a zone-focus super quick street shooter to a super precise composer with magnified RF and external viewfinders. SBOOI is a a pure joy to use and I'm very happy with CV metal VF for 28mm as well.

Enjoy Juan!

Oh and Helen, I just got your Flickr message. My IIIf RD is also from 1953, w/o ST. 😀 Get yourself a SBOOI, It is da best.

 

[maddoc]

That's one thing I like most about the Barnacks...the 1.5x magnified RF window...to get than on an M requires a separate magnifier and then you lose the advantage of multiple framelines. So give me the separate windows, thank you. 🙂 An SBOOI for 50mm which can't be beat (super bright, 1:1), and a 28/35 minifinder and I'm good to go.

... you described perfectly an Nikon SP (except that the 35/28 is integrated in the SP)! 😀

 

[wlewisiii]

Fun thread. Good for you both, Juan & Hellen.

My IIIf RD, also sans ST is from 1956. My Summitar is from 1949. It is probably the best thing that ever happened to my photography -
- it's a compact package that goes with me always.
- it forces me to slow the process down
- the separation of RF & VF is actually helpful because I preset the hyperfocal distance very often and can simply concentrate on the composition of the image.
- I sold most of my other cameras to finance it. (I have far less to distract me from using the best camera I own. I probably need to get rid of several more for that reason - 1 RF, 1 SLR & 1 LF 😀 )

While I own a 35/2.8 J12 & finder, I almost never use it. For me, the Barnack is the finest 50mm shooting camera ever made. If I could only afford them, I'd probably have more 50's for it than Raid 😉

Enjoy!

William

 

[newspaperguy]

Congrats 3X to Helen & Juan.

I'm a huge fan too, but undecided whether I like the
50 or the 35 on my IIIf - in both cases, with a CV finder.

FWIW - IMO (how's that for doubling up?) I have several Helios finders,
and while they do the job, there is no comparison to the brilliance of the
CV brightlines, or in the eye relief they provide. Like I said, my opinion.

 

[Juan Valdenebro]

Changing my mind again... I think I'm learning the hard way it's really necessary to trim the film leader to load a Barnack... Today I loaded my second roll without trimming it, and just after loading it and advancing it to frame 1, I saw the rewind knob wasn't moving... Thought film had come loose... When I tried to rewind to load again, it required a lot more strength than usual, and after opening the camera, I saw the film was stuck in the center of the camera, in the base, and I couldn't take it out... Finally I got to take out the main two parts of the film, but other small ones from around the holes were missing... When I tried to use the shutter, first it wasn't working, and then I made it work on T, and while it was open, I saw a small piece of film hiding behind the frame border: I took it out... Then tried to use the shutter again: sometimes it worked, but sometimes the cloth returned slowly at the end of its travel, or didn't come to place totally... After using it lots of times, another small piece of film appeared unexpectedly between two parts of the cloth... I took it out. Then the shutter started to work again... I also found earlier today this shutter underexposes grossly at 1/500 and 1/1000, and besides that, at 1/1000 the right portion of the frame is a lot darker than the rest of the image! And in some frames there are white light points: I think there's a pinhole on the shutter cloth... I just wrote Tim at KEH asking him for directions to return the camera...


Geez! This Barnack/Industar adventure is a long dark winding road... All I got after two months is a good I-50, and a bad I-22 and a bad IIIC both returned, and yet I don't even know if I should trim the film before loading, or if it caused the problem... All this is so totally new: like when I was a boy trying to load my first camera: I'm not sure about anything... I don't know if I can expect a really trustable Barnack shutter either... By the way, before buying the IIIC, I asked KEH to check again, as a special favor, all shutter speeds: they said shipment would take one more week because their technician was taking a good look at it... Mmmmmmm...


Cheers,


Juan

 

[Keith]

On the bright side Juan these screwmounts seem to be very cheap to CLA ... I had several done by Youxin and even one that required a new beam splitter cost less than $150.00.

 

[splitimageview]

Most Barnacks I have bought need CLAs, as most haven't been used much lately. But as Keith says, Youxin is the man. Just not at the moment -- his Beijing show is about to launch. 🙂

 

[Keith]

I remember buying a IIIf off ebay very cheap that arrived looking like it had been stored underground ... it was very grim and the curtains had actually disintegrated. The camera came back from Youxin looking great and working like new for $140.00. 😱

 

[Juan Valdenebro]

I think soon I'll be waiting for a second Barnack from KEH having a possible CLA on mind... Thanks! Do members trim film leaders for loading Barnacks? What is down there inside the camera that needs not to be touched by film? Today when my film was stuck there I felt totally blind...

Cheers,

Juan

 

[splitimageview]

Yes, I always trim.

 

[coelacanth]

There are metro-card peeps and pre-cut peeps. I'm the latter. I always have a roll of pre-cut film for Barnack with me, and the actual loading when I'm out shooting is no harder than M2 loading.

Youxin is your man for Barnack repair/CLA. I had two Barnacks serviced by him with good results. Buy good looking (or beater) Barnack, send it off to him for a full bath (very cheap), and you' have a perfect, long lasting, tiny Leica for everyday use. I'm still eyeing on a "backup" Barnack to accompany my IIIf RD. It will go visit Youxin as soon as I find it.

He can do shutter curtain replacement and beam splitter replacement (to regian RF contrast) as well.

 

[Juan Valdenebro]

I guess there must be a very good reason for trimming if Leica placed that drawing in every camera...

Cheers,

Juan

 

[Juan Valdenebro]

There are metro-card peeps and pre-cut peeps. I'm the latter. I always have a roll of pre-cut film for Barnack with me, and the actual loading when I'm out shooting is no harder than M2 loading.

Youxin is your man for Barnack repair/CLA. I had two Barnacks serviced by him with good results. Buy good looking (or beater) Barnack, send it off to him for a full bath (very cheap), and you' have a perfect, long lasting, tiny Leica for everyday use. I'm stilling eyeing on a "backup" Barnack to accompany my IIIf RD. It will go visit Youxin as soon as I find it.

He can do shutter curtain replacement and beam splitter replacement (to regian RF contrast) as well.

For sure I'll contact Youxin soon...

Cheers,

Juan

 

[Bingley]

There are metro-card peeps and pre-cut peeps. I'm the latter. I always have a roll of pre-cut film for Barnack with me, and the actual loading when I'm out shooting is no harder than M2 loading.

Youxin is your man for Barnack repair/CLA. I had two Barnacks serviced by him with good results. Buy good looking (or beater) Barnack, send it off to him for a full bath (very cheap), and you' have a perfect, long lasting, tiny Leica for everyday use. I'm stilling eyeing on a "backup" Barnack to accompany my IIIf RD. It will go visit Youxin as soon as I find it.

He can do shutter curtain replacement and beam splitter replacement (to regian RF contrast) as well.

Youxin replaced the beamsplitter, shutter curtains, and take-up spool spindle on my IIIc, as well as a CLA, all for under $200. It's a different camera, and a Joy to use. Highly recommend him.

Unlike Sug, I'm a metro-card peep. Once you get the hang of it, it's really easy.