What film used then and now?

[merick]

Enjoying a zorki 1 and fuji 200 with the aid of a weston, I find that in daylight I am about out of speed and f stops. I have some expired 400 but I dont think that will work out in daylight. 200 and 400 are all that is available locally.

What speed film wold have been used in the 30's through 50's in leica ii and clones? And what do you use today?

 

[zuiko85]

In bright conditions try some Ilford Pan F with an ISO of 50 which should be slow enough for the shutter speed and aperture range of your camera even in bright sunlight.

This is B&W film, don't know you are going to do about color except use a ND filter if you can find one to fit.

 

[Huss]

Enjoying a zorki 1 and fuji 200 with the aid of a weston, I find that in daylight I am about out of speed and f stops. I have some expired 400 but I dont think that will work out in daylight. 200 and 400 are all that is available

Out of speed and f stops? Do you mean you want to use other settings than 1/250 and 1/500 at f16 for bright light in daytime?

 

[RichL]

Merick, I'll let you reverse engineer the numbers.

From a Kodak instruction sheet dated 1945

Bright subjects: Near-by people in marine, beach or snow scenes; scenics with foreground objects.

Panatomic-X f-8 1/100
Plus-X f-11 1/100
Plus-XX f-16 1/100

Also found Tri-X rated at 200 and panatomic X rated at 32

ASA 50 or 100 with the rare 200 tossed for the Leica I and Fed Ic is what I shoot. I typically keep an N.D. filter handy for just in case.

 

[grouchos_tash]

We have the opposite problem here in England!

I have a Leica manual from the 50's which mainly describes:
Slow film/25 ISO
Medium Speed/50 ISO
Fast/100 ISO

Gary

 

[x-ray]

Purchase a ND.3 (1stop) or ND.6 (2stop) neutral density filter. It will reduce your ISO effectively by 1 or two stops. For example with the ND.3 ISO 100 film is effectively 50 and with the ND.6 it would be effectively 25 ISO.

 

[sevo]

Also found Tri-X rated at 200 and panatomic X rated at 32

That was the original ASA definition, which was redesigned a few years later. The new ASA test (roughly) doubled the numbers for the same film types.

 

[merick]

Merick, I'll let you reverse engineer the numbers.

Using the slide wheel on my weston ii, and adding 1 to go from weston to asa, and guessing the weston light number as 200 (which is what a lot of my day readings have been) I get ;
Panatomic-X = 25
Plus-X = 50
Plus-XX = 100

or maybe lower than that depending on the snow or beach, but that matches grouchos_tach's information.

200 is working OK for me. But having redone the shutters myself it was obvious that any error would be more apparent at the 1/500 than 1/50. I would presume the camera would be designed such that most common use would be in the mid-range of adjustments and that 50 iso film was likely the go-to.

 

[bsdunek]

About right, merick. Verichrome Pan was 32, and Kodachrome was 10. I remember when Kodachrome 25 came out, about 1961 - boy, was that fast! But, the color wasn't as saturated.

 

[David Hughes]

Hi,

A lot of P&S cameras have a spec. like pre-war ones and I've no problems with them and ASA/ISO 200 film. Or Ilford's FP4+ or the Foma ones that are slower.

Faster 400 ones are what I use in the winter.

Regards, David

 

[David Hughes]

Hi,

Back to the original question; "What speed film wold have been used in the 30's through 50's in leica ii and clones?" and I have just found a mid 1930's Leica Exposure Guide that I knew I had somewhere. It was in the pocket at the back of a Leica ERC from the 30's.

You can work back using "Sunny 16" to get the speeds of the film in today's terms, I hope.

Regards, David

 

[Rob-F]

What speed film wold have been used in the 30's through 50's in leica ii and clones? And what do you use today?

I don't know about the '30's, but I think in the late 40's and the 50's XX, with a speed of, I believe 250, was commonly used. It is still available, but you have to buy it in 400 foot rolls and load the cassettes yourself. The ISO 200 that is available to you should serve the same purpose. Also used back then was Verichrome Pan, which was in the ASA 100 or 125 range. And Tri-X came in sometime in the '50's, and was originally rated at 200.

If you want to shoot at wider apertures or slower shutter speeds, the ND filter suggested above could be the answer. Or, possibly a polarizer--though they are tricky to use on a rangefinder. And you know, you could shoot the 400 at 200 or 250 and give a shorter development. People do that. I often shoot Tri-X at 250 or 320.

 

[summar]

I remember from the mid-'50s (shows my age) Verichrome Pan and Plus-X were both rated as ASA 100. Plus-X had finer grain and may have been slightly more expensive.

 

[steveyork]

Use ND and color filter. The FSU cameras are one of the great buys in today's market.