by johanniels.com
Articles on Leica cameras and Leica lenses
Black and white photography is about contrast with me. Sure I like nice grays in an image but certainly not too much. I need whites and blacks. Recently I lucked into a stash of perforated 35mm Fomamures microfilm and set to shooting it in a Leica IIIc. Let me tell you the story and show you the shots.
Continue reading “shooting microfilm in a Leica IIIc”
This article contains a list of the screw mount Leica models, from the early 1913 Ur-Leica to the Leica Ig from 1960, the last screw mount model. Brief descriptions and images from official Leitz brochures are included.
A parcel from Berlin today brought a remarkable Leica III with even remarkable Elmar 5cm 3.5 lens, and a chrome VIDOM viewfinder. It has a 5-digit serial number and was made in 1928!
Continue reading “An early Leica I converted to a III”
Over the years I shot many Leica cameras. I loved them all but in the end I had to admit that one model really stole my heart due to its unprecedented simplicity: the early Leica II. But, what are nice screw mount lenses to use with that Oscar Barnack designed camera?
Continue reading “Barnack beauties, 7 favorite lenses for screw mount Leicas”
Enter the elusive 58mm 1.5 Sonnar lens in Leica screw mount.
Every now and then you see them for sale on auction sites. The ever returning question is, are they real, or are they Russian fakes? I have a theory on their history…
Continue reading “The 58mm screw mount Sonnar for Barnack Leica”
Some time ago, I suddenly was certain I needed a trigger winder on my 1938 Leica IIIa. Not having a transport lever on the camera made it a bit slow in use when I am shooting in the streets.
The Leica-made trigger winder is in fact a trigger bottom plate. It takes the place of the normal bottom plate, it has a spring to make the trigger return and that construction has one flaw: the trigger is connected to the film winder axle with the spring by means of a silk ribbon. And these ribbons sooner or later always snap.
Continue reading “DIY repair a SCNOO triggerwinder for Barnack Leicas”
What is it that gets people excited over a Leica that is painted, instead of chromed? For some people, a Leica in black paint is irresistible. As if it were covered in pheromones. An article on the magic of Leica Black Paint cameras. How unique are those cameras really?
Continue reading “Leica M Black Paint cameras, what’s the fuss about?”
Leica gear is well-loved, most-wanted and highly sought-after as a result, as we all know. But some Leica stuff just trumps it all: the black paint items from the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s. That’s were the truly big bucks can be found, that’s the stuff that dreams and collections are made of. Every collector hopes to one day scoop up a prime example for a handful of nickels and dimes.
So it is not that strange that sales of the coveted Black Paint Leica gear command larger attention, but also are a larger risk due to bigger bucks being involved.
Continue reading “The curious case of the black paint Summicron-DR”
Shortly after World War II started, Leitz found itself in a sort of a predicament. The foreign shipments of shutter cloth material had seized due to the outbreak of the war. All that was left in stock was an experimental shutter cloth, which had different rubber layering and was red in color. Cameras that were ordered by the German Army, Navy and Air Force had to be delivered to Berlin, they were part of the war effort that German companies had to make.
Leitz decided to use the red shutter curtain material, even though there were doubts on its durability. And over time it became clear that the shutter cloth indeed gave in, the rubber started to desintegrate and left sticky black spots of goo on the shutter.
As a result, wartime cameras with red shutter curtains are pretty rare nowadays.
Continue reading “Leica IIIc, a wartime camera with red curtains”
This particular Leica M2 started out it’s life in 1963 and was used by German press photographer Herbert Ahrens until his death. When I bought it, the sticker from his ‘Pressedienst’ was still on the bottom plate. It looked very beat up but was still working flawlessly.
Continue reading “Leica M2, the all-round press photographers camera”