[Leica] Copy of ABLON template

[luisripoll at telefonica.net (Luis Ripoll)]

Thanks Marc for your useful information

Saludos cordiales
Luis



-----Mensaje original-----
De: lug-bounces+luisripoll=telefonica.net@leica-users.org
[mailto:lug-bounces+luisripoll=telefonica.net@leica-users.org] En nombre de
Marc James Small
Enviado el: jueves, 07 de junio de 2007 22:11
Para: Leica Users Group
Asunto: [Leica] Copy of ABLON template

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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