Leica LTM Maybe you should run for cover this time - another newbie goes Barnacking

Leica M39 screw mount bodies/lenses
M

Matthew Allen

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I just got back the first roll of film from my Christmas present, a Leica IIIa. I'd been hanging around these forums for a few months and as luck would have it, a nice looking IIIa popped up at a reasonable BIN just before Christmas. I also acquired a Summar, and it is the lens used for these shots. I love the look...

EDIT: Per post #18, I now realise that while the first two photos here were with the Summar, the other three are from a coated 50/3.5 Elmar. Sorry about that!

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This was the first time I'd used a RF and the first time I'd metered with a hand-held meter. I shot the whole roll indoors and some frames were at rather, uh, optimistic shutter speeds. (Even my 18 year-old hands aren't that steady.) I think the ones posted here are probably all within the range of 1/8" to 1/30" but they may not even go that slow. Film was HP5 at ISO 800 incidentally. I had it processed locally (Trumps) - I do hope to start doing it myself in the future but that's another stage.

All in all I'm very pleased with my first efforts. There is one slight worry though: I only got 27 frames from the roll of 36 and there are several blank frames on the negs. I did notice that when firing at 1/8", the sound is not consistent. When I tested the camera without film it made the correct zzzzzt-thunk noise. With film, it usually just thunks and I wonder if perhaps the shutter isn't opening correctly. Any suggestions on this would be welcome. Is it possible that the film is somehow increasing the friction on the shutter to the point that it doesn't work properly at some speeds?

Comments and suggestions are welcome. I'm really enjoying this new approach to photography. So much so that I already have a Summitar heading my way.

Cheers,
Matthew
 
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Camera probably could use a CLA, though sounds like the winding mechanism needs a look at, if you're getting inconsistant spacing between frames. (assuming the counter said 27, but you ended up hitting the end of the roll already).
 
Thanks for the reply. Actually the spacing appears perfect - there are gaps on the negs that are precisely 1, 2 or 3 frames wide. I wound it the full 36 frames but some of them simply came up blank as though the shutter had never opened.

Matthew
 
Those are nice shots, full of Barnack character as well as that of the subjects themselves. That second shot is particularly nice.

The older shutters can be obstinate. I had a few shutter speeds that blanked, just like you. You should make a test roll, metering a single subject and then shoot one frame for each shutter speed/apeture combination. This will tell you if you have any speeds that are particularly off. You can then avoid those shutter speeds until you want to get a CLA.

On a personal note, I can testify that the Barnack series cameras are the CHICK MAGNET OF ALL TIME. Better than a puppy. All sorts of people come up and talk to me when I'm out shooting with my Leica IIIc. Sometimes I even put film in the camera. As much as I love my Bessa R, it just doesn't reel them in like the Barnack.
 
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Summars... why does it have to be Summars... :bang:

I've been wanting this lens. Does yours have any haze inside?
 
Sticky shutter = CLA. If you haven't already researched, the usual suspects are Sherry Krauter (Golden Touch), Don Goldberg (DAG Camera), Dean Williams (deansphotographica) and Youxin Ye. There are others, but these guys have good reputations here.

Nice shots - looks like you found a good example of the Summar. Welcome to the fold of Barnack-ophiles.
 
As was noted in an earlier reply, it is the slow spreeds that are affected first when the camera lubricants petrify. The good news is that this is simple problem to correct and your new Leica can be restored to perfect operating condition with a CLA.

Be certain that the little rewind/advance lever is firmly in the advance ("A") position. If it isn't , the shutter on a Barnack Leica can fire without opening the curtains. You'll hear the shutter fire but wind up with a blank frame.

Good luck and good light.
 
vdonovan said:
Those are nice shots, full of Barnack character as well as that of the subjects themselves. That second shot is particularly nice.

The older shutters can be obstinate. I had a few shutter speeds that blanked, just like you. You should make a test roll, metering a single subject and then shoot one frame for each shutter speed/apeture combination. This will tell you if you have any speeds that are particularly off. You can then avoid those shutter speeds until you want to get a CLA.

On a personal note, I can testify that the Barnack series cameras are the CHICK MAGNET OF ALL TIME. Better than a puppy. All sorts of people come up and talk to me when I'm out shooting with my Leica IIIc. Sometimes I even put film in the camera. As much as I love my Bessa R, it just doesn't reel them in like the Barnack.
Click to expand...

Thanks, I like the second one too. The room was fairly dark and my subject's face was lit by the desk light on the left. I'm amazed at how pleasing such a direct light is here, I expected it to come out harsher.

As to the chick magnet thing, I'll bear that in mind.:D

Matthew
 
vdonovan said:
P.S. You've got another asset of high value to a photographer: a photogenic family!
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I'm sure they'd be pleased to hear you say that. In fact, the first, third and fourth are my family (sister and mother) and the second and fifth are my physiotherapist and priest/friend of the family respectively.

shadowfox said:
Summars... why does it have to be Summars... :bang:

I've been wanting this lens. Does yours have any haze inside?
Click to expand...

Mine appears to be pretty well haze-free. It has minor cleaning marks, one tiny bubble and a few specks, but generally it looks very good. It is this one:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=250196954859

Postage was on the high side but I think I got a pretty good deal really, given the results. I am frankly amazed at how well a 74 year old lens can perform.

foto_fool said:
Sticky shutter = CLA. If you haven't already researched, the usual suspects are Sherry Krauter (Golden Touch), Don Goldberg (DAG Camera), Dean Williams (deansphotographica) and Youxin Ye. There are others, but these guys have good reputations here.

Nice shots - looks like you found a good example of the Summar. Welcome to the fold of Barnack-ophiles.
Click to expand...

Thank you, and yes, I've heard very good things about them. They are in the US though which would mean expensive postage from the UK. Closer to home I know about CRR Luton though they aren't especially cheap. Any other recommendations? Has anyone used Will van Manen?:

http://www.kamera-service.info/

greybeard said:
As was noted in an earlier reply, it is the slow spreeds that are affected first when the camera lubricants petrify. The good news is that this is simple problem to correct and your new Leica can be restored to perfect operating condition with a CLA.

Be certain that the little rewind/advance lever is firmly in the advance ("A") position. If it isn't , the shutter on a Barnack Leica can fire without opening the curtains. You'll hear the shutter fire but wind up with a blank frame.

Good luck and good light.
Click to expand...

Hmmm, I wonder if there's any chance the problem is as simple as me having knocked the lever... I think I'm going to shoot another roll before I pass judgment on this one. The camera was suppose to have been recently serviced so I hope it doesn't need a CLA.

Thanks for all the kind words and suggestions. I've loaded a roll of Foma 200 so we'll see how that goes.

Cheers,
Matthew
 
Yes, by almeans make sure it wasn't something like shooting with the lens cap on, or perhaps not having the high speed dial in the wrong place when you meant to use the slow speeds.

Really nice pictures. These are great cameras, and I hope you enjoy it to the fullest.
 
For its age....

For its age....

As I get older, I'm more and more respecting that "für das Alter gut erhaltenes". I wish the same for myself! :p

Did you tweak the ones on flickr? They look a bit contrastier and "snappier".

btw - I got my first Leica RF about my 18th birthday. Back then, they were the cheapest "real" camera available. O, tempora, o mores!
 
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aad said:
Yes, by almeans make sure it wasn't something like shooting with the lens cap on, or perhaps not having the high speed dial in the wrong place when you meant to use the slow speeds.

Really nice pictures. These are great cameras, and I hope you enjoy it to the fullest.
Click to expand...

Thanks aad. Actually, I can eliminate the lens cap as a possibility as I didn't acquire one 'til after finishing this roll.:) There are certainly other possible explanations though, I will see how things go.

Cheers,
Matthew
 
Sometimes it helps to just sit ans dry fire at all speeds. If your BIN camera has been sitting awhile it may just need to be reminded its a camera and not book end.
 
hou baloo said:
As I get older, I'm more and more respecting that "für das Alter gut erhaltenes". I wish the same for myself! :p

Did you tweak the ones on flickr? They look a bit contrastier and "snappier".

btw - I got my first Leica RF about my 18th birthday. Back then, they were the cheapest "real" camera available. O, tempora, o mores!
Click to expand...

Quite.:) So given hypothetical limitless funds, what would you as an 18 year-old have got instead?

Re Flickr, are you talking about the smaller versions that appear on the main page? Flickr resizing does tend to alter the look of images slightly but there's no way round it really. I don't know if you realised, but the larger versions in my first post are linked from Flickr, so what you're seeing is the difference between the 800 pixel wide version I uploaded and the small versions that the Flickr system generates.

Ducky said:
Sometimes it helps to just sit ans dry fire at all speeds. If your BIN camera has been sitting awhile it may just need to be reminded its a camera and not book end.
Click to expand...

Another thing to try, thanks.:)

Matthew
 
sitemistic said:
Totally off topic, but I see still another noun has been transformed into another part of speech. How do you conjugate Barnack? :rolleyes:
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I Barnack
You Barnack
He Barnacks
We Barnack
They Barnack

I think we should also introduce a new exclamatory: "My my, that was Barnacking good!"

Or perhaps, in lieu of less PG-13 expressions: "Well, you've Barnacked that up good and proper."

None of the above could possible be worse than the multitude of other popular forum assaults on the English langauge. I don't know why exactly, but the one that's bugged me lately is the propensity people have to starting threads with "So...". It's as though the silence before their post had merely been an interruption of their public stream of consciousness, and at this point they are merely resuming their broadcast. Now that was off-topic.:D

Matthew
 
Ack! This is embarrassing. I just had a brainstorm and remembered that before my Summar arrived in the post, I used my Dad's old coated Elmar 50/3.5. That means that shots #1 and #2 are definitely from the Summar (and coincidentally I think they are the nicest in terms of rendering and tonality) while shots #3, #4 and 5# are actually from the Elmar.

My apologies as this had completely slipped my mind. I will edit my original post and Flickr page accordingly...

Matthew
 
Love the photographs! Welcome to Barnack World.

I really like the idea of a new verb and activity: "I'm going Barnacking now, Dear".

The German would be "zu Barnacken", right?

Best,
David
 
Sitemistic were you referring to my use of "Barnack" as an adjective, as in "lots of Barnack character"?

I guess I should have said "Barnackian" or "Barnackish".
 
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