Graybeard
Longtime IIIf User
My first 35mm camera was a "Robin 1.9" , a generic Japanese rangefinder made by the Taron Camera Company. I paid about $25 for it new in 1962. It was quite a serviceable camera with a sharp, fixed 45mm lens, bright rf/vf, and a Seiko shutter.
I was the photographer for my high school newspaper at the time; the paper had no cameras for me to use but did have a sharing arrangement with a darkroom. I bought my own film and darkroom supplies and submitted receipts for reimbursement. It was more expensive print photographs than text, and I was budgeted at one postage stamp sized informal portrait and one, sometimes two, 3"x4" photographs per issue. My expenses per issue were usually about $3 to $5, depending on if I had to buy a new package of developer.
The fixed normal lens on the Robin was fine some some work but just not suitable for covering football and basketball games.
I bought a second hand Leica IIIc in order to be able to use a telephoto lens at the athletic events. The lens was a Canon Serenar 135mm/f3.5 and I used a Tewe viewfinder that a friend's father had found under the seat of an airliner during a trip (still have the finder). The Leica and lens combination cost about a third of the discounted price of a Pentax H1 at the time.
There was no problem using the Leica at football games as they, obviously, were outdoors with plenty of light. For basketball games, held at night indoors, I had to become a bit more inventive. I shot with either Tri-X or a (nominal) ASA 800 film pushed to ASA 1600 or 3200 in Ethol UFG. I learned to catch the basketball players at the top of a jump, where they were, for an instant, motionless, in order to use the relatively slow shutter speed required by the f3.5 maximum of the lens. Generally I shot while sitting down on the floor just in front of the bleachers; it paid to watch where the players were heading in order to avoid being tampled. The best results came when shooting home games where the school team wore white uniforms. The Leica didn't have flash synchronization so neither flashbulbs (in common use then) nor an electronic flash (which went for about the price of a Pentax then) so available light were an option.
I had only the only 135mm lens for quite a while. I sold the Robin 1.9 in order to buy a 50mm/1.8 Serenar which I used for the next 25 years.
Much later, when I was a graduate student I saw a tiny ad in the back of Modern Photography offering Schact (sp?) LTM lenses for about $30. I bought a 35mm Travenar in order to have a wide angle lens; my Tewe was a zoom finder and also covered 35mm. Later on, I had the camera at a wedding and ran into the chairman of my university department shooting with a Leica IIIg (the bride was a relative of his). I loaned him the lens to try and he wound up buying one of each of the Schact lenses being offered (35mm, 90mm, and a 135mm).
I was the photographer for my high school newspaper at the time; the paper had no cameras for me to use but did have a sharing arrangement with a darkroom. I bought my own film and darkroom supplies and submitted receipts for reimbursement. It was more expensive print photographs than text, and I was budgeted at one postage stamp sized informal portrait and one, sometimes two, 3"x4" photographs per issue. My expenses per issue were usually about $3 to $5, depending on if I had to buy a new package of developer.
The fixed normal lens on the Robin was fine some some work but just not suitable for covering football and basketball games.
I bought a second hand Leica IIIc in order to be able to use a telephoto lens at the athletic events. The lens was a Canon Serenar 135mm/f3.5 and I used a Tewe viewfinder that a friend's father had found under the seat of an airliner during a trip (still have the finder). The Leica and lens combination cost about a third of the discounted price of a Pentax H1 at the time.
There was no problem using the Leica at football games as they, obviously, were outdoors with plenty of light. For basketball games, held at night indoors, I had to become a bit more inventive. I shot with either Tri-X or a (nominal) ASA 800 film pushed to ASA 1600 or 3200 in Ethol UFG. I learned to catch the basketball players at the top of a jump, where they were, for an instant, motionless, in order to use the relatively slow shutter speed required by the f3.5 maximum of the lens. Generally I shot while sitting down on the floor just in front of the bleachers; it paid to watch where the players were heading in order to avoid being tampled. The best results came when shooting home games where the school team wore white uniforms. The Leica didn't have flash synchronization so neither flashbulbs (in common use then) nor an electronic flash (which went for about the price of a Pentax then) so available light were an option.
I had only the only 135mm lens for quite a while. I sold the Robin 1.9 in order to buy a 50mm/1.8 Serenar which I used for the next 25 years.
Much later, when I was a graduate student I saw a tiny ad in the back of Modern Photography offering Schact (sp?) LTM lenses for about $30. I bought a 35mm Travenar in order to have a wide angle lens; my Tewe was a zoom finder and also covered 35mm. Later on, I had the camera at a wedding and ran into the chairman of my university department shooting with a Leica IIIg (the bride was a relative of his). I loaned him the lens to try and he wound up buying one of each of the Schact lenses being offered (35mm, 90mm, and a 135mm).
