Re: [Leica] leica null series

[jsaravia@zeus.uniandes.edu.co]

Thanks a lot, nice report.

Jorge Saravia.


At 06:29 p.m. 03/10/00 EDT, you wrote:
><<Date: Tue, 3 Oct 2000 11:29:20 -0500 (GMT+5)
>
>From: jsaravia@zeus.uniandes.edu.co
>
>Subject: [Leica] Leica Null (Leica 0) questions 
>
>Message-ID: <200010031629.e93GTKD12734@ayax.uniandes.edu.co>
>
>References: 
>
>
>I have two questions about the Leica NULL model:
>
>
>1: Does it use the same shutter as the M6, or uses the same shutter as the
>
>original (I mean slit shutter) so lens must be covered while the frame is
>
>changed.
>
>
>2: Is it possible to use filters ?
>
>
>Thanks in advance
>
>
>Jorge Saravia.
>
>>>
>
>Jorge,
>
>I got to play with this camera a bit at Photokina and let me give my $.02 
>about it if anyone cares to read.
>
>-----
>1. It has a shutter like the original so that you must cover the lens with 
>the cap when you advance the film. A laborious procedure at first, but after 
>a little fogged film I think one would adjust. <g> (After all, when I shoot 
>my Horseman 6x12 I always tell myself to "triple check" as there are three 
>things you need to do between each shot.)
>
>2. Filters would have to be clamp on type for the fixed Anastigmat. Leica 
>does still make these however and used most of these will cost about $10 at a 
>swap meet.
>------
>
>The null series camera, at first glance, seems to be this very beautiful but 
>somewhat awkward piece. 
>
>It is black paint and has that bright white engraving and dark vucanite (or 
>something vulcanite-like I guess) covering the body. The shutter has that 
>Leica "ker-chunk" that we all love -and the release is curiously different 
>from any other Leica because it is slightly rounded. 
>
>The heft and even packaging say "classic Leica" more than anything they have 
>made in years...yes, including the black paint M6's. When I saw that little 
>red box sitting on the counter at Photokina I knew I had gone for a reason!
>
>The camera is very charming with that little rubber cap dangling so "Barnack 
>like" from the camera and the flip up newton finder with the aiming spot. 
>
>I watched the designer (or rather re-designer) of the Leica Null series 
>playing with the cap nervously as fiddled with the camera in front of some 
>Leica-ogglers alternatively fiddling with his bushy beard. A new nervous 
>habit for us all to enjoy!<g> It remind me of my father cleaning his pipe in 
>fact.
>
>After it starts to charm the wallet right out of your pants, you start 
>thinking: "could I really shoot with this thing?" That weird finder? It is 
>not helped by the cap/wind dilemma is it? After all, how many rolls of film 
>did I waste before I started doing everything right with that Horseman 612 
>after all?!?!? ;->
>
>My first instinct was an emphatic "NO," this is a "shelf camera" and nothing 
>more. It fills the hole in every collectors closet (except for the lucky 35 
>who have one!) and that is why they made it. I looked in my closet and saw 
>the hole. 
>
>Even some of the Leica higher-ups seemed to talk of it so passively as if it 
>were a new filter or something instead of a radical departure from the past 
>10 years or so of camera making. What is going on here?
>
>Then a German fellow, I don't know exactly what he did at Leica Solms, 
>-seeing me shaking my head first up and down and then back in forth- came to 
>me from deep in the booth and said "ya wanta zee the photos taken with it?" I 
>gave him my best NY skeptic "sure" and ventured back to see what he 
>had...expecting most likely photos that rivaled those I took with my first 
>IIIc with foggy Summar collapsible lens.
>
>The examples they had were nothing short of amazing. Sharp, nice boke in the 
>out of focus areas with no clumping, great tonality...nothing less than you 
>would expect from a Leica lens. Maybe there was something here? 
>
>Unlike the usual photos they usually show to demo new a lens or camera, these 
>also were composed well and were actually GOOD images, not just technically 
>good. Hmmm. (please note: these were SMALL photos, so I can't really say much 
>about the lens sharpness under more demanding circumstances where it would 
>actually show.) That new marketing department at Leica is certainly doing 
>something right as I felt the money burning a hole in my wallet again when I 
>oggled these samples. 
>
>I asked if I could keep them and this fellow just winked at me and took them 
>back. "Really, what is going on here????" I started to think again. Is the 
>fact that it might be a good camera a secret or something? Why can't I have 
>them. Oh well, I didn't persist as he gave me a handfull of brosures instead 
>so I considered myself lucky.
>
>I started to play with the null camera again and I realized something that 
>this camera had that made it different from any other in my camera arsenal. 
>(and yes, I do mean arsenal unfortunately.) It is a 35mm camera with a pop-up 
>ground glass that you MUST use. 
>
>It invites a certain large format kind of pre-visualization with a 35mm size. 
>BTW, the image is NOT upside down and backwards...perhaps some of you are 
>stroking your beards as you think of this now. A ground glass, right side up, 
>tell me more... The plus sign that is etched into the finder to line it up 
>with the sight also serves a second function. It splits the viewed image into 
>four parts while you view the scene. Kind of like a "grid screen" but more 
>usefull if you actually care about composition. (At least for me.)
>
>Now, I'm not saying that Cartier-Bresson should drop his India-Ink and start 
>making street photos with this camera, as fast it is not...
>
>However, for those of us who have ventured into M, R and SM Leica's to do 
>different kinds of photography and have a different "feeling" while shooting- 
>we will have something new to play with that is radically different from any 
>other camera Leica has made. After all, I think most of us would agree that 
>we just aren't "Maxxum 9xizvw1" users after all...we are a strange and smug 
>lot to begin with. If you are a strange connoisseur of cameras you will be 
>strangely compelled to shoot with this camera I think. I feel that way at 
>least.
>
>I don't think this camera will be anyone's "first camera" that they use every 
>day. Certainly at $2500 it isn't something that every photographer will need 
>for this subtle flavor of 35mm photography, but I do believe for some (and 
>even many perhaps) this will be a remarkable image maker that could very well 
>surpass the expectations of those who are underestimating what an INTERESTING 
>camera it is...
>
>OK, a "word man" I am not, so 'till next time, happy snaps,
>Rich/pvi
>
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JORGE SARAVIA RIOS                                  
Professor                           
Business Faculty               
Universidad de los Andes                       								Bogota, Colombia

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E-mail:                   jsaravia@zeus.uniandes.edu.co                 
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