[Leica] Copy of ABLON template

[jmaddox01 at suddenlink.net (jack)]

Marc,

Amen!

Jack

Marc James Small wrote:
> We seem to have this discussion on the LUG about every six months.  
> Allow me to summarize:
>
> a)      A few folks never trim and never seem to have problems.  Leitz 
> and Leica have always recommended trimming out of concern for film 
> chips which might clog up the film-transport mechanism.  Note the 
> decal on the inner surface of IIIc and later LTM bodies to this 
> effect.  Several years ago, Tom Abrahamson posted that he had never 
> seen such a jam in all of his many years of working on LTM and M 
> bodies.  (It is important to remember that Tom was the principal 
> technical adviser to Oscar Barnack back in the 1920's, at the same 
> time when Ted Grant was doing his best to convince Ernst Leitz II to 
> put the LEICA camera into production.  We owe them both a huge debt of 
> gratitude.  <he grins maliciously>
>
> b)      Leitz/Leica recommend the use of the ABLON template.  Zeiss 
> Ikon marketed a similar template, and there are a number of Japanese 
> and British copies available.  These are readily available and do not 
> generally demand a high purchase price unless bougth at a Tamarkin 
> auction.  I have one somewhere.  The downside to this is that it takes 
> some time to use, has to be done in advance, and requires a box cutter 
> or the like.  The upside is that this is the most precise method of 
> trimming the film and was the factory-recommended method.
>
> c)      There is the credit-card method.  This requires removal of the 
> lens and is consequently the slowest of the methods and the most 
> cumbersome.  Some folks do like it but Leitz recommended against this 
> in the 1970's when it was first proposed, as providing a possibility 
> of film chips jamming the works, but see a), supra, for Tom's 
> knowledgeable remarks.  In this method, the lens is removed, the 
> shutter is set to either T or Z, depending on the model, the base is 
> removed, and a thin bit of celluloid is inserted from the bottom into 
> the film gate.  The film is then inserted and worked into position.  A 
> fair number of folks love this method.  I have never managed to do 
> this in less than a minute, what with removing the lens and base and 
> then returning them to battery.  (Note that the lamented Phillip 
> Marlowe always used the celluloid cover over his California driver's 
> license to force locks when he was out-and-about;  at least the 
> advocates of this system are not breaking any laws albeit they are 
> being very disrespectful of the wishes of Oscar Barnack.)
>
> d)      Then there are the clippers.  Take the new roll of film, pull 
> some out of the cassette, eyeball it, and use scissors to cut off the 
> requisite amount and load.  This is the most rapid of the systems and 
> is one which even Jo-Jo the Brainless Village Idiot can learn on three 
> repetitions, especially with the aid of that tell-all Leitz decal on 
> the bottom plate.  (Mark Rabiner's thumbnail method is a variant of 
> this, of course.)
>
> Me?  I have used all four of these but I opted, back in the longago, 
> for d).  I always have a Swiss Army Knife with me, as I have had since 
> I was fourteen, and just clip the film.  The first time I did this, it 
> took me fifteen or twenty seconds but now takes me five seconds or so 
> to clip.  Open the base, clip the film, pull the take-up spool, insert 
> the film into the take-up spool, insert the two, and close the base.  
> It takes fifteen or twenty seconds and Bob's your uncle.  If Grandma 
> Leitz had not meant for it to be done this way, we would not have that 
> mystic decal in our cameras.  Surely those gnomes of Wetzlar must have 
> known SOMETHING, or we'd not be using these cameras.
>
> I am always surprised at the heat and length of discussion this topic 
> takes, every time it arises.  Find the method which works for you, and 
> use it.  But the missionary zeal the topic engenders is a bit 
> frightening.  There is no "right" method.  There is the method 
> recommended by the factory, the ABLON, and the other methods, and the 
> one which works for you is the method appropriate for you, but, 
> perhaps, not a method another would want to use.
>
> Marc
>
>
> msmall@aya.yale.edu
> Cha robh b?s fir gun ghr?s fir!
>
>
>
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