[Leica] M8 Review

[mark at rabinergroup.com (Mark Rabiner)]

> The sensor on my M8 fills the frame. "Full frame" will soon be a term 
> rather
> like "horseless carriage", I suspect.
> 

I got a bunch of books and reading material at the Leica Gallery in
Greenwich Village last late afternoon and met those guys they're real nice
and all kinds of great goodies to look at and bring home.

I picked up from there a
Leica General Catalogue for 1955/58
Models 1f, 11f, 111f,
1g, 11g, and "72".


Looking at the page on the "72" last night as I dropped off to sleep I
notice this:
It is described as a

"Single frame (18x24mm)" format gives you twice as many exposures the double
frame (24x36) format of other Leicas"


I've always loved what I call half frame so people know what I'm talking
about but is really single frame as 35mm film is movie film and that's the
movie format or a basic one: 18x24mm.
So half frame is single frame.


So I Wikipedia the word "Leica".
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leica
Its quite a nice little rundown:

Second sentence:
The first prototypes were built by Oskar Barnack at E. Leitz Optische Werke,
Wetzlar, in 1913. Barnack used standard cinema 35 mm film, but extended the
image size to 24 x 36 mm. Barnack believed the 2:3 aspect ratio to be the
best choice, leaving room for a 36-exposure film length (originally 40
exposures, but some films were found to be thicker).

Remember those good old days when you got 40 on a roll? I don't!!!


My over all point being "full frame" is what you make it.

- in medium format which is a pie which gets cut up in a choice of slice
sizes. 12 on a roll squares. Or less on the roll for wider and wider
rectangles. Or cute little 645 for 16 on a roll.

And in view camera work with coverage issues.  Using a "4x5 lens" to cover
5x7 but it works anyway.... Its a bundle of worms to figure out and work
with but great fun.
And using roll film holders but with your 4x5 glass.

All I know is.
There is no such thing as full frame.

I don't see the frame as full;
But full of potential! And I'm just as happy with half empty.



Later in the article:

The concept was developed further, and in 1923 Barnack convinced his boss,
Ernst Leitz II, to make a prototype series of 31.


The "72"
Which John Black had told me about for years and finally brought one to the
meeting the year before last to show me as they are quite rare and I'd
likely never see one out of a museum...


Is touted in the catalog as "made expressly for making microfilms and 35mm
film strips and other types of photography where you want a large number of
pictures with film economy."




... The sound of one hand clapping.





Mark William Rabiner
Harlem, NY

rabinergroup.com