Re: [Leica]HAS ANYONE MADE A PICTURE LATELY? OR USED THEIR LEICA? long

["A.H.SCHMIDT" <horst.schmidt@actek.com.au>]

Well, I have.  Twas last weekend. I received my pictures back today.
They where good
pictures, some of them, but they where the last pictures of it's kind.
Why? I'll tell you.

As I said, I went last weekend to my shack in Alexandra. After a whole
week of fantastic
rain, it turned sunny on Saturday. The temperature was about 20C or 70F.

Some time ago I bought a new camera bag, which needed to be tested. It
is actually quite
a practical bag. It holds 1 ore 2 bodies and a about 4 lenses. It also
has a zipper on the
bottom area which opens a sort of tube , which runs across the bottom of
the bag and
can hold either a long telephoto lens , a small tripod, or a bottle or
can of drink.
But the main thing, what attracted me to it, was, that it could be
carried on the handle, or
with a strap over the shoulder or used as a back pack. It also looked
when it was zipped
up, reasonable waterproof.
My camera equipment consisted of: a Leica 3f, an Elmar f3.5, 50mm, an
Elmar f4
90mmm, a Hector f4.5 135mm , a Summaron f3.5mm and a Cannon f3.5 28mm.
I also took a Nooky , too use with the Elmar 50mm.
I didn't quite make it that Saturday, I had to cut some wood for the
Stove and build an
aerial for my Short wave receiver. By the way, my wife was with me too.

Sunday morning at about 10am I took the backpack and went to to have
some serious
fun, doing a bit of photographing. My wife stayed in the shack. This
eliminated all the:
"aren't you coming yet", Hurry on", I am getting bored" etc. type calls.

I had time and I intended to make the most of it.
It started all very peacefully. Everything was green, a few SMALL creeks
where running. The
blue sky had a few small clouds. It was the perfect photographing
weather. 1/250 f11
with my 100ASA Fuji colour film.
The land where my shack is, is very hilly. There are even a few ravines
and some of the
hills have quite steep rock formations.
Half way up one of the hills, I took my gear out, and started to make
some pictures.
The spot looked so good, that I decided to try and use all my lenses. I
started with the
135 Hector. Then i decided to use the 90mm. I unscrewed the hector, held
it with one
hand, with other I tried to attach the 90mm. While trying to find the
start of the tread, the
Hector slipped out of my hand. It fell down on to the grass and since
Leitz was not smart
enough, to make the barrel a square shape, it rolled with quite a speed
about 2m down hill
right in to a, from the rain softened, flat peace of cow shit. As I was
picking the lens
out of the pub, my bag in to which I put the camera and lens back in to,
also decided to
react to the call of gravity and started rolling down hill. I would have
cough it, where it
not for the brown  stuff, in which my lens fell. I exceleradet a bit to
much and slipped in it
and then landed flat on my face. However I was lucky. I saw in which
direction my
camera bag rolled down the hill. It gathered some speed. >Talk about
high speed
lenses<
It therefore did not take to long to land on the bottom of the valley in
one of the lovely
newly running creeks. I pieced my hector out of the smelly brown stuff.
Lucky, I had a
hanky with me. I managed to get most of the stuff of the lens, but
decided not to put the
hanky back in to my pocket.
Slowly and carefully, I made my way down to the bottom. It took me a lot
longer than it
took my camera bag. The slope down was about 300m.
When I arrived at the bottom, I found the bag. It was in the creek, and
water was flowing
around it to about 3/4 height of the bag. I retrieved it and opened it
and found the inside to
be dry, Phew.


Now, Having gathered all my bits and pieces together again, I climbed up
the hill. The sun
shone and the temperature rose. or so it felt. About 3/4 way up the
hill, I saw a group of
mushrooms. Now I am a sucker for mushrooms. Photographically speaking
that is.
So I opened my bag, took out the 3F, the Nooky close up device and the
50mm Elmar
3.5
I mounted all the bits on to the camera, trying to find the start of the
thread ,got down on
my knees and elbows. Some of my limbs where somehow twisted in to
strange positions.
Anyway, I tried to focus as close as possible. It wasn't as easy as I
thought. Firstly I am
farsighted and wear spectacles, second, the silvering of the range
finder was a bit weak.
(most of the Leica screw mount cameras have this problem by now). I was
getting in to a
sweat, my glasses started to fog up, my leg ,resting on some stone or
twig, started to feel
uncomfortable. Every time, when I thought I had the focus right and
shifted my eye to the
view finder window, I was not sure anymore if I hadn't moved the camera
a bit. This went
on for  about 5 times.
The sweat dripped down my forehead and run down my glasses, leaving
streaks.
I then had the brilliant idea, to take my glasses of, and look to the
range finder without.
Wow, everything became sharp and clear,  and the coincident image was
quite easy to
see. I took the picture at a 1/125 f8 for a reasonable depth of focus.
Note: For farsighted people, using a close-up device: Take your glasses
of.

Now that I had my mushrooms on film, I tried to get up again. I sort of
untwisted my leg,
but by doing this, I kicked the camera bag. The bag did a repeat from
not long ago and
started rolling downhill. This time with a good starting speed, because
of the kick.

Much later on, after retrieving my bag for the second time, on my way
back to the shack.
I was in a  reasonable lousy mood and then I  made a big decision. I
decided, to sell all of
my screw mount gear as soon as possible.

I had enough of them. they are ok if one uses only one lens for a
session. changing screw
lenses in the field under uncomfortable conditions has hairs on it. I
had enough. I didn't
feel , if i was not going to use them anymore, I  may as well sell them.

Two days later I did just this. I had 6 Bodies, a 3g, 3f ,2f  2X 3c and
a Model III.
I sold all the screw mount lenses except: the 50mm f3.5 Elmar, a coated
and an
uncoated Summar and a Summitar. All the rest went with all the
accessories
which did not fit the M cameras.

Best thing I did for a long time. I got a stack of money for it. A bit
over 9000 Bucks.

I then bought, what i wanted for a long time, but could not justify
buying from the house
keeping money. I bought,....... wait for it ........ a Noctilux. A Brand
spanking new lovely,
eat your hart out, Noctilux. What a hunk of glass.

My wife ordered a new carped for the house, and both my sons had a bank
account with
an extra 1000 Bucks in it.

Happiness all round.  Only the best for the Schmidts. A Leica Lens and a
carpet made
from New Zealand wool. The Leicas of carpets.

By the way, the prints came out very good. 5 of them I got enlarged to
10 X 15 inches,
The close-ups with the Elmar where superbly sharp.
Hardly anybody on the LUG inquiries much about the 135mm Hector,
I found it to be a very good performer.  I am probably stirring things
up a bit, but I think
from all the Lenses I took with me, the 50mm f3.5 Elmar and the 28mm
F3,5 Cannon
are the sharpest lenses.  I believe, the cannon  28mm f3.5 is better
than the f2.8.  The Elmar prints also looked very nice on the out of
focus areas.

I am not sad anymore, that I sold all the screw stuff. I already forgot
about it

Regards, Horst Schmidt