New to Leicas - new to film

[Fangergoodgame]

My mother in law recently passed down the camera she used while my wife was a child. It's a very nice M2, with a 50mm 2.8 and a 90mm 2.8 lenses. It's my first 35mm film camera (I've been shooting digital since I started taking photography more seriously as a hobby, around four years ago).


Can anyone point me to some useful resources? This forum has been helpful so far, but I haven't been able to find much online that's aimed at actually using the camera - most of the information out there seems to be about how great it is, how over-hyped it is, how much people like Leica, Leica history, etc.

I've got it loaded with film, thanks to my local camera shop. I've got a good handle on the basics of photographic exposure(i.e. the relationships between ISO, Shutterspeed, Aperature, etc) but would appreciate any advice from more seasoned rangefinder users, about using a rangefinder - any M2 specific advice would be even better!


Thanks!

Aaron

 

[sirius]

Welcome to the forum. It's a great place. You should research the sunny 16 if you have an M2. You may want to look for a hand-held meter. It will help a lot for many lighting situations that are hard to guess. Here's a group I'm part of and there is some good advice in the discussion threads on exposure.

http://www.flickr.com/groups/sunny16/

There should be an M2 manual that you can download. Do a Google search for it.

Cheers, and please post some pictures here...

 

[rpsawin]

Aaron,

http://www.cameraquest.com/mguide.htm#M2's

CameraQuest is one of the finest rf resources around. Also, look for M2 posts from Tom Abrahamsson.

Best Luck,

Bob

 

[maddoc]

Since your camera is already loaded with film, just snap it and go out for a walk. Use the "sunny-16" rule at daytime, shot one film and have it developed. Take some notes about the exposure, this way you can check easier for problems / wrong exposures. The M2 is a very nice camera, taking photos will be fun. And .... Welcome to the "club" 🙂

Cheers,

Maddoc

 

[Dfin]

Try camera fairs, second hand book shops,etc. Camerabooks Online, I think is the title, they deal in new & s/h camera books, Leica Guide by Focal Press is excellent if you can find a copy. There was a British site, Oldcameraguides? which did reprints of Focal Press books,not sure if they are still available though. Good Luck with the seach, but as Sirius has said, get hold of a hand held meter, sekonic,minolta or gossen, voitlander clip on meter. The camera and any of these meters are dead simple to learn,no menu scrolling,just read the light meter transfer the settings to the camera and shoot. Use 400 iso B&W or colour film, plenty of exposure latitude, and your laughting!!!

 

[Dfin]

But BEWARE; See the Leica and the Image Done, Every Junkie`s like a Settin`Sun( with apologies to Old Neil).

 

[bob338]

check this out...

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/joechan/manuals/leicamanuals.html

i have several cameras and the M2 is by far my favorite. and i use a gossen digiflash hand held meter, it's tiny, light and easy to use.

good luck.

bob

 

[Ken Ford]

Aaron, welcome! Hang around, and feel free to ask questions as they come up - it's a good bunch here.

Are you in a major metro area where you can hook up with fellow RF enthusiasts?

 

[thomasw_]

Congratulations on the M2! And welcome.

 

[Charly]

There are two ways of exposing film right. One is to use a lightmeter and the other is to guess. I personally feel that being proficient in BOTH methods is important - sometimes (low light, high contrast scenes) a guess is too much of a stab in the dark.

http://www.johnbrownlow.com/phb/techniques/exposure.html

Was how I learnt.

Ignore the Leica dick sucking that goes on here and elsewhere on the internet, it neither makes you a good photographer nor makes you attractive to your preferred sex (unless you have a particular fetish for Leica nuts - who - generally - have small nuts). Instead, learn exposure and focusing.

Regarding focusing - you have several choices - use the rangefinder (line up the superimposed image with the other one in the window, scale focus or use the hyperfocal method.

Scale focussing is when you guess the distance to your subject and line it up with the dot on the depth of field scale.

Hyperfocal focussing is the method of the gods and makes shooting incredibly fast and accurate. It is best used at moderate to small apertures as it relies on the depth of field that the apertures provide. Wide open it is impossible except with the widest of lenses.

I have never found a decent explanation of hyperfocal focusing on the internet so I will do my best for you here. Basically, what you are doing is preseting the focus of the lens so that when you bring the camera to your eye, all you need do is compose and fire the shutter.

The first picture is a "dummies guide" to a lens. The second shows the lens focused hyperfocally at F11. You will see that the depth of field scale has two markings for each F stop. The one on the left shows the near distance focus and the right hand one shows how far into the distance will be acceptably sharp. You will see in this picture, that everything from a smidge over 1.5 m to infinity is in focus. This is with a 35mm lens. Since your lenses are longer, you will have less depth of field but the example is still valid.

Most people use hyperfocal focussing by lining up infinity with the righthand marker. With wider apertures and shooting close range, you might find it more beneficial to line up your closest subject distance with the left hand marker.

HTH

Charly

 

[sirius]

Oie Charly! You give very good advice, but you are talking like my trucker grandpa. My delicate artistic sensibilities are cringing.

 

[Fangergoodgame]

Thanks

Thanks

Thanks for the all the advice. Charly, I wasn't familiar with the "hyperfocal" method - that sounds very useful. I think I'm decent at estimating distance out to about 15 feet, so it'll just take some practice.

I'm lucky to be in Atlanta, where there are a couple really solid camera shops with knowledgable people, and a good group of photographers. I know there's a number of them that still shoot film for fun. There's no dearth of places to go to buy film, and get it developed.

I dropped off my first roll of Velvia this morning - I'll see how it turns out this afternoon. I've got a roll of Tri-X in it now, and we'll see what I think of that. Walking around town shooting the Velvia, I felt a little limited by the ISO 50. I think the 400 might be more my speed (no pun intended).

Aaron

 

[payasam]

If a Google search does not turn up an M2 manual, PM me your e-mail address and I'll send a PDF copy. You should find general books on photography in second hand book shops, or in a library. An M2 is a fine way to start with film.

 

[Charly]

Sirius - that's not meant to be a complment, is it?!

Charly

(A girl, previously a chef, now working in theatre tech - a man's world where the language would make me blush if I couldn't keep up)

Sorry if I caused offence.

 

[Vics]

Tri-X, D-76 (or Lauder Formula 76 if you can find it in your area) and print from scan or, better, print using a Bessler 23 enlarger with a El Nikkor 50/2.8. I say go all the way back! Why not? You've already done digital imaging. Now try photography! Enjoy!
Vic