Leica IIIG - first test roll

[Rob MacKillop]

Yes, my third - and last! - Leica in a month. Now officially utterly skint, but I have three cameras I love, three "see me oot" cameras.

The IIIG is the largest and last of the pre-M style, and it's rather gorgeous:



The lens you see there is a cheapo Russian Industar 50mm, but when I got the camera CLA'd (cleaned, lubricated, and aligned - the rangefinder, that is) they gave me a great price on a 50mm Leica Summar 50mm f/2. Hamish sent me a Voigtlander 21mm f/4 wide-angle with its dedicated viewfinder:






Not believing I would install the film correctly, I put in a film that was well out of date, fired off 36 exposures, took it to Jessops for a One-hour service, only to discover that I'd inadvertently put in a roll of E6 slide film. Doh! That has been sent off. So I tried again with a roll of Fuji Superia 400, which I also found in the back of a drawer. It's not a film I like, but would service as a test roll well enough.

To my surprise, I did install it correctly (for those who don't know, this involves cutting the leader) and even more amazingly, managed to do a whole roll of exposures. As it was a hastily-done test roll, I didn't spend a lot of time composing the shots, but these are the best of the bunch. I'm delighted it all works well.

 

[Chris Bennett]

Yes, my third - and last! - Leica in a month.

Now then. Does that mean you will be buying more next month?
That's literally only tomorrow!!!

Very nice indeed Rob.

 

[Rob MacKillop]

No.

 

[Chris Bennett]

Oooops.
Well, that told me then!

 

[Rob MacKillop]

Sorry, Chris, but in the old days we used to have more people having a conversation on this forum. I guess it's passed its best.

 

[Chris Bennett]

All fora are suffering from competition with facebook and other more-in-the-moment type media,
I think.

I was going to ask what method you were metering with, for this machine.

 

[Rob MacKillop]

I have two meters which thankfully seem to agree with each other, the Minolta Flash Meter IV, which cost me about £80 a few years ago, and an app called "Light Meter" which is free, and would have saved me £80 had it been out a few years ago. I recommend it highly. It does spot metering as well, with a "live View" screen, which you can touch where you want to record the exposure. It also incorporates a sensor meter, manual calculator (based on the Sunny 16 rule), EXIF reader, DoF calculator, and a grey card. What more do you want for free? I got it for the android system, but there might be one for iOS as well.

That said, the camera itself is not so finely tuned, with no gradations between shutter speeds of 30, 60, 125, 250, 500 and 1000. Very often I wanted an SS of say 750 or 390, but had to jump to the closest setting, but I must say all the shots were pretty well exposed. The camera also has a separate dial for slow shutter speeds, but I'd want a tripod for those.

The Summar 50mm has apertures of f/2, 2.2, 3.2, 4.5, 6.3, 9, and 12.5 which are odd numbers in my experience, but the aperture ring is smooth, and you can sort of guess where, say, f/5.6 might be.

We must fight FaceBook and Twitter, and the best way to do that is by conversing not just giving blank statements (like I did by only saying "No.")

 

[Chris Bennett]

I particularly like the last image.
Come to think of it, I've never knowingly seen one taken at 21mm focal length on a film camera. It's wider than I had imagined.

 

[Chris Bennett]

Thanks for the info on the light metering. It sounds like you use the phone by preference now?

 

[Rob MacKillop]

Yes, 21mm is w i d e...and it seems a really well-made lens, my first Voigtlander.

And yes, I just use the phone now. It also helps me get home when I get lost!

I've just tried both the Voigt and the Summar on the Monochrom with success. Two old lenses on the digital. I need to explore that further, but this initial test shots were very positive. So, that's three lenses for the Mono and two for the IIIG - not bad at all. I may be gone some time!

 

[Rob MacKillop]

For future IIIg researchers on this forum:

I said in the original post: "Not believing I would install the film correctly, I put in a film that was well out of date, fired off 36 exposures, took it to Jessops for a One-hour service, only to discover that I'd inadvertently put in a roll of E6 slide film. Doh! That has been sent off."

Well, those shots were returned to me today. Not one good image among them, compositionally speaking, but further proof that the camera works. Film: Fuji Senzia 100, which I never hope to use again. All Summar 50mm f/2.

 

[Dave Farnes]

Sorry, I am a bit late to this conversation.

That is a fine looking camera. I notice the clockwork timer and remember setting up my old Pentax then running to take positon before the shutter fired - they were proper "selfies" back in them days.

The test shots look good. I do like the train station pic, there is something fascinating about large train stations. Why is the lady looking round? Looking for a companion perhaps, one last check to make sure she has the right platform, or wondering why someone is pointing a camera at her? Who knows.

Chris; you are right about competition from FaceBook. They are an easy audience to please, got 11 replies to my latest moon pic, only 1 comment here!

 

[Rob MacKillop]

She looked round because she couldn't believe how sexy the photographer looked. Well, that's my interpretation, and I'm sticking to it! It had nothing to do with her trying to get her two friends to hurry up, as the the train was about to depart. Nothing at all.

 

[Paul Turner]

Love to see the old cameras getting use, waiting "patiently" for my M2 to be CLAd so I can put it to use.

 

[Rob MacKillop]

Hi Paul. I feared you'd given up on us. I'm interested in getting an M2, they do seem half the price of the M3 for not much difference. I look forward to seeing what you do with it.

 

[Paul Turner]

Not given up Rob I keep looking in and occasionally will high five shots, also very busy with work at the moment so I don't get much time for photography hence no uploads yet.......... but when my M2 comes home..........

 

[Paul Turner]

Had a trip to the Lakes last week took the Bronica, waiting for my films to come back hopefully I will have something worth posting.

 

[Rob MacKillop]

I have a confession, Paul. In my recent Leica splurge, I'm afraid my Bronica became my ex Bronica. I'm now left with the Monochrom (my all-time favourite camera) the IIIg, my old Konica Hexar, and the old folding Mamiya Six for medium format. I'm also left with no regrets.

That said, I'm very much looking forward to seeing what you come up with.

 

[Paul Turner]

That's a shame but needs must sometimes.

 

[Pete Askew]

Not only does it work, but it works well. And I too really like the shot of the interior of the cafe - what gorgeous colours and just the right amount of grain. Nice.

And, sorry for my late response. Been laid up for a bit, but anaesthetic from an operation wearing off now and feeling able to make some seemingly sensible contributions. I'll try and actually post some images later in the week.