Close up Bokeh study - Leica 50mm f1.5 Summarit with Hawk's Factory helicoid adapter

Earlier this week I took the Sony NEX out in the back yard for a couple quick snap shots with the Leica 50mm f1.5 Summarit and the Hawk's Factory helicoid adapter.  Interestingly, I have two of these lenses, the first in LTM that came with my Leica IIIf, made around 1950 and a later M mount one made in 1957.  

Both are essentially identical other than the mounts, though the M mount is a slightly cleaner example.

For something different, I decided to try my LTM version out with the helicoid adapter, primarily as I wanted to get a little closer to some flowers, and also just to see how it rendered photos at maximum aperture with when the helicoid was set to close focus.

Turns out beautifully, as long as objects behind are some distance away.  If not, the rendering becomes quite swirly, almost as if the camera was twisted around the in focus object.  Some like this effect, but I don't particularly care for it.  Like most lenses of this era, it shows a little fringing but it does have that 'glow' about the pictures that modern lenses with multi coating don't have.

An afternoon at the Distillery District - Part 4: Fujifilm X-100

Compared to the other two cameras, there's not really much left to say on this one.  One thing that struck me was that I was pulled up 3 times by complete strangers who wanted to talk to me about it.  No one showed any interest at all in the Leica or the GA645.

At one stage I had the GA645 in the bag and the Leica and X100 around my neck.  I remember one girl looking at me very quizzically as I had what would have seemed to her as two very similar cameras that I was using at the same time.  I suppose in some ways they are, just separated by 60 years.

I took a couple of the shots I took and decided to add some contrast for a different look.  I think they were reasonably successful.

An afternoon at the Distillery District - Part 3: Fujifilm Leica IIIf with 35mm f3.5 Summaron

The Leica was very much the old timer of this bunch.  Everything is completely manual and after the other two, you have to remember to focus and check exposure.  As there is no light meter, I set the X100 to ISO 100, which was the same speed as the Fuji Neopan black and white film I had loaded in it, and checked meter readings for the Leica with it.

Compared to a modern film camera, a Barnack Leica is a pain in the butt to load film.  You must trim the leader to a certain shape and size, pull out the take up spool and attach the film leader.  The after pulling it out the correct distance, both must be loaded back simultaneously, making sure the film holes align with the take up sprockets.

The big issue with Barnack Leicas is that the built in viewfinder is set up for 50mm lenses only.  If you are not using an external viewfinder, there is a bit of guess work involved when using a 35mm lens.  While the Summaron is rangefinder coupled, which meant that focusing was accurate, you were never quite sure what was going to be in the picture on the outer edges.

The other issue is with the 35mm Summaron itself.  It is very difficult to change the aperture unless the lens is locked in its infinity focus position.  Turning the aperture ring causes the focus to change, but nothing else.

My IIIf has the very rare Leicavit baseplate trigger winder.  This on its own is worth as much as the camera and lens put together.  I had mine rebuilt and it works well, significantly reducing the amount of time it takes to wind the camera on, however it requires quite a bit of hand force to operate and I always worried about breaking it or tearing the film.  Interestingly the new Abrahamsson Trigger winder for Leica M7 and MP's is almost a carbon copy of this Leicavit.

 

An afternoon at the Distillery District - Part 1: The mission

Three different cameras, three different formats, one location, one focal length.  That was the recipe for my shoot at the Distillery District.   

I had decided to go down as I needed to finish some film up in my Leica IIIf and my Fujifilm GA645.  It was also my first real opportunity to spend some quality time behind the medium format opportunity and I was really looking forward to seeing what it was like to use.  To instantly capture the moment I also took my Fujifilm X-100.

The interesting thing was all these three cameras were different formats, but with lenses around 35mm in full frame 135 format language.  The two Fujis have fixed lenses of 23mm and 60mm respectively, while I decided to attach the 35mm Summaron to the Leica.  Not only that, all three were rangefinders that used a different means of figuring out if the camera is in focus through the viewfinder; being a traditional optical rangefinder in the Leica, a digital screen on the X100 and an electronic distance scale in the GA645.

Another interesting point was the age of each of the cameras, being less than a year for the X100, approx 15 years for GA645 and 60 years Leica IIIf.

After persuading my wife to look after our little girl for a couple hours, I made my way downtown and spent a couple of hours wandering around.  Within a compact place there's lots to shoot, and I ended up taking approximately 130 shots, 30 each on the film cameras, and the rest on the X100.

Having one focal length for three cameras was actually beneficial as distance from an object when shooting always stayed constant.  It also gave me a better feel for how each camera worked in practice.