[Leica] leica null series

[Photovilla@aol.com]

<<Date: Tue, 3 Oct 2000 11:29:20 -0500 (GMT+5)

From: jsaravia@zeus.uniandes.edu.co

Subject: [Leica] Leica Null (Leica 0) questions 

Message-ID: <200010031629.e93GTKD12734@ayax.uniandes.edu.co>

References: 


I have two questions about the Leica NULL model:


1: Does it use the same shutter as the M6, or uses the same shutter as the

original (I mean slit shutter) so lens must be covered while the frame is

changed.


2: Is it possible to use filters ?


Thanks in advance


Jorge Saravia.

>>

Jorge,

I got to play with this camera a bit at Photokina and let me give my $.02 
about it if anyone cares to read.

- -----
1. It has a shutter like the original so that you must cover the lens with 
the cap when you advance the film. A laborious procedure at first, but after 
a little fogged film I think one would adjust. <g> (After all, when I shoot 
my Horseman 6x12 I always tell myself to "triple check" as there are three 
things you need to do between each shot.)

2. Filters would have to be clamp on type for the fixed Anastigmat. Leica 
does still make these however and used most of these will cost about $10 at a 
swap meet.
- ------

The null series camera, at first glance, seems to be this very beautiful but 
somewhat awkward piece. 

It is black paint and has that bright white engraving and dark vucanite (or 
something vulcanite-like I guess) covering the body. The shutter has that 
Leica "ker-chunk" that we all love -and the release is curiously different 
from any other Leica because it is slightly rounded. 

The heft and even packaging say "classic Leica" more than anything they have 
made in years...yes, including the black paint M6's. When I saw that little 
red box sitting on the counter at Photokina I knew I had gone for a reason!

The camera is very charming with that little rubber cap dangling so "Barnack 
like" from the camera and the flip up newton finder with the aiming spot. 

I watched the designer (or rather re-designer) of the Leica Null series 
playing with the cap nervously as fiddled with the camera in front of some 
Leica-ogglers alternatively fiddling with his bushy beard. A new nervous 
habit for us all to enjoy!<g> It remind me of my father cleaning his pipe in 
fact.

After it starts to charm the wallet right out of your pants, you start 
thinking: "could I really shoot with this thing?" That weird finder? It is 
not helped by the cap/wind dilemma is it? After all, how many rolls of film 
did I waste before I started doing everything right with that Horseman 612 
after all?!?!? ;->

My first instinct was an emphatic "NO," this is a "shelf camera" and nothing 
more. It fills the hole in every collectors closet (except for the lucky 35 
who have one!) and that is why they made it. I looked in my closet and saw 
the hole. 

Even some of the Leica higher-ups seemed to talk of it so passively as if it 
were a new filter or something instead of a radical departure from the past 
10 years or so of camera making. What is going on here?

Then a German fellow, I don't know exactly what he did at Leica Solms, 
- -seeing me shaking my head first up and down and then back in forth- came to 
me from deep in the booth and said "ya wanta zee the photos taken with it?" I 
gave him my best NY skeptic "sure" and ventured back to see what he 
had...expecting most likely photos that rivaled those I took with my first 
IIIc with foggy Summar collapsible lens.

The examples they had were nothing short of amazing. Sharp, nice boke in the 
out of focus areas with no clumping, great tonality...nothing less than you 
would expect from a Leica lens. Maybe there was something here? 

Unlike the usual photos they usually show to demo new a lens or camera, these 
also were composed well and were actually GOOD images, not just technically 
good. Hmmm. (please note: these were SMALL photos, so I can't really say much 
about the lens sharpness under more demanding circumstances where it would 
actually show.) That new marketing department at Leica is certainly doing 
something right as I felt the money burning a hole in my wallet again when I 
oggled these samples. 

I asked if I could keep them and this fellow just winked at me and took them 
back. "Really, what is going on here????" I started to think again. Is the 
fact that it might be a good camera a secret or something? Why can't I have 
them. Oh well, I didn't persist as he gave me a handfull of brosures instead 
so I considered myself lucky.

I started to play with the null camera again and I realized something that 
this camera had that made it different from any other in my camera arsenal. 
(and yes, I do mean arsenal unfortunately.) It is a 35mm camera with a pop-up 
ground glass that you MUST use. 

It invites a certain large format kind of pre-visualization with a 35mm size. 
BTW, the image is NOT upside down and backwards...perhaps some of you are 
stroking your beards as you think of this now. A ground glass, right side up, 
tell me more... The plus sign that is etched into the finder to line it up 
with the sight also serves a second function. It splits the viewed image into 
four parts while you view the scene. Kind of like a "grid screen" but more 
usefull if you actually care about composition. (At least for me.)

Now, I'm not saying that Cartier-Bresson should drop his India-Ink and start 
making street photos with this camera, as fast it is not...

However, for those of us who have ventured into M, R and SM Leica's to do 
different kinds of photography and have a different "feeling" while shooting- 
we will have something new to play with that is radically different from any 
other camera Leica has made. After all, I think most of us would agree that 
we just aren't "Maxxum 9xizvw1" users after all...we are a strange and smug 
lot to begin with. If you are a strange connoisseur of cameras you will be 
strangely compelled to shoot with this camera I think. I feel that way at 
least.

I don't think this camera will be anyone's "first camera" that they use every 
day. Certainly at $2500 it isn't something that every photographer will need 
for this subtle flavor of 35mm photography, but I do believe for some (and 
even many perhaps) this will be a remarkable image maker that could very well 
surpass the expectations of those who are underestimating what an INTERESTING 
camera it is...

OK, a "word man" I am not, so 'till next time, happy snaps,
Rich/pvi