Back to Film…
Nearly ten years ago I bought myself a Canon EOS 3 for my 50th birthday. This was just about the top ‘enthusiasts’ camera in Canon’s line at the time, and I thought it would suit me perfeclty – after all, I was an enthusiast! In the event it was too much camera for me – too complex, too big – and I never really got to grips with it. So after a couple of years I decided to try simplifying things and switched to rangefinder cameras. In fairly quick succession I bought (and sold) second-hand examples of a Contax G1, a Leica M2 and a Voigtlander Bessa R. Each of these had its own merits. The Contax G had wonderful lenses and had a sophisticated exposure & auto-focus system, but I just could not get used to the tiny, squinty viewfinder. The Leica felt wonderful – a mechanical marvel – and I loved the thought of using a camera made in 1958 and indeed I loved using it. But there was no automation at all, and I found that with slide film especially, my exposure-measuring skills left a lot to be desired. It was too simple; in other words, I needed some automation! The Voigtlander was bought as a way of hopefully combining the best attributes of the Leica with some exposure management, but sadly it fell short on both counts: it certainly did not feel like a Leica in my hand, and the exposure measurement system was simple and crude. So I sold them all and went back to more modestly-specified EOS SLRs, and eventually switched to digital SLRs (as described in another page).
But I could never quite shake myself free of the rangefinder bug and I kept wondering. Voigtlander developed their cameras through the R2, R3 and now R4 models; Leica introduced their M7 (with AE!), MP (traditonal) and M8 (digital) models; and although Contax stopped producing the G range, this was balanced by the introduction of the Zeiss Ikon range. This was a surprising amount of activity for a camera technology that reached its zenith in the 1950s and was eclipsed for professional use in the 1960s, and for enthusiast use in the 70s.
This spring I decided to explore this aspect of photography again, and I bought myself a second-hand Leica M6TTL with a new 50mm f2.5 Summarit lens. I haven’t used it a lot – it’s very definitely a luxury toy – but I’m making a point of taking it and that single lens out on occasions when I would previously have taken a bag with the DSLR + 3 or 4 lenses. In fact I took the Leica on our recent mini cruise on Oriana, and used it ashore, and (some of the time) on the ship. I love using it; it’s a quite different discipline from using the DSLR. I’m pleased to report that the exposure control is remarkably successful, given that the metering system is basically just ‘centre-weighted’; no matrix metering here!
I hope to get some of my recent slides scanned, and when I do I’ll post them.
