Georgeboosh
Member
Taken from 'The Little Sister' by Raymond Chandler published in 1949:
'He studies a lot and he has a very expensive camera he likes to snap people with when they don't know. Sometimes it makes them mad. But Orrin says people ought to see themselves as they really are.'
'Let's hope it never happens to him,' I said. 'What kind of camera is it?'
'One of those little cameras with a very fine lens. You can take snaps in almost any kind of light. A Leica.'
'He studies a lot and he has a very expensive camera he likes to snap people with when they don't know. Sometimes it makes them mad. But Orrin says people ought to see themselves as they really are.'
'Let's hope it never happens to him,' I said. 'What kind of camera is it?'
'One of those little cameras with a very fine lens. You can take snaps in almost any kind of light. A Leica.'
rlouzan
Well-known
Kinesen
by Henning Mankell
by Henning Mankell
Rogrund
Antti Sivén
Ian Fleming, Goldfinger
"Bond took the elevator up to his suite. He went to his suitcase and extracted an M3 Leica, an MC exposure meter, a K2 filter and a flash-holder. He put a bulb in the holder and checked the camera. He went to his balcony, glanced at the sun to estimate where it would be at about three-thirty and went back into the sitting-room, leaving the door to the balcony open. He stood at the balcony door and aimed the exposure meter. The exposure was one-hundredth of a second. He set this on the Leica, put the shutter at f 11, and the distance at twelve feet. He clipped on a lens hood and took one picture to see that all was working. Then he wound on the film, slipped in the flash-holder and put the camera aside."
"Bond took the elevator up to his suite. He went to his suitcase and extracted an M3 Leica, an MC exposure meter, a K2 filter and a flash-holder. He put a bulb in the holder and checked the camera. He went to his balcony, glanced at the sun to estimate where it would be at about three-thirty and went back into the sitting-room, leaving the door to the balcony open. He stood at the balcony door and aimed the exposure meter. The exposure was one-hundredth of a second. He set this on the Leica, put the shutter at f 11, and the distance at twelve feet. He clipped on a lens hood and took one picture to see that all was working. Then he wound on the film, slipped in the flash-holder and put the camera aside."
Rogrund
Antti Sivén
Graham Greene, Our Man in Havana
"The victim's Leica had been smashed as well."
"The victim's Leica had been smashed as well."
literiter
Well-known
I wonder if Mr. Fleming, himself, took many pictures. Not that it matters...he wrote some great books!
aizan
Veteran
"teddy" by j. d. salinger, found in the collection "nine stories".
JayGannon
Well-known
Thats fantastic =)
SolaresLarrave
My M5s need red dots!
"put the shutter at f11"
Did I misread this?
Bump...
Did I misread this?
Bump...
ChrisN
Striving
Let's hope that Bond remembers to "put" the shutter speed to 1/50th, or his flash won't sync.
Waus
Well-known
Dutch writer WH Hermans (owned several Leica's):
De Donkere Kamer van Damokles (screw-mount leica)
Nooit meer slapen (Leica M)
De Donkere Kamer van Damokles (screw-mount leica)
Nooit meer slapen (Leica M)
RichC
Well-known
Bruce Sterling, "Holy Fire", 1996 - one of my favourite books. It doesn't mention Leica by name, but I like to think of it as the precursor to the M8! <grin>
"'I can't read,' said the dog, pricking up his hairy ears ...
"They had sent her an antique camera. The sort ... that once had processed rolls of coloured film. The antique machine had been retrofitted with a digital imaging plate, and a set of network jacks. It was heavy and solid and lovely. Compared to a modern camera it felt like chiselled granite ...
"She lifted the new camera. She framed him. She suddenly knew that this was it. This was going to be her first really good picture ... The starkness of a living soul soul placed far beyond necessity. She understood the two of them and the world revolving, all whole and all at once, in a bright hot blaze. Her first true picture. So real and beautiful.
"The camera clicked."
"'I can't read,' said the dog, pricking up his hairy ears ...
"They had sent her an antique camera. The sort ... that once had processed rolls of coloured film. The antique machine had been retrofitted with a digital imaging plate, and a set of network jacks. It was heavy and solid and lovely. Compared to a modern camera it felt like chiselled granite ...
"She lifted the new camera. She framed him. She suddenly knew that this was it. This was going to be her first really good picture ... The starkness of a living soul soul placed far beyond necessity. She understood the two of them and the world revolving, all whole and all at once, in a bright hot blaze. Her first true picture. So real and beautiful.
"The camera clicked."
B.J.Scharp
Still developing
If I read correctly, he's using old style flash bulbs, with which sync speed is less of an issue, due to their longer burn time... That's why the M3 has TWO sync contacts.
John Lawrence
Well-known
In one of the Bond books (can't remember which one) I seem to recall that Fleming details some of the standard training Bond (and other spies) had to undergo. Part of which was that they had to be fully conversant with photography and be able use a camera like a pro.
John
John Lawrence
Well-known
SolaresLarrave
My M5s need red dots!
I still find it funny that someone can "put the shutter at f11." Aperture, diaphragm...
Let's call it "poetic license."
Let's call it "poetic license."
dave lackey
Veteran
He's already got a license to kill, so why not?
dave lackey
Veteran
Hmmm...so if I calculated this correctly, he was most likely using 100 speed black and white film?
JoeV
Thin Air, Bright Sun
"Do you know why news photographers used to love this camera?" asks the clerk, a very young man with a ponytail and round steel-rimmed glasses who seems to regard the old Leica range finder with a sort of reverence.
"No," say Mr. Delabano, his heart sinking, wishing he'd gone to a different store.
"You never lose the subject," he says looking straight at Mr. Delabano and smiling as if this were an obscure point. Then, to illustrate, he holds the camera to his eye, scans the store, dry-snapping winding and snapping again and, still peering through the camera, continues: "You've got wonderful optics just like the best reflex, but you never lose the subject, there's no mirror flopping around cutting off the view; you never lose the moment. It's a continuum."
...
Out on the parking lot Mr. Delabano loads his two sacks of groceries onto the front seat then hangs the camera around his neck and walks about fifty yards to the edge of the pavement. It's an unambiguous transition. There's the pavement and there's the prairie. It's as if shopping centers were laid down somehow without disrupting anthing beyond the site itself. Men working on stilts. Or maybe only that prairie is so fundamental and undistinguished that anything not exactly shopping center tends to become prairie again by default. He pops open the front of the case, removes the lens cap, advances the film a couple of times and looks through the viewer, scanning around like the young man had done, trying to imagine a discontinuous panorama. How can it be possible to lose the moment? Through the camera the old farmhouse looks much smaller. It will be tiny in the picture, he knows, but he doesn't want to walk any closer; he'd have to go across the highway to make any difference and he already feels self-conscience standing out here at the edge of the parking lot. Anyway he rather likes it that size - hardly distinguishable at all, inaccessible. He clicks once, just one picture, and the farmhouse is still there, the moment is intact. A continuum, the young man had said. He looks through the camera again at the farmhouse and the windmill which has begun to turn slowly with the shifting wind.
-"Ordinary Horror" by David Searcy
"No," say Mr. Delabano, his heart sinking, wishing he'd gone to a different store.
"You never lose the subject," he says looking straight at Mr. Delabano and smiling as if this were an obscure point. Then, to illustrate, he holds the camera to his eye, scans the store, dry-snapping winding and snapping again and, still peering through the camera, continues: "You've got wonderful optics just like the best reflex, but you never lose the subject, there's no mirror flopping around cutting off the view; you never lose the moment. It's a continuum."
...
Out on the parking lot Mr. Delabano loads his two sacks of groceries onto the front seat then hangs the camera around his neck and walks about fifty yards to the edge of the pavement. It's an unambiguous transition. There's the pavement and there's the prairie. It's as if shopping centers were laid down somehow without disrupting anthing beyond the site itself. Men working on stilts. Or maybe only that prairie is so fundamental and undistinguished that anything not exactly shopping center tends to become prairie again by default. He pops open the front of the case, removes the lens cap, advances the film a couple of times and looks through the viewer, scanning around like the young man had done, trying to imagine a discontinuous panorama. How can it be possible to lose the moment? Through the camera the old farmhouse looks much smaller. It will be tiny in the picture, he knows, but he doesn't want to walk any closer; he'd have to go across the highway to make any difference and he already feels self-conscience standing out here at the edge of the parking lot. Anyway he rather likes it that size - hardly distinguishable at all, inaccessible. He clicks once, just one picture, and the farmhouse is still there, the moment is intact. A continuum, the young man had said. He looks through the camera again at the farmhouse and the windmill which has begun to turn slowly with the shifting wind.
-"Ordinary Horror" by David Searcy