[Leica] New toy (IIIf + Elmar)

[dlridings at gmail.com (Daniel Ridings)]

Well, I once posted, a few months back, a picture of me with the only
Leica I ever sold. For no good reason at all (other than I like it), I
bought another one. It arrived yesterday and I ran two rolls of film
through it.

First some slow shutter speeds, wide aperture and close focus:

http://gallery.leica-users.org/iiif/05v27_0010

http://gallery.leica-users.org/iiif/05v27_0004

Then, outside in the shade, still closest focus (which is _not_ very close)

http://gallery.leica-users.org/iiif/05v27_0006

And then bright sunlight. Well stopped down (f 12.5 according to the
scale, but I really don't think the aperture markings are much more
other than guide lines)

http://gallery.leica-users.org/iiif/05v27_0007

I was surprised to see the vignetting, especially when the lens was
stopped down so much.

I was also pleasant surprized (I forget, is is "s" or "z" .. I'll play
it safe) that it didn't weigh more than it does. It fits comfortably
in the side pocket of pants or just hangs around your neck without the
weight making itself felt that much.

It's a little hard coming to grips with the odd sequence: 3.5, 4.5,
6.3, 9, 12.5, 18, but like I said above, the accuracy of the markings
is probaby not very high, so I just pretend they read: 3.5, 4, 5.6, 8,
11, 16.

I thought the two peep-holes would bother me a bit (they did when I
was young) but it just takes a few frames to get used to. Even with an
M you have to focus and recompose, that that's about the same thing
here. You're just using two windows to do it in. They are so close
that switching become pretty automatic.

Loading film is about as much fun as taking candy from a baby.

Anyway, its a useful toy. It'll be replacing the Yashica T4 as the
constant tag-along. Don't know what I'll do with the _other_ YashicaT4
that I picked up when they quit making them.

Now for some good cheap Russian glass (Jupiter-12 is on my list).

It's summer. I'm not taking myself seriously.

Daniel