LTM for Daily Carry

[jmooney]

Hi all,

I'm thinking about adding a Leica branded LTM cam for my daily carry camera. It'll ride in my bag or on the seat of my truck and be used to photograph things I encounter, basically a visual journal. * I'm sure there are many out there who use LTMs daily so please share your experiences and any tips or tricks and advice. I'm looking at a IIa with a Elmar and/or Summar.*

Of course pics of and by your Barnacks are always welcome! 😀

Take care,

Jim*

 

[Steve Karr]

Hi Jim,
I have a IIIF that got the new curtain, rangefinder mirror & full CLA from Yixum and is my bump & grind camera. It goes everywhere with a 15mm or something longer like a 35 - 50mm.

Mine is hearty & has fallen around alot and is great!!
A IIa may be a little too, mmmm.... something for my taste. What ever you get send it to Yixum for some love.

Anyhow,Good luck!

Steve

 

[FPjohn]

A Barnack and a 24-25mm (especially with the click stop focusing Snapshot Skopar) are made for one another. A Leica with the 35mm Elmar was the pocketable ur point and shoot.

yours
FPJ

 

[coelacanth]

Steve, are you talking about Youxin? 😉

I canrry IiIf with either Elmar or CV 28/3.5. A Barnack with a small lens of your liking makes a great daily shooter IMHO.

 

[Robert Lai]

I was intending to use a IIF for this purpose, but lately I've been using the IIIG. Lens is the CV 35 2.5 or Heliar 50 3.5 or CV 90mm 3.5. (I carry all 3 in a bag).

P.S. reason for using the IIIG is that the IIF is with DAG getting 1/1000 fixed (tapering). IIIG also has the nice parallax compensating finder for the 50mm lens.

 

[enasniearth]

Carry around

Carry around

The red dial iiif is very dependable and a coated 5cm 3.5 elmar or coated summitar is nice .
There were improvements in each model , the iid is 20 years older than the iiif . I like the iiic however many seem now to need servicing .
Most iiif I see are working pretty well .
The elmar is very compact and the camera with lens is light compared to newer leicas . Probably would look for a coated lens at any rate they are postwar type .

 

[johannielscom]

The IIIa has a 1.5 magnification in the RF window. Helps focusing, much recommended. Also, use a 35 or 28 with a (voigtlander mini)finder to keep it really pocketable and increase DOF. Or, get an Elmar 50/3.5 to mount on it

I shoot my IIIa with a Canon 28/3.5 LTM lens and a Komura finder. Nice and compact setup.

 

[wlewisiii]

IIIf RD & a 50/2 Summitar. I carry it every time I go out the door and enjoy it tremendously.

 

[Pickett Wilson]

My daily carry. Gotta be a stepper or don't even bother! 🙂
Photographed with: Olympus E-P2, Pany 20/1.7, ISO400.

 

[bigeye]

The special thing about the screw mount models is the folding 50mm 3.5 Elmar. I love how small the package is and carries. Loaded with tri-x and and a tiny digisix or, better (daylight) just an exposure card (eye calibration sheet) it's all you need. It's a different animal loaded with VFs and non collapsing lenses. Not bad - but not the same. I'm always impressed by the pictures it takes, too.

 

[aad]

Another vote for the Elmar. It can always be there. I have to say, the CV25/4 makes for a really fun camera, though.

 

[jmooney]

The special thing about the screw mount models is the folding 50mm 3.5 Elmar. I love how small the package is and carries. Loaded with tri-x and and a tiny digisix or, better (daylight) just an exposure card (eye calibration sheet) it's all you need. It's a different animal loaded with VFs and non collapsing lenses. Not bad - but not the same. I'm always impressed by the pictures it takes, too.

I like the idea of the Elmar because they're affordable 🙂

How much bigger is the Summar? Any able to post a pic of them side by side?

I'm leaning toward the idea of no meter and a cheatsheet because I'd really like to learn to do exposure by eye. It worked for lotsa years before everything had built in meters. I'm having trouble finding a cheat sheet I like though. Any pointers to a simple one? I'd like to laminate it and have it in a pocket.

I'm planning on shooting TriX so the latitude will be there for me to go meterless.


Thanks for all the advice so far. Keep it comin'!

 

[Bingley]

I don't often carry a camera as a "daily" carry, but I've been taking my IIIc w/ me on out-of-town business trips, usually w/ an Elmar 50/3.5, a CV 50/2.5, or a Canon 35/2.8 (chrome). Any of those lenses makes a compact kit w/ the IIIc, fitting easily into a coat pocket or sliding into a briefcase. And, when travel is by car, it makes an excellent front seat companion. This was taken w/ the Elmar 50/3.5 and Kodachrome:

The suggestions to use the CV 25/4 w/ a Barnack are also good ones. The CV Skopar 28/3.5 is also a terrific combination with the IIIc; I use that combination a lot, too.

 

[coelacanth]

+1 Elmar 50/3.5.

You can't beat the size.

Also CV 28/3.5 is a lovely companion for Barnack.

 

[John Shriver]

The Summar is the same size as the Elmar in operating position, but it doesn't collapse as far. This is because (1) it has a larger focusing mount so the lens doesn't rotate, and (2) the aperture is set by a ring behind the front rim. But, it's much harder to find a Summar in good condition than an Elmar. View any aperture larger than f/3.5 on the Summar as "emergency".

Of course, the ultimate in tiny lenses are the Elmar 35/3.5, Summaron 35/3.5 (A36 version), and the Hektor 28/6.3. All are almost as small as a collapsed Elmar 50/3.5. Only the Summaron is reasonably priced, others are "collector" priced. Also, the Summaron is much better optically than the other two.

For the body, I'd plug the IIIa, since it's lighter, a bit smaller, and the finder may be a bit brighter than the IIIc and IIIf. It's also cheaper. Downside is that it's a lot harder to get the 1/1000 shutter speed reasonably accurate on it.

If you use a 28mm or 35mm lens, the discontinued CV 28/35 mini-finder is sweet.

 

[erik]

I have a Standard with a VC 25mm. Really nice to shoot with, direct, no messing about. Any exposure chart will work, the old Kodak photo guides work great. You can easily create your own.

dressed Standard by e_pics, on Flickr

 

[pphuang]

I'm leaning toward the idea of no meter and a cheatsheet because I'd really like to learn to do exposure by eye. It worked for lotsa years before everything had built in meters. I'm having trouble finding a cheat sheet I like though. Any pointers to a simple one? I'd like to laminate it and have it in a pocket.

http://fotosharp.com/day_night_exposure_calculator.html

 

[Steve Karr]

My daily carry. Gotta be a stepper or don't even bother! 🙂
Photographed with: Olympus E-P2, Pany 20/1.7, ISO400.

This looks like some of the women I know ...
HA!

 

[robklurfield]

http://www.lhphotollection.com/UPFile/ProductPic/201079144016515.jpg

 

[jmooney]

http://www.lhphotollection.com/UPFile/ProductPic/201079144016515.jpg

That would cut down on the need to carry extra film...