Problems - difficulties - faults! (Or: "The Leica, my scanner and I")

[notelliot]

which 35mm is it? out of curiousity.

 

[cosmonaut]

LaFoto,
Seems as thought we are going two different directions. I have just entered the world of DSLR, and my head is swimming from white balance and histograms. Good luck getting good scans with your negs. Even the good labs are letting me down lately. You probably won't get anywhere scanning at home unless you get a really good scanner. When you get your film processed get the lab to do a CD only and it will only be a couple of dollars more. I feel film is slowly going to fade away. Our local K-mart has closed it's one hour service down. They send the film to Kodak. All of your shots look good except the indoor shots. Looks as though you could use a better flash. Try a bouce flash next time and use the flash in manual. Open the cameras aperature two stops more than the flash unit calls for to make up for the lose of light on the bounce. I use a Yashica unit on my Canon and it worked great..
Cosmo

 

[darin3200]

I personally liked the first one of the cat, without the crop. One of the things to learn with wide-angles is you don't need to completely fill the frame with the subject, you have the challenge of finding other things to include in the frame.

Leica focusing is difficult at first, but once you know it, it's amazing. Try shooting without film for a few days. Just carry the camera and "take pictures" and just work on focusing on different objects around the room. When you shoot without film you can make a lot of mistakes and it's not a big deal.

Then the next day just focus on composure. Without film you don't need to worry about exposure or focus.

Day 3 just work on taking meter readings and being able to quickly adjust exposure. One tip that I would recommend for leicas is having you aperture set at 2.8. That way if there is a darker subject, it is easier and faster to just open up the lens to f/2 instead of trying to adjust shutter speed.

 

[LaFoto]

Now that is some helpful advice, Darin. Thank you!

As to photographing indoors without flash, cosmo, (which is how all these were taken), this was one point in my self-set assignment "wide-open aperture only". I just wanted to see how far I could go with the lens wide open. I don't even HAVE a flash for the Leica.

And notelliot, when I dig out that old camera, I will then use a Leica M5 + Summicron 1:2-3.5 35mm.

Alex: :greenpbl:
And it it NOT showing them off. It is the only people I ever FIND for such experiments as these!

 

[darin3200]

If you use a flash on an M5 you would need to find the distance to the subject and then adjust the aperture based on that.

Ooops sorry, Darin, I edited your post when I meant to QUOTE from it .... ......... big moderator mistake!!!

 

[LaFoto]

How utterly utterly embarrassing!


How can I make it better?
Your post is almost gone now. I meant to quote ONE line, but had gone to "edit" instead of "quote" .... oh dear-oh dear!

What I wanted to reply to is your saying that when using flash with the M5 (and you were talking about TTL flashes that will, however, only work with the newer brands as of M6 onwards), I would have to do all this extra manual work, and I would not KNOW how to do it.

And you also said that wide open lends itself well to 200-speed film, and that you'd not recommend I use flash because that would create additional problems.

And I think you are RIGHT!

 

[darin3200]

How utterly utterly embarrassing!


How can I make it better?
Your post is almost gone now. I meant to quote ONE line, but had gone to "edit" instead of "quote" .... oh dear-oh dear!

What I wanted to reply to is your saying that when using flash with the M5 (and you were talking about TTL flashes that will, however, only work with the newer brands as of M6 onwards), I would have to do all this extra manual work, and I would not KNOW how to do it.

And you also said that wide open lends itself well to 200-speed film, and that you'd not recommend I use flash because that would create additional problems.

And I think you are RIGHT!

haha no big deal, sort of funny though

 

[Jeremy Z]

Hi LaPhoto. I read in more than one post of yours where you sadly admitted to using cheap Fuji color print film. I actually prefer the stuff for color prints. Very nice greens & blues usually, and pretty accurate skin tones.

Anyhow, you said you were using it because of the cost of printing B&W. Consider this:

They make color chemistry B&W print film. Kodak makes at least one, adn so does Ilford. I don't know if Agfa does or not. It is processed in C-41 chemistry, and when printed without correction, it comes out sepia. So try this film, have it processed in your local one hour lab, and tell them to develop only (no prints) and scan the negatives to CD.

Once you have those negatives scanned to CD, you can open the files with your software and dial down the saturation until it is B&W, then adjust the brightness, gamma, and contrast accordingly.

I was shocked to read that a Leica had a fixed-focus lens. These days, they are reserved for very cheap point & shoot cameras. They give reasonably sharp images from 6 ft. to infinity. It is a shame lenses are so expensive now for old Leicas. Those darned collectors who never use them have driven the prices up for you.

To the other poster who commented that he was surprised at how quiet his Canon rangefinder is: That is because #1, there is no mirror slap, and that is what makes most of the noise. #2, the smaller rangefinders usually don't use SLR type shutters. (at least the ones I had didn't) It is a totally different experience, shooting with a rangefinder. It takes some getting used to after shooting with an SLR.

I hate to admit this, but when I press the shutter release and don't hear a good, loud "CHIK-CHIK", I feel like there is something missing. :blushing: When I got my first digital camera, the Olympus C-750 Ultrazoom, I was so happy when I found the sound effect menu that would play a proper shutter sound when the shutter tripped. Ditto for my Canon Digital Elph. There are a few different sounds; some are electronic, and some sound mechanical. I wonder if they did research about this?

I'm at work on lunch now, so I can't see LaPhoto's photos, they are censored here. I'll try to remember to look later.

 

[Jeremy Z]

Another idea: you could just have the C-41 B&W film printed in normal color chemistry & leave them sepia. When people comment about it, you could say: "Oh yes, those were taken with a very old camera. That is just how they come out." and check for their reactions. I just love pulling peoples' legs like that. If they buy it, I usually crack up after a couple minutes and explain what is so funny.

I had a girlfriend once who worked in the Ritz Camera One-Hour Photo store with me. (two actually...) They could print B&W prints from B&W negatives, but it was very much a trial & error process. It took a couple waste prints and a couple runs through the machine to get it right. If the person at the machine is talented and really wants to do a good job for you, he/she can. But it would have to be during a slow period when there is time to make multiple corrections. (add a magenta, remove a cyan....)

 

[LaFoto]

I was shocked to read that a Leica had a fixed-focus lens.

Why is that?
The lens is a Summicron 1:2 35mm lens, and I have another 90mm lens in the bag for this camera which I only tried once.

So fixed focus does not mean fixed to the camera. I can interchange the lenses I have.

It's just no zoom lens.
That cannot be bad, or reason for shock, now can it? Aren't the fixed focus lenses actually even better than zoom lenses? Or why is everyone so happy about their new 1:1.8 50mm lenses for their digital cameras here?

 

[Digital Matt]

Let's get this straight. It's a fixed focal length lens, or a prime, but not fixed focus. You can focus the lens anywhere from minimum to infinity, correct?

 

[LaFoto]

Oh dear ... yes sure: the English expression is "PRIME LENS"

My fault ... poor English.
I ought to have known better.

Yes. OF COURSE I can focus from a minimum of 70cms (which is why there is so much background around Sabine, I got closest to her as was possible) to infinity. Yes.

Wrong term, Jeremy.

PRIME lens! OF COURSE!

 

[Jeremy Z]

Now that I think of it, you were very close. "Prime" is slang, and the official term is "fixed focal length"

So the focus is CAN be changed, just not the focal length.

For a moment there, I had lost all faith in the mighty Leica name. :meh:

(that, or your dad somehow got a counterfeit Chinese lens. )


Don't be so hard on yourself. I didn't know English wasn't your first language until I read your profile.

 

[Jeremy Z]

Off-topic. Matt, your avatar looks like a deranged Russel Crowe. Though you might find that amusing. (no offense!)

 

[PNA]

Why is that?
The lens is a Summicron 1:2 35mm lens, and I have another 90mm lens in the bag for this camera which I only tried once.

So fixed focus does not mean fixed to the camera. I can interchange the lenses I have.

It's just no zoom lens.
That cannot be bad, or reason for shock, now can it? Aren't the fixed focus lenses actually even better than zoom lenses? Or why is everyone so happy about their new 1:1.8 50mm lenses for their digital cameras here?

I'll bet he was thinking that the lens was fixed to the camera body......

The portrait shots are much more effective in B&W than color......
The outdoor color shots are OK.....
The cropped cat is my choice.....

When I shoot color film I have the lab (Sam's - $2.48/disc) scan the negs to a CD, no prints, and then I copy all the shots into the computer. Then you can confine your scanning only to documents. I have a flat bed scanner with provisions for negs, but it never scans "clean". With the CD you can then flip between color and B&W, that makes post editing and your choices easier.

I like your self-imposed assignment.....you can truly learn from that.

Paul