Leica Lovers Anonymous

The lens seems to do fairly well, at least stopped down, based on the first roll through the camera. Colour and contrast look decent, especially for the price which was peanuts. I still need to work out my digitisation regime (probably buy a scanner) to be able to share things but I'm enjoying using the camera, and not having to use a computer to see the results - for now at least. Looking down and realising I have a Leica hanging on my shoulder hasn't worn off either.

Got another roll to process now - including pictures of a friend's kid playing with her new birthday toys, which was a test for my fledgling rangefinder focussing skills!

Owain Shaw wrote in post #18939578
The lens seems to do fairly well, at least stopped down, based on the first roll through the camera. Colour and contrast look decent, especially for the price which was peanuts. I still need to work out my digitisation regime (probably buy a scanner) to be able to share things but I'm enjoying using the camera, and not having to use a computer to see the results - for now at least. Looking down and realising I have a Leica hanging on my shoulder hasn't worn off either.

Got another roll to process now - including pictures of a friend's kid playing with her new birthday toys, which was a test for my fledgling rangefinder focussing skills!

Yeah it takes some time to learn zone focusing and how to focus with a rangefinder but with a little practice and once you get it you will probably never go back to auto focus and yes there is something really enjoyable about shooting with a rangefinder and in my opinion Leica rangefinders are the best.

airfrogusmc wrote in post #18940001
Yeah it takes some time to learn zone focusing and how to focus with a rangefinder but with a little practice and once you get it you will probably never go back to auto focus and yes there is something really enjoyable about shooting with a rangefinder and in my opinion Leica rangefinders are the best.

Getting focus on stuff that is moving is still tricky, especially shooting in some shade at f/2 meaning that I couldn't rely on depth of field helping me out much ... and it was an excited five-year-old. The challenge is part of the fun, though. I personally enjoy not having technology do everything for me. Looking forward to seeing how the pictures came out.

Turns out I didn't do too badly on the focussing ... or on the exposure guessing, some of them came out really nicely. When I get some kind of digitisation regime up and running, this can be confirmed by other people.

Owain Shaw wrote in post #18947442
Turns out I didn't do too badly on the focussing ... or on the exposure guessing, some of them came out really nicely. When I get some kind of digitisation regime up and running, this can be confirmed by other people.

CONGRATS!
Yeah it is a lot easier than trying to manually focus a DSLR. More reliable than auto focus.

Many of the greats never used meters.

Owain Shaw wrote in post #18947442
Turns out I didn't do too badly on the focussing ... or on the exposure guessing, some of them came out really nicely.

The nice thing about all color negatives films (except Ektar) and most B&W films is that they can handle overexposure just fine. Portra 400 and Kodak Tri-x are super flexible with overexposure and if a lab is doing your scanning, they'll look perfectly normal even at 5 stops over.

airfrogusmc wrote in post #18948621
CONGRATS!
Yeah it is a lot easier than trying to manually focus a DSLR. More reliable than auto focus.

Many of the greats never used meters.

If I really need one then I have a phone app, but I'm pretty happy with my guesswork so far, partly because of what Scott says.

Scottboarding wrote in post #18948990
The nice thing about all color negatives films (except Ektar) and most B&W films is that they can handle overexposure just fine. Portra 400 and Kodak Tri-x are super flexible with overexposure and if a lab is doing your scanning, they'll look perfectly normal even at 5 stops over.

I'll probably pick up my own scanner fairly soon, less latitude perhaps but I hope I won't be shooting too many frames that are 5 stops out.

Either way I'm enjoying shooting with the camera, and probably getting out more than I would have otherwise so it's essentially paying for itself, right?

Owain Shaw wrote in post #18949318
Either way I'm enjoying shooting with the camera, and probably getting out more than I would have otherwise so it's essentially paying for itself, right?

Exactly! All that really matters is that you're enjoying it.

Scottboarding wrote in post #18949326
Exactly! All that really matters is that you're enjoying it.

Indeed. And for now my digital cameras are staying at home, and I'm enjoying going out and making pictures with my M4.

I've finally got a scanner and started digitising some of the past three months' film. This first one is from the birthday party I mentioned in earlier posts ... I have some of a similar scene but with the child in, and some others, but those are for her mother rather than the internet at large. We met up for coffee the other day and she said these were probably the first photos of her little girl not taken on a mobile phone, and some of the first to be printed. She really appreciated having them and I really enjoyed taking them with my own little piece of history, namely my M4.

The other photo is just a random shot from my first roll through the camera. Still happy with the pictures I get from the Jupiter 8, actually. I'm sure I'll upgrade eventually but it's working for me for now.

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