Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2005/10/19

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Subject: [Leica] Advice needed: Buying Leica IIIf and 50mm lens
From: reid at mejac.palo-alto.ca.us (Brian Reid)
Date: Wed Oct 19 06:55:31 2005
References: <20051019135045.27218.qmail@web36706.mail.mud.yahoo.com>

> Is it viable to use a 50+ year old screw mount
> body for paid work?  Is it possible to get
> reliable, repeatable results from a IIIf?  I ask
> about the IIIf because it seems good value, with
> black dial versions selling at very attractive
> prices.

In past years I have done a lot of paid work with my IIIf, though I haven't 
even tried in about 15 years. The problem with it is film loading. Ever 
since the film industry switched from long leaders to short leaders (perhaps 
20 to 25 years ago), loading a IIIf requires that you pre-cut the film 
leader. While that is not hard, especially with the right tool, I found that 
the inability to just pull a roll of film out of my pocket and reload the 
camera in the middle of a shoot was a show-stopper. 
Weddings didn't wait for the photographer to change a roll of film.



In reply to: Message from smcj35 at yahoo.com (Colin J) ([Leica] Advice needed: Buying Leica IIIf and 50mm lens)