[Leica] M6 made the day, even with no RapidWinder and no basket.

[Jim Brick <jim@brick.org>]

Yesterday, much to my dismay, I had to attend a wedding. A friend's son was
getting married, in the Stanford church, followed by a reception lunch in
the St. Francis Hotel in San Francisco. I was not looking forward to it. It
pretty much seemed like a waste of a day.

Then I thought... M6 stealth over my shoulder, under my suit jacket,
50/1.4, T400CN (@ 600, 1/2 stop push). Aaahh... how to make a boring day
less boring.

Inside the Stanford church was very dark. 1/45 @ f/1.4. I was taking
photographs in the church when someone walked up and said that I couldn't
take photographs inside the church. Behind me was the wedding photographer,
Hasselblad 503CW and motor winder, on a tripod, in the middle of the isle,
clack, whir, kerchunk. and on the balcony was the photographer's assistant
with a duplicate setup. No flash of course. Lots of clack whir kechunking
going on. So I said to myself, the person who told my not to take
photographs was probably thinking P&S and flash. So I continued to take
photographs. My wife kicked me and said "she told you that you cannot take
pictures" so I said, well... #1, they aren't going to throw us out and #2,
when I see her tell the Hasselblads to stop machine gunning, I'll also
stop. Needless to say, I wasn't bothered again by anyone.

Inside the reception room at the hotel was 1/30 @ f/1.4. Lighting was
dismal. 50 foot high ceiling with those ugly chandlers hanging down
emitting a dismal glow.

Anyway, we found a few friends to talk to and I shot three rolls of film.
When I ran out, I said "no more film... time to go." And on that queue, the
whole thing broke up. Great timing.

My two RapidWinders are at Tom and Tuulikki's getting the necessary mods
(my RapidWinders are the original old style versions) to take the
RapidGrip, of which I have a prototype for testing. But need the
RapidWinders mod'ed first. This meant I had to use the regular M6 baseplate
and no basket. My baskets are on the RapidWinders. What a shock! Using an
M6 without a RapidWinder is a Royal Pain in the Ass!!! I missed a hellova
lot of stuff because I couldn't get to the next frame in time. The thumb
winder breaks your concentration. The RapidWinder allows continuous vision
and photographing. Since I got my M6's and RapidWinders at the same time,
I've never used an M6 without same. What a shock!

And loading an M6 without a basket is OK, but it is one hellova lot easier
with a basket. This is why Leica put it there. It pushes the film up so
that the sprockets line up. Something that is difficult to do in the dark
without a basket. I know, a lot of you folks say "I don't use the basket
and I don't have any trouble." But the only mis-loads I've ever had were
without a basket in really dim light. Yesterday I had one. I always check
the rewind crank to see if my M6 is loaded correctly. Missed one time
yesterday because the film didn't get pushed up completely over the sprockets.

I was photographing the Crown Jewels in the Tower of London a couple of
years ago. It is pitch black in there except for the lights on the Jewels.
You are not supposed to photograph in there but the M6 is very stealthy. I
ran out of film, backed into a black corner and reloaded my M6 in total
darkness. No sweat as the basket pushes the film into the camera and
prevents misloads. As long as you have enough film sticking through the
wind fork, which is really easy to do even by feel.


Anyway, I'll get the T400CN processed on Tuesday (1/2 stop push) and see
what 108 frames at f/1.4 look like. Why not Delta 3200 or Neopan 1600?
Easy. I didn't want to spend the time processing and printing this stuff.
Taking pictures at a wedding is one thing. Standing in a darkroom
processing and printing is yet another. This way I can give the whole lot
(prints and negs) to them and they can easily have reprints made at any one
hour lab.

Jim