Leica

[Jamie R]

TTGM,

To unscrew the lens, you rotate the lens by the aperture ring anticlockwise.

Then set your shutter dial to B and fire so that the shutter blind stays open. Hold your finger over the shutter to keep the blind open.

With your precut strip of 35mm leader, already neatly stretched out with the cassette chamber under the rewind knob and the free spool with the film end slotted into a lip - resting underneath the exposure counter, you feed the film across the bottom slit and watch it pass the open blind. It needs to pass parallel to the blind and not warped. Then you rack the film advance knob and feel the tension take up, watching the rewind knob arrow rotate anti-clockwise.

It's easier to get a guy in a shop to show you - honestly. All my mates used one at some point - I didn't because I could never load the film! I can tell people how to do it, but I just can't seem to get it right myself

 

[Time to Get Moving]

After 4 maybe failed attempts I've decided to lay off of it until I can get my friends dad to do it for me and show me the ropes. Other than that I will just take it into a shop if needed.

 

[craig]

I say put it on ƒ8 @1/125 and start exposing film. A hand held meter will help. Take notes. Leica's are amazing models of craftsmanship. I give it about a week until you are in awe of the camera.

 

[Time to Get Moving]

I finally got the film loaded, it was quiet an experience, but I know what to do next time. The weirdest thing now is not knowing if you've acually taken a picture!

also:

To set the shutter speed, advance the film FIRST. Then raise the top shutter speed dial and rotate it to match up with the desired speed.

after advancing the film the top shutter speed goes to ~200, but then it stays there, I can't move it.
I know I'm doing something wrong, but what?

 

[walter23]

If you feel like playing with different lenses but don't want to pay big bucks for old german lenses, there are a bunch of USSR leica mount lenses that are pretty commonly available.. industar, jupiter, helios, zenitar, etc... you can get outfitted with everything from wide to tele for like $80 total or something ridiculous like that. Just search ebay.

 

[curiouslyadrift]

True, you can get cheaper leica-mount lenses, but they won't be nearly the quality of a leica lens. Good to experiment with if you don't have extra money, but not on par with the capabilities of the camera.