Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2000/07/09
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]During a trade show in Paris last month the shutter of my IIIg ‘digested’ a manually-trimmed film leader, but as luck would have it, I’d also packed a 1936 Contax II freshly back from a shutter rebuild. This was the first time I’d used the Contax, and what an experience it was! This camera is so clumsy to use that I reckon it must have been designed by a committee of engineers - my respect for Barnack’s achievement in designing the Leica has grown accordingly. However, the lens kept focusing and the shutter kept wheezing, so hopefully I have all the pictures I need courtesy of a relic built seven years before its grey-haired owner was born. Four Leica failures in five consecutive assignments is getting a bit embarrassing (three years ago I could boast that I used Leicas for work because they were utterly reliable and had never let me down). To be fair, the basic problem is that all my ‘fleet’ (except the IIIg) were long overdue for CLA, but on the other hand a colleague shoots with an ancient Pentax which he has owned for decades and never had serviced. With the Farnborough air show looming, and no chance that Leica will get the cameras they have for repair or CLA back to me in time, I needed a new point & shoot (I don’t have enough confidence in the Contax II to trust it a second time, and my other SL2 is a bit too bulky and heavy to carry round an air show). Since my wife’s Olympus P&S and my own Minolta P&S had working lives of only 6-7 years before failing, I decided to spend the extra money needed to get a better quality one. I set out on Friday with the intention of buying a Leica C1, but ended up with a second-hand Contax TVSII. Normally I can just get away with using 200 ISO film with an f2 lens when shooting in the Farnborough equipment halls, but prefer 400. Since the TVSII has an f4 lens, I need at least 800 ISO. Can anyone recommend an 800+ colour negative film? I don’t want to rely on push-processing. I understand that Ilford 3200 B&W film is actually 1200 ISO and needs push-processing to reach 3200. What speed is the cassette DX coded for? Regards, Doug Richardson